The Nintendo Swap 2 may need an AI characteristic you did not see coming

Abstract

A brand new Nintendo patent outlines attainable AI-powered gaming upscaler tech.
This patent was filed again in July, however was solely simply printed earlier this week.
Synthetic intelligence-based upscaling has been taking the gaming business by storm lately.

A brand new AI-based upscaling system has been patented by Nintendo, as spotted by business insider Laura Kate Dale on BlueSky (via Kotaku). Reportedly, this patent was first filed again on July 13, 2023, however has solely simply been printed in a public method as of December 31, 2024.

Filed within the US beneath the doc titled ‘Systems and Methods for Machine Learned Image Conversion,’ the patent particulars using neural networks to routinely improve software program visuals utilizing AI algorithms.

AI online game upscalers have grown well-liked lately, as they’re capable of generate additional frames of element and backbone with out the necessity to closely tax the system’s graphics processing unit (GPU). Sony’s PS5 Pro comes with its personal proprietary PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) tech, and Microsoft’s Auto Super Resolution offers an analogous resolution for the Xbox.

It needs to be famous that giant tech and leisure firms file patents frequently, and that the overwhelming majority of stated patents do not immediately translate into new real-world merchandise.

It is attention-grabbing to see Nintendo flirting with the prospect of using AI on this style. The power to upscale visuals with out the necessity for brute drive processing is actually compelling, as is the potential to make use of the tech to maintain sport file sizes compact and straightforward to suit on (dear) flash sport playing cards.

“Maybe essentially the most attention-grabbing piece of this, after a prolonged learn, is that one instance use case given is explicitly to scale back total sport sizes, to suit a contemporary sport onto ‘smaller capability bodily media,’ e.g. Swap carts, which get exponentially dearer for bigger cart capacities,” says Dale in a latest BlueSky thread.

Elsewhere, Nintendo has been extra conservative in its strategy to machine studying than a few of its friends, notably in regard to generative AI. In actual fact, the corporate has explicitly come out in opposition to the tech getting used for sure sport improvement functions.

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Nintendo Swap

Nintendo’s flagship two-in-one hybrid sport console, the Swap encompasses a huge catalog of first-party, third-party, and indie sport titles, all in a handy and novel kind issue.

With the Swap successor console nearing launch, Nintendo has its work reduce out for it

The Nintendo Swap has confirmed a convincing success, however it’s unclear whether or not the corporate can catch lightning in a bottle but once more

In hindsight, Nintendo’s resolution to consolidate each its handheld and its house console gaming divisions beneath one roof was a stroke of genius. The corporate has been capable of double down on crafting a single, unified leisure platform, and lifetime sales metrics communicate for themselves.

What Nintendo does have this time round, nonetheless, is a pre-established on-line storefront.

With the successor to the Nintendo Swap, the Japanese gaming big actually has its work reduce out for it. In contrast to with the unique Swap, the corporate now not has a big again catalog of underappreciated Wii U titles to make use of as padding throughout content material droughts. What Nintendo does have this time round, nonetheless, is a pre-established on-line storefront within the type of the digital eShop.

To be able to hold costs at a palatable degree, in addition to to keep up a considerably cheap battery life metric, I anticipate the Swap 2 to ship with comparatively modest technical specs. Reportedly, the NvidiaTegra 239 system on a chip (SoC) will function the brains of the operation, which might put the console’s energy output someplace within the ballpark of Sony’s PlayStation 4 Pro.

As a compromise, it makes all of the sense on the planet for Nintendo to show to AI-based upscaling tech.

As a compromise, it makes all of the sense on the planet for Nintendo to show to AI-based upscaling tech to reinforce its next-gen gaming expertise. The corporate has been working intently with Nvidia for a few years now, and so it would not be stunning to see a Swap 2 with, say, Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) assist out of the field.

It is unclear whether or not this explicit AI upscaling patent is a completely in-house Nintendo know-how, or whether or not it will ever come to fruition in a delivery product. In any case, new particulars will probably be revealed when the Nintendo Swap successor console is formally introduced before the end of March 2025.