Although unconfirmed rumours have been circulating since Gamescom wrapped up last month to suggest that Nintendo had brought along a bit more than demos of Pikmin 4 to play on the public show floor, they’ve remained firmly in the category of straight-up-hearsay… until now.
Both Eurogamer and VGC have now corroborated these rumours with claims that, yes, Nintendo was showing off the tech for its Switch successor behind closely-guarded doors to developers in the Gamescom business area last month.
Both outlets say that they were told by sources of multiple tech demos being shown off to those lucky enough to be deemed worthy of entry into Nintendo’s darkest corner – a spot which, separately to these reports, was apparently so well-guarded that convention hall staff bringing food in and out had to pass security checks. What’s particularly impressive is that Nintendo apparently was showing off 2021’s The Matrix Awakens Unreal Engine 5 tech demo complete with ray-tracing and NVIDIA DLSS technology and that it looked comparable to the same demo on the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Elsewhere, prospective developers reportedly got a look at a version of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild running in a much higher resolution and framerate than on the original Switch, though it’s stressed that this was strictly for demonstration purposes and not an indication that Nintendo is looking to update or re-release the game.
Nintendo showed off tech demos for its Nintendo Switch successor behind closed doors at Gamescom, per sources.https://t.co/kb4qV8iNKl pic.twitter.com/hLQiOJsGz7
— VGC (@VGC_News) September 7, 2023
Both outlets had also previously reported through sources that the next Nintendo console is, in fact, another hybrid portable device similar to the current Switch and will ship with an LCD screen like the standard Switch model and not an OLED display to keep costs down in the face of needing greatly increased storage space for new-generation games.
Thew device will reportedly still carry a cartridge slot for physical games, though backwards compatibility isn’t a given as of yet but seems fairly likely.
