Nintendo Switch

That guy is playing Skyrim EVERYWHERE.


And the amount of games being supported for the Switch is just insane, it doesn't look like I'm getting a Wii U anymore:

I saw a video about it earlier. I'm... annoyed and skeptical, I guess. I went out and got a Wii U - what, a couple years ago now? - because the new Zelda was supposed to have come out a while ago. I've seen a few other Wii U games that I'm planning to get eventually but nothing that's really gotten me super-duper excited. Zelda was always my reason for sticking with Nintendo when PlayStation and Xbox were getting all the really cool games, but unless Breath of the Wild is the most glorious thing I've ever played I was thinking about ditching Nintendo in the future (except I'd probably still somewhat keep up with the 3DS).

One of the things that makes me less enthusiastic about the Wii U is that I don't really like the game pad and was kind of hoping they would move away from that. But I dunno, if Nintendo were to start getting really good third-party games instead of just the spin-offs, then I might be more interested.

Of what we saw of the Nintoaster Switch, I have two potential gripes:

1) The frame rate looks kinda choppy, though I'd be willing to forgive it if the TV attachment boosts the video processor. (Granted this could just be an issue in the advertisement video. I can't see them using an inferior video processor to the Wii U, which ran Breath of the Wild cleanly.)
2) Directional buttons. Really? I know this is for the multiplayer dynamic, but I can see myself getting a pro controller with a cross-pad in the future.

Other than that, the Switch looks interesting and a much better realization of what the Wii U was. The questions of pricing and battery life have yet to be answered, but if they're good answers then this shows some promise.

My one major concern is that Nintendo is really pushing local play. I can understand that, it's a market that the other online-centric companies aren't tapping as much lately, and after the disaster that was the Wii U it's a logical direction for them to move in. My problem with this? I have no friends to do local play with, and Nintendo over the last couple of months hasn't taken the hint (see: September 1st's Nintendo Direct) that not everyone has people within arm's reach and seem to be treating true online play like a plague. I hope the Switch has a healthy amount of online-capable games for me to enjoy with my internet-friends, or I'll be a very sad Nintendo fan.

It has a lot of individual identity, which was the Wii U's major failing. The downside of making it with such a personality is that it definitely isn't a console for everyone. That said, remember the Pro Gaming scene? Scratch out Splatoon and put in gundams and you have Try Fighters. Everything about this console is marketing genius.

I like it and I'm cautiously optimistic. Really, this being Nintendo I'm not too worried about performance. I am, however, concerned with third party support, because when that dried up for the Wii U, death followed. The connections between Nintendo and 3rd party developers will be hard to determine, but they're what will ultimately make or break the Switch.

I think this is a great move. Sony and Xbox seem determined to drive themselves into irrelevancy by making their consoles more and more into less functional gaming PCs which I guess works for them, but doesn't have a real future when you have a format plagued with slower download times, less storage, mandatory installs, and subscriptions fees for services offered for no charge on Steam. The Switch is something so incredibly different, but at the very time fundamentally an actual gaming console. The switch to cartridges eliminates the problem of long downloads and installs, the portability offers something that you really can't do with either with a PC or a cell phone/tablet and the absolute versatility essentially just creates itself an entirely new segment of the market. Which is great, because Nintendo was facing challengers from all side with cell phone gaming and with Sony and Microsoft. They've found a middle ground that could potentially be huge and more importantly, will take a few years for anyone to mount up any kind of legitimate competition.

I think Nintendo has really nailed it with this one. I saw it elsewhere and it was well put how the Wii U was kind of a necessary failure for Nintendo to experiment with this direction and to have something to learn from. From the detachable controllers and the portable screen and the ease of movement, this looks like everything Nintendo was trying to accomplish with the Gamecube, Wii, and Wii U. I think they've finally really succeeded, more so than even with the Wii. I really hope this pays off for them, because I'm really excited to try this out. It's more than exceeded all my expectations.

I really like the design, and I think it offers up a lot of groundbreaking concepts. I'd personally be afraid to take the Switch anywhere for fear of losing it or having it stolen, but that's technically the same gripe I have with any handheld or fancy tablet.


My only real concern is content. Which is always an issue for Nintendo -- at least for me. I'm not gonna be tempted to buy games I already own on other systems. I'm sure some people will see the appeal of a "portable 360/PS3" and go for it, but it's definitely not high on my priority list. Is there any word that these developers will be making NEW games for the Switch? Or just porting their greatest hits for extra cash?

The main reason the PS4 and Bone have become mini-gaming PCs is because developers generally like building off the PC -- it requires less effort on their part because there's less lost in translation when they do ports. Developers like ports. More ports, more customers. Exclusives limit a developer's market. At this point, unless it's a big title or you've got a niche audience, making exclusive titles is generally bad business. That's why you don't see many exclusives anymore. And if you do, there's a strong chance it's just a timed exclusive. I know there are exceptions, but they're exactly that. And they probably have a contractual obligation / extra funding to off-set a limited market.

So if the Switch is limited to "last generation" specs, give or take, the question is: Will any developers other than Nintendo actually commit to making games for it (when literally all their other resources are devoted to modern hardware)?



But they've definitely produced the best ultra-light, ultra-sleek gaming tablet in its class -- when you get down to it -- so that's nothing to turn your nose up at. It doesn't sound like the handheld has a touch screen, though. That might limit the more casual cellphone-style games. Which I know a lot of gamers shun as "not real games," but that is a big-ass market to capitalize on.



Also I like the cartridges from a purely nostalgic standpoint.

To be fair, the Skyrim port is pretty much Bethesda being intrigued by the idea and going the "easy" route of learning about the hardware and its power and potential by porting (presumably) the PS4/XB1 version onto it. I imagine that's what the majority of the list will be doing, since they're gun shy about putting too much support into a Nintendo console where they will forever be second fiddle to Nintendo's first party offerings, but it's such a different idea with so much potential they have to be at least partially on board in case things take off.

It can definitely go really bad, but this seems to be the smartest thing for Nintendo to do right now. Consolidating all their software into one single system will do wonders for them, I think, since a lot of people aren't like me and only like the console experience or the handheld experience, and it's frustrating that there are maybe games they want on both, but not enough to justify one. They've seemed to have learned and taken some lessons from the past for sure, just the layout of the analog sticks on both the standard controller and the Pro version, not to mention how this will let people do the one thing they wanted to do with the Wii U gamepad. The controller looks weird, and I wouldn't trust any of the game footage on this ad, but this could potentially be cool. Admittedly, I'll always eventually buy a Nintendo machine because it's the only way I can play their games, but this could genuinely be a really awesome step from them to be unique but still be successful.

I expect that Mario Kart is obviously just Mario Kart 8, and Splatoon is probably a port as well, but I can't get too mad since it just means more people can now play those games if this takes off. This might also be the way to have a proper portable Mario Maker since the 3DS version looks like it's had its knees cut off.

I think the console will be a tad more accessible for ports, because it doesn't really require much in the way of trying to tailor a game to Nintendo's gimmicks. There's no need for offscreen content like the Wii U tablet, nor is there any need for thinking too much about motion controls. It's a single format with very traditional controls, just extremely versatile outside of the software itself. Given that Microsoft and Sony are already going to make scalability a significant factor thanks to their own half-gen systems they're releasing, it may not be that much of a chore to scale games down to the Switch. Besides that, if it inherits the kind of games we get from just the 3DS only, then it will already be doing even better than the Wii did. In which case, not doing a port is kind of silly.

Not Mario Kart 8. The characters are shown holding two items.

I can see this selling like bonkers in Japan, which ought to attract third parties. Portable games have always done really well there, and adding the TV play possibility will help it in the west. I see it as basically a reverse Super Gameboy.

I'm impressed and looking forward to more news.

Day 1 purchase for me. But then, every Nintendo console is. I want those 1st party games, and always will.

The hardware itself... doesn't do much for me. I won't ever take it on the go. Hell, I even play my 3DS and Vita mostly at home. But I also don't give a rat's ass about the specs, as a player. I'm excited that the hardware wasn't trying too hard to push unusual input or output (ie, motion control/touch screen or VR), because that means that Nintendo's 1st party titles can just concentrate on being good games, instead of contorting themselves to justify the hardware.

So they've got my dollar. But I am skeptical about it as a product that's gonna sell well and make Nintendo money. It was a very lackluster reveal, without showing off any actual new games. I guess technically the Mario and Mario kart were new, but I didn't even realize that until someone told me, so they weren't exactly noteworthy. Zelda continues to look phenomenal, but it's not an exclusive and it was already revealed. And the only 3rd party titles were ports, in one case of a 5-year-old-game.

I think that if Nintendo wants to succeed, they need to either A: attract a large unusual audience, B: really establish it as a possible dedicated handheld that you buy your kids, or C: attract core gamers with strong 3rd party support in the form of both exclusives and multiplatform releases. They don't seem to be pursuing A or B, and I'm skeptical that they're going to succeed with C. C requires hardware parity with competing consoles, which this MAY achieve, but... it's not clear yet. And even if it is achieved, the release years into the other consoles' lifespan  means that the other console manufaturers may move on to a new hardware generation in the middle of the Switch's lifespan, which would break that parity, and that most core gamers likely already have a current console.

So yeah. I'll buy it myself, and I'll love the Nintendo titles, and I hope they'll succeed, but I'm skeptical that there's a large enough market for it with what I've seen so far. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TtqjHXr5HE

Basically confirms what we all thought: the Switch is a single-screen device. No more double-screen silliness requiring chameleon eyes!

...Except what people really wanted to know for sure was if it was a touchscreen or not. Which we're apparently not finding out until much later. Damnit, Nintendo.

I doubt it. Nintendo historically uses resistive touchscreens, which would probably give focus-groups used to capacitive tablets fits. Besides, you've already got the controller right there.

I could see a lack of touch screen being such a big deal, given how much Nintendo pushed that technology into gaming in the first place. Even more so for people who might look at this console as a good tablet counterpart. Granted this isn't the kind of tactic Nintendo uses since they're all about being a gaming system and not a media device, but it would be pretty wild to have a tablet device without a touch screen.