 Hey everyone, so today we have to talk about the Activision Blizzard FTC versus Microsoft case, not because we're gonna go into all the nitty-gritty details and some of the interesting stuff coming up, but because it turns out that we might know roughly how powerful the next generation Nintendo Switch is gonna be and I'm using the term next generation on purpose because the system has now been referenced several times today in court as the NG Switch and they are shortening the original phrase next generation Switch and this is because, believe it or not, Shintura Furukawa was mentioned today in court and it turns out that Nintendo and Activision CEO, Bobby Kotek and president of Nintendo, Shintura Furukawa have been in direct communication about Nintendo's plans for their next generation device. This is not a drill, this is an actual thing we have recorded records of this. The case is still ongoing right now, there's still like three or four hours of testimony left to go in today's proceedings, but what we have right now is extremely interesting information and yeah, of course, a lot of it's centraled on call of duty so you might not care about call of duty but you probably do care about what the Switch specs actually will be. Now, before we dive into what those specs are, thank you so much for being here, if you're enjoying the video, I'd appreciate if you would subscribe, we're on our road to 150,000 subscribers so I would just appreciate if you drop those likes and maybe go down in the comments below and let me know if you're excited for a potential next generation device. Now, a caveat before we get into what Bobby Kotick said, I want to note that just because we are talking about this today does not mean the Switch 2 is coming this year. Nate, the hate is put out there that he thinks by the end of the year we will start to hear a lot more murmurs and information on the system but obviously he's heavily implying it's a 2024 release but let's get into what was said today because why was the future Nintendo platform brought up? Well, a big sticking point right now in Call of Duty is it coming to additional platforms if this deal is approved because obviously the trying to prove this is anti-competitive, it coming to Nintendo for 10 years is sort of the opposite of being anti-competitive. So Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard was on the stand and was brought up with several things, several things we learned. One, he was asked why Call of Duty wasn't on Switch already and he basically admitted, yeah, I had the prototype of the Switch and I didn't think it was gonna sell well and that was a mistake on our part. So he basically admitted, hey, we had Nintendo's prototype of the Nintendo Switch and I made a bad judgment call that it wasn't gonna sell well and so we never really went in active development for Switch and as the years gone by, obviously the Switch got really popular and blew up, he just sort of sat there realizing that he missed the boat and he really wishes that he could have gone back in time and supported the Nintendo Switch from day one. So he admits that he made an executive decision that was incorrect and that's just the way it is. Now he was asked the technical capabilities of Switch and if Call of Duty could run on it and he said, I don't really know, we've never really tried just kind of throwing all that out there because again, they've never actively tried to make Call of Duty for Switch and then he asked, well, with the support of Microsoft and their teams, can you make a version for Nintendo Switch and he unequivocally said yes and then can you make it for several years and he unequivocally said yes. So he was in lockstep with Microsoft on saying, hey, with Microsoft support and money, well, yeah, we can probably make a Switch version of the game, they asked how well the Switch version were running and he said, well, we haven't actually made it so how can I actually, it's a question that he can't really answer. But there were some interesting things like he didn't find out about the 10-year contract between Nintendo and Microsoft for Call of Duty until he saw it in a news article which to be clear, isn't the most shocking thing in the world because part of this agreement to buy Activision Blizzard, there is part of the agreement actually removes Bobby Kotek as CEO of Activision Blizzard. So he wouldn't need to be involved in any of the contract negotiations that only kick in if the merger occurs. So it's not really surprising that Phil Spencer would not have called up Bobby to try to get his approval on this 10-year deal with Nintendo because again, it wouldn't be Bobby's call in the first place, right? So he wouldn't have to have direct communication with Phil Spencer on it. So he personally didn't find out about the deal till then and he really thinks that the deal is more about the next generation switch and that's where the next generation switch came up was when Bobby Kotek said that this is really about the next generation switch and he was asked several questions on if the merger happens or if the merger doesn't happen, what would happen. They asked him specifically, would call of duty, if this merger didn't happen, would call of duty come to the next generation switch and he basically said, well, if it has the specs and performance that we think it does, then it is definitely something that we would consider doing and then he was asked to fully commit to just bringing it to the Nintendo switch, the next generation switch and he said that's not something I can make a comment on at this time. Then they said, if the merger happens, will it come? And he's like, well, as you know, there's already been a document signed. So yes, if the merger happens, it will be on the next generation switch. And he said, what would prevent it from being on the next generation switch without a merger? And he said, well, you know, I don't have all the exact details, but you know, if the system isn't that powerful or something and we couldn't get a good version running, but again, this is all hypothetical. And then he said, well, how powerful is the next generation switch? And then this is where Shantara Furukawa was brought up and it turns out that Activision and Nintendo have already been talking about the next generation switch. This was something already happening before the merger even occurred. And it turns out that Nintendo had been informing Bobby Kotek of details for the next generation switch. Now, I wanna be clear, Bobby Kotek stated they do not have any dev units. So he does not have a dev unit to base this on. This is just based on direct communication with Shantara Furukawa from Nintendo being told the rough estimates of what to expect for this thing. So now when we get into how powerful this next generation switch is supposed to be, I wanna note, we can't give you exact specs. We can just give you a comparison because this is a comparison that Nintendo gave to Bobby Kotek. All right, so now that we have that out of the way, what was said? The next generation switch is expected to be as powerful as a PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Now, that is not shocking, but that is exactly what he said. And he said, hey, we've been putting Call of Duty and stuff on that stuff for years. We don't see any problem, you know, if this is correct that we would bring it to that switch. But the point is that we now have actual communication from someone at Nintendo involved in this court case, basically stating the next generation switch is gonna be at least as powerful as a PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Now, this isn't including any possible DLS or off-scaling or anything that could potentially make it look like it's punching above its weight, but it is right about what many of us expected. A lot of us thought it would be like PlayStation 4, maybe PlayStation 4 Pro level, especially when you include DLS, SS and all that. And the Xbox Series S is actually not that far off from a PlayStation 4 Pro in terms of what they're both capable of. So I do think that that's actually kind of good news. It's kind of good news that it'll be at least as powerful as that. Nintendo's not trying to undershoot again and go with too low a specs and look, a portable PlayStation 4 in your pocket is really, really, really good. Now, obviously this would probably still be a hybrid system and still hook up on your TV, but the bottom line is if they're using more modern architecture, it's probably gonna be more capable than a PlayStation 4 and probably have features like DLSS to support it, maybe even ray tracing, although probably on a much lower level, then you can get on a Series X or Series S or on the PlayStation 5, but still, obviously Nintendo was never given us a PlayStation 5 in our pockets. That's just, that's not something that's feasible, even like Steam Deck and other things like that aren't there. Now, when we talk about how this compares to something like a Steam Deck, well, is a Steam Deck as powerful as a PlayStation 4? And the answer is sort of, yeah. The Steam Deck, with its architecture, sort of runs somewhere between a PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro, and this seems to be right in the ballpark that Nintendo would be aiming for, obviously using Nvidia Tech, which is going to be different than the Ryzen stuff anyways. It's gonna be different than AMD. So there'll be some benefits to Nvidia stuff, maybe some shortcomings, but the point is that if you like Steam Deck, you pretty much have an idea of the performance that this next generation Switch is going to have, which, look, that's pretty good. Steam Deck can pretty much run everything. So that's pretty good. I gotta say they price this correctly. If they come in at $299, even 350 max, but they come in at $299, that is a killer price point for basically a Nintendo Switch Steam Deck. So we'll have to wait and see if any of this is true. Obviously, these were just conversations. As always to note, we can't talk about final specs because Nintendo didn't give Bobby Kotek final specs of the system, but it's very interesting that it came up, and we'll be keeping our ears to the ground if this starts to spurn other conversations, because we do know that dev units are out there with certain very specific game developers, and maybe they've been unwilling to talk about stuff because of NDAs and all of that, but now that this is sort of coming out there from a legal perspective, like this is legally available information now, that maybe we start to hear those murmurs pop up a little bit sooner than even Nate The Hate expected, which he didn't think would begin until pretty much later in this year, maybe around the holiday season. So I don't know guys, you let me know what you think about this down in the comments below. I am Nathaniel Rubblejance from Nintendo Prime, and I'll catch you guys in the next video.