Nintendo Patents Point to Switch Quick Resume Feature, Enhanced Imagery


Nintendo could be planning a Switch Quick Resume feature, based on a new published patent. Reddit user RoyaltyXIII found the patent on Free Patents Online, and the feature closely resembles Xbox's Quick Resume.

Here's how the patent describes it:

In a game apparatus in which game programs for a plurality of games each including a title scene and a play scene are stored in a storage medium, a game to be executed is switched in a predetermined order by a user operating a first input device. At a time of the switching, in the case where a currently executed game is in the play scene, the game is interrupted and switching is performed to another game, and, when the game is executed again later, the game is restarted from the time of the interruption of the play scene, and a first image showing the game is displayed on a display.

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Nintendo Patents Point to Quick Resume Feature, Enhanced Imagery

The end of the patent's abstract says the game currently in use would remain active at the same point when the user switches to another game. In other words, it's quick resume in everything but name.

This feature is presumably planned for enhanced Switch hardware, since quick resume is reportedly viable only on more powerful solid state drives.

Another set of patents, this time related to imagery enhancement technology, surfaced online and may be tied to earlier Switch Pro rumors. These patents suggested Nintendo was developing DLSS-style technology to enhance HD images to 4K, but the patents were filed in March 2020 - around the time Switch Pro rumors started surfacing.

Those turned out to be false, though COVID-related manufacturing challenges could have affected Nintendo's plans. Less than two weeks away from the Switch OLED Model's October 8 release, Bloomberg reported Nintendo sent some developers 4K Switch dev kits, though Nintendo's Japan office quickly responded by saying the reports were false.

Of course, Nintendo likely is developing a new Switch model anyway. The base Switch is almost five years old, and the OLED model is a refresh, rather than a major enhancement.

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