A Nintendo patent suggests a cool Switch 2 feature that should make games look, and perform, better

A US legal patent, filed by Nintendo in July 2023 and published on December 31, 2024, has revealed an interesting new feature that could be used in the Switch 2. The console, which has not yet been released – still official while still being a top secret inside. the video game industry, to be able to play games at both a higher visual quality and with better performance if the patented technology is implemented.

The patent is for “systems and methods for machine-learned image changes”, which you may recognize as similar to Nvidia's DLSS tech, and like PlayStation's PSSR enhancement technology. This machine learning technique allows hardware, in layman's terms, to fill in the gaps in video game graphics. It can generate the images you see at higher resolutions, without needing the hardware that these images would normally require.

This increase in visual quality also comes without the sacrifices in performance you'd normally expect. So, overall, it is a useful technology. Especially for the Switch 2 – which is widely believed to be less powerful than today's competing consoles from Microsoft and PlayStation – and which could benefit greatly from being able to squeeze more out of it the processing power it has.

The patent itself, which you can read herevery technical in his descriptions and pictorial diagrams. However, if you take the time to go through it, there are interesting tidbits sprinkled throughout. As Access consultant Laura Kate Dale points to Blueskythe patent says that this technology could reduce the size of games, to better fit “physical media with reduced capacity”. Laura correctly makes the connection to Switch cards, which currently have a maximum capacity of 32GB. machine learning image conversion could allow “bigger” games to fit natively on less capable physical hardware.

This is not the first useful feature that we know that Nintendo is working with either, as it has previously confirmed that backwards compatibility is coming to the consolewhich makes sense given the Switch's huge library of exclusive titles.

All that remains is an official announcement of the Switch 2 at some point. What else are you hoping will come with the full Switch 2? Any dream features? Let us know!