Nin has been pretty conservative with their more recent hardware, even prior to Switch, so seeing them push the mobile limits would be a surprise. Nin also likes to make money on their hardware, and they'd have to remain under $500 max, which would really be pushing it in the handheld/hybrid/console space.
We don't know exactly when a Switch 2 might be releasing and that's if Nin sticks with the same form factor again. That's not their style and it didn't work last time when Wii was a hit but then Wii U failed. If something fails hard for Nin they tend to move on and don't look back. This could push them to take a different route again or remain really conservative with Switch 2. Not wanting to risk another Wii U situation, or worse if the hardware was top tier and expensive for Nin.
We don't have much in the way of reviews to know better what to expect out of the Steam Deck. We don't know how successful it will be. If it is, it's likely you'll see bi-yearly hardware upgrades worst case, so it wouldn't be fair to compare to a Switch 2 hybrid.
While Nvidia has DLSS 2.0 now, AMD recently released FSR. In terms of performance you now have DLSS at the bottom, FSR in the middle, and DLSS 2.0 at the top. While we know DLSS 3.0 is in the works, so is FSR 2.0, so both Switch 2 and Steam Deck would get performance/visual enhancements because of this.
*FSR is BC and officially goes back to Radeon 400 series cards, and works on many series before that unofficially. FSR also works on Nvidia cards! I've seen vids of it being used all the way back to GeForce 600 series cards. That's decade old hardware.
The big positive is that this will push better hardware and/or pricing for a Switch 2 hybrid.
Last edited by EricHiggin - on 22 July 2021
