Well it’s here, it’s been announced. It’s called the Nintendo Switch and it looks fantastic.
Here’s everything we know so far and everything you need to know about Nintendo’s brand new console.
Nintendo Unveils The NX And It’s Called The Nintendo Switch
It’s here. This is what it looks like. This is what it does.
Yes, We Are Very Excited About The Nintendo Switch
Myself and Alex talk shop about the Nintendo Switch. Alex is cautiously optimistic, I’m throwing caution to the wind.
A Breakdown Of The Nintendo Switch’s New Controllers
The trailer showed off a new Switch pro controller. Here’s what we know about it so far.
New 3D Mario Game Coming To Nintendo Switch
Yes! New Mario game. It’s been too long.
Here’s Every Game Nintendo Showed Off On The Nintendo Switch
Also: other games.
The Nintendo Switch Is Powered By A NVIDIA Tegra
No idea about the specs yet, but this might provide clues.
Here’s Some Nintendo Highlights To Get You Ready For The NX Reveal
In case you feel like reminiscing over previous Nintendo launches.
NX Mario Is Creeping Everyone Out
[LUIGI DEATH STARE]
The Internet Reacts To The Nintendo Switch
Some pretty great takes from the internet here. I liked the Vita wedged between the two PlayStation controllers and the puppy Switch a lot.
Comments
86 responses to “Everything You Need To Know About The Nintendo Switch”
In one of the clips/screen shots it look like there’s a ‘c-stick’ near the back top right of the unit, hopefully there is!
What I want to know more than anything is the battery life. Nintendo totally blew it with the Wii U, but at least you had the (little known) option of buying a larger battery that lasted 8 hours.
Maybe its an Amoled and they go the way of the mobile, but with a larger battery.
That being said the two tiny controllers are what really worry me. Thats three seperate batteries to charge for one player and five for two. Things are gonna get really annoying without a multi charge dock.
In theory Nintendo could release multiple different sizes and styles for the Joy-Cons. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Wii U Pro Pad worked out of the box with this.
Still doesnt fix the battery issue. Sooo many devices to remember to charge.
The controllers probably charge as one piece so to speak.
Yeah. It looks like the centre piece is sort of a dock for the Joy-Cons. It’ll probably still get messy though. I don’t think there’s a perfect solution for charging but that doesn’t make it a bad idea.
Sooo more chunky stuff to carry around when travelling? I like the idea of hand helds being more powerful, but I have spent enough evenings at mates trying to set up a wii to know how frustrating having these kinds of controllers can be.
You’ll only need the dock, the pad with its attached joy-cons, and the power cable.
The joy-cons charge off of the pad, which charges from the dock. They’ll have functionally significant battery life, since they’re just cut down versions of the ever-charged pro controller.
If this is too much, then maybe the Amish life is for you.
@Cubits Only if Xzibit comes to the valley where I will reside and delivers unto me the pimp-est of all the goyam wagons. I demand hydraulics, fluffy dice and flat screens between the spokes of my wagon’s wheels.
I also demand facial hair wig cut from the butt hole of a Tibetan Mastiff and yarmulke that makes all ladies blush (I will know if you have just attached massive purple spiked dildos to the top so don’t even bother lying to me).
Beats trying to drag my PS4/XBOX One around. =P
The best part is that it’s got a tablet architecture and form factor – so inside there the battery will be almost as big as the screen. I suspect 8 hours of use, with a realistic 5 of game play.
Fact is for this to be a decent gaming experience, it’s gonna use juice, so I think we’re being unrealistic if we expect more than 5-6 hours of actual gameplay from this form factor.
Stuff you really need to know:
* Nintendo has confirmed that the Base Station/Dock has no real smarts or extra processing power, it is just a convenient charge dock and has the HDMI output to the television, so there shouldn’t be much difference between the handheld play graphics fidelity and the ‘TV play’ graphics. i.e. it should perform about the same as a console or handheld.
* It takes cartridges
* Nintendo has taken a ‘no comment’ approach to touch-screen capability
*Backwards compatibility with the Wii-U or DS looks unlikely as there is no disc for Wii-U or Wii games, and no second screen for DS compatibility, and potentially no stylus/touch
*Nintendo has confirmed Amiibo support
* The two detachable pieces that can also be used as individual controllers are called Joy-Cons, and allows two player gaming on the one console straight out of the box
* The Pro controller’s analogue sticks are offset like the Gamecube and Xbox controller, making it look like a great controller for fighting games.
* 3rd party support so far is Sega, Bethesda, Atlus, Bandai-Namco, Square Enix, EA, Activision, 505 Games, Capcom, Konami, Codemasters, Telltale Games, Ubisoft, THQNordic, Tokyo RPG Factory, Level 5, From Software (SOULS) and more, it also supports engines/software from Havok, Frozenbyte, CriWare, Unity, Wise, RAD Game Tools, Epic and more.
* It is coming March 2017
* It looks awesome and I want one.
You the real MVP.
Realistically, you don’t want to play a Souls game on a handheld, with sub-optimum lighting, with anything less than a PS4/ Xbone standard controller.
Imagine playing fighting a Dark Souls boss with a fat lady elbowing you on the train? NO THANKS!
The games they did show look great though.
I reckon its much more likely that From will try for another gimmicky Chromehounds title. I am very sceptical that a Tegra/Snapdragon would be able to reliably run any of the souls titles at 30 frames.
Might be overthinking it a bit there.
Probably not, Nintendo want titles that will help them recapture JP from Sony. A From Software game would likely do that, the problem is that most of their established titles are PVP heavy and anything less than what we get now would probably have little to no effect.
I would like to see if it results in a less shitty looking MH title, but knowing how lazy Capcom is that is highly unlikely.
If we’re being led to believe a Tegra/Snapdragon can handle Skyrim like a piece of delicious cake, then it would be capable of running Dark Souls. I’m not going to bother with “reliably at 30 frames” because Blighttown is a travesty on almost all platforms.
At this point it’s not really worth positing on PVP elements. Splatoon’s presence indicates network infrastructure, but not the level; at a minimum we may expect comparable infrastructure to what currently exists. Still doesn’t tell us enough.
Skyrim is a game that was only difficult to run at the time because the game was a hulking pile of inefficient code. Years of mods have shown us this, with the right mod set the game can look a LOT better while using much less resources.
Blight Town is one area in a game from 2011, Current gen consoles have issues with Dark Souls 3 the vast majority of the time; heck its why the game is capped at 30 fps on console. Japanese games in general have a tendency of being hot messes (optimisation wise), so the fact that DS1 managed to only have a few areas that ran particularly bad compared to Skyrim that ran like garbage on all launch consoles is more telling of how much Skyrim needed optimisations compared to DS1.
The physical hardware seems like its still very lacking and I would go as far as to say par for the course when it comes to Nintendo. I get that they have some games that are technically interesting, but I am yet to see anything in any of the trailers that would lead me to believe it could run even DS1 at 30 frames; even if they spent the last year optimising code for a re-release.
The real takeaway here is that we are getting to Iphone levels of resale and a lot of you just pick it up because of brand loyalty. I can see this going the same way the Wii U did, my guess is that certain people will flock to it, but over all it won’t leave much of a dent in MS and Sony’s pocket.
With the Wii U and 3DS I do most of my playing at home. I’ve got some nice big TVs but it’s nice to curl up with the gamepad/3DS and get comfy. I could definitely see that working well with a game like Dark Souls.
BEERS FOR THIS MAN.
Can we put this in the main article, somehow?
Or a new post?
Give this man/woman a job!
OK.
[Makes @poita Donald Trumps’ personal secretary]
You never said the job had to be Nintendo’s PR, 😛
I’m a bit concerned about the screen. I haven’t read into it yet but it looks breakable and historically Nintendo haven’t been good about replacing components like that.
Time to start looking after stuff ;^)
I’ve never cracked a phone screen in my life and aside from my sister getting sand in my GameBoy all my handhelds remained in great condition, but that doesn’t make it a good idea to release a fragile portable console.
I think the way they’d rationalise it is that the majority of the human race (or at least 1st world population) has “fragile” touch screens in their pockets every single day of their lives now, and that’s something we keep in the back of our minds. I’m sure there’ll be an official Nintendo case for carrying it around on launch day + a thousand third party solutions as well.
No reason to think it would be much more fragile than a phone. I think if you were worried, then factor in the cost of a case, maybe one with some extra battery in it.
Wasn’t meant to be a dig, just a jibe 🙂
It looks cool and those games are actual good games- the kind of games you buy Nintendo systems for AT LAUNCH! Good stuff Nintendo.
BUT, I’m a bit concerned about the battery life and system specs.
More importantly, I’m not sold that the handheld market and the console market are the same market.
There’s a reason that two PSP’s have (realistically) flopped when they’ve tried to deliver “Home gaming in your hand”.
Nintendo have historically understood and have made great handheld-designed titles, but these games look like consoles titles first and handheld titles second.
I saw people getting excited before about From Software being listed as a support. Nobody wants to play a Souls game on the train with shitty, inconsistent lighting and a cramped environment.
So for now it looks about 1000 times better than the WiiU (particularly in lead software), but I’m worried it will deliver sub-par home gaming AND sub-optimum handheld gaming.
Honestly, I think the main reason the PSPs flopped as a ‘console experience’ is you couldn’t really play them on your TV easily, and they looked shitty if you did.
The dock is elegant, quick and easy, I’m thinking of it as a home console that gives me some portability when I want it, not as a handheld that gives me home console-like play.
It sounds the same, but is quite different. A home console that fits my lifestyle is pretty attractive.
It looks to me like the best possible solution for a bloke who lives in a one-TV apartment with his missus.
Luckily, THAT’S ME!
I can’t see myself playing it on my daily commute though or anywhere else that’s not plane, although I could be wrong.
Yeah or anyone with kids, or in share accomodation, or anywhere where having a TV where you want to game right now is not always an option.
Oh yeah, those times too.
I’m just saying that for me it looks like something that will get used at home FAR more than it will on the road, which possibly raises concerns about it being a sub-optimal home experience on a convenient screen. Who knows though, Nintendo normally gets these things fairly close to right when they design their software.
I’m the exact opposite.
I see myself playing this way more on my daily commute.
And this could actually be the key to the Switch.
That it could suite people who prefer playing at home, those playing during their commute or a combination of the two.
If it is all things to all people they could sell a lot of these.
It WON’T be all things to all people. There’s inevitable hardware compromises which will be required to get it portable which means that it won’t be able to replace the PS4/ Xbone as the ideal console of choice for home beyond 1st party titles.
It’s more a case whether the 1st party games are good enough to hold up as viable AAA titles for sitting in your lounge room and if those same titles can also pass as very good portable games.
Those are different markets though, it’ll be interesting to see how often they find the right balance, particularly for games that were designed form the ground up to be WiiU titles.
It’s very different design for a game that you play for 15-50 minutes on a daily commute to a game where you sit down and play on the lounge.
I don’t think Nintendo ever planned to replace the PS4/Xbone. None of their recent console releases have matched there rivals in terms of processing power.
What it needs to offer is a fun experience for the couch and good quality when portable with a great mix of game options. If it does that then there could very well be a lot of people interested and from the reactions this seems to be the case.
I agree thought that it will depend on the games that are offered.
And I realise that for me there is no difference between gaming on the couch or on the train because my daily commute is 1 hr 20 each way. 🙂
So for me I am not looking for something to play for 15min which I could do on my phone or tablet.
I am looking for a game I can sink hours into on the train.
The social aspect of just taking the Switch to your friend’s house or school or whatever for multiplayer mayhem will also be a big thing for a lot of people
The main reason PSP and Vita failed was a complete lack of support from Sony – there were barely any games (particularly first/second party titles).
With Nintendo, 3rd party is never a guarantee but you at least know you’ll always get a decent flow of first-party stuff.
The PSP got plenty of support and most of the big name titles that people buy a Playstation for.
Gran Turismo, Killzone, Metal Gear Solid, God of War, Wipout, LittleBigPlanet… if you list off the major Sony exclusive franchises most of them had PSP versions.
The problem is that playing a high fidelity, high detail game on a handheld normally sucks. People think they want to play these games on the train, then they actually try to do it and realise that it’s more trouble than it’s worth. None of those games were half as well received in hand-held form as they were on a console.
One thing I’ll bet my house on, is that being Nintendo and a handheld hybrid- even if they can’t nail the ‘AAA blockbuster on the go’, this system is going to get some awesome RPG’s and strategy games.
Maybe they’ve FINALLY make another Advance Wars!!!
Let’s be honest, the Vita flopped because Sony threw it out and then couldn’t wash their hands of it fast enough. No marketing, no resources put into it, mismanagement of the game release lineup and everything. Not to mention the fact that they stupidly went with proprietary memory. At the time it launched they should have been kicking Nintendo in the teeth (the 3DS had an utterly crap library at that point) but it’s like when they lost Monster Hunter exclusivity they were just like “welp, time to pack it in” and gave up.
Propriety memory cards made sense back in the PSX days, now days it’s easier just to use an SD card because nobody can bitch about the price because you don’t make them. The Propriety memory wasn’t just a bad call it was also the fact it was super expensive.
Regarding battery, that makes sense and seems to be the general concern most people have. It’d be interesting though to see if the battery charge that’s in the two joy-cons gives supplementary power to the tablet when attached. They obviously would have their own charge since they’re wireless, and both would have separate batteries since they can be used by two players.
I am wary of this. Zelda framerate looks like it was running in the teens or low 20s when it was on the portable screen. Not only that but I’d like to see some specs first compared to the Wii-U since if that docking station doesn’t do anything but charge the unit and output HDMI, we could be seeing a weaker console than what they have out now. All in all unless new info comes out I doubt I’ll be getting one of these right away. Ever since the Wii has come out, every console has had super shitty launch titles (IMO that is) and after I’ve played Zelda, the thing collects dust for years while I wait for games that actually interest me.
Now if they could get a new Rune Factory, Metroid, Fire Emblem games as well as some other new RPGs then I’d be all over it.
I doubt anything was actually running on the screen in those shots. Having worked on many a tech ad, I’d wager that the images were put on the screens in post-production. I don’t think you can take anything from how the games are ‘performing’ from the video.
That’s even more concerning. PP basics, always match the output frame rate or a multiple thereof. Dropping half your necessary frames is both a rookie mistake and an easily detected one, why would something like that get through review? It’s possible, but more likely that the low frame rate was present in the source footage before compositing and they didn’t/couldn’t do frame interpolation.
Personally I’d rather believe the footage was poor because it came from an unoptimised pre-release source than that obvious shitty compositing got through multiple levels of review and still made it to publish on an announcement as important to Nintendo as this one was.
Nintendo are very much about polish. They’ll delay Zelda and launch without it to sort out frame-rate issues even if it’s not a good idea.
I had the same thought when i saw the Zelda vid part, it looked like it was choppy AF and running at below 30fps.
I’m just glad the site’s got actual Nintendo articles on it for once 😀
Will it be data capable out of the box?
Hah! But then what will take the role of the tack on thumb stick? Daddy needs to meet his attachments quota.
Pokemon or bust.
selling another screen and a nvidia core
good for nvidia stocks and whoever makes the screen I suppose
The Ouya has evolved into Switch, 😛
My personal opinion, i would spend about $350 for this day one for it to peak my interest, any more than that then it would go onto my “maybe when it’s a bit cheaper” pile.
sadly I reckon it will be $5-600
Hmm… if it is that expensive then i can see this being a titanic failure.
I hope not though.
Why is that price range “expensive”?
It *is* a brand new console after all? And PS4/XBone came out at much higher price ranges. I’d say wait for the specs at least then start throwing in the “expensive” tags =P
Hmmm, my concern is that when it detaches to two different controlles, the buttons are in different places so, clearly one is going to be more comfortable, so people will fight over it, or complain about the controller for a loss.
There’s a reason I didn’t get the Wii U. The exact same reason is why I won’t get this pile of shit Nintendo Shift.
Is it because you hate fun?
So you can sound edgy online? =P
Can’t wait until someone I know wastes their money on this gimmick so I can play the one game that gets released that seems worthwhile playing for a few minutes.
So edgy.
Too bad, you have to wait. It isn’t out until March.
Not really super interested in this tbh. Having split controllers with different button layouts is going to hurt it I feel. Let’s see how many devs stick around to make AAA titles that have to cater for a controller that splits in half. Are the going to have to specify that the games are Joy-con compatible? Battery life is a big concern considering the Wii-U gamepad. Oh and, who really wants to play multiplayer on that mini screen. Split screen? Seems like Fifa/NBA/whatever are going to have visibility problems. Fighting games and stuff will probably be fine though.
I understand Nintendo want to be different, and thats fine. But this just looks like it’s going to be another console with good first party titles and nothing much else. This is definitely going to be a “maybe later” purchase if it turns out to be good.
I can see people who enjoy mobile gaming but for someone like me this machine is useless except for Zelda and I’m not spending that kinda money for nostalgia and lets face it that’s all nintendo is at this point.
I’d like to know who decides what I need to know? Because if it is me, this is certainly not everything I need to know.
Tell me price and I will decide from there. More than $399AUD and I am out.
I’m guessing $450 AUD
Meanwhile I’m looking at this going 700 for the top tier model (because it’s Nintendo of course it’ll be tired) is my upper limit. It’s complicated it’s got a proper screen quality hardware inside (tegra currently matched current gen hardware and we don’t know if it’s current gen or a newer generation tegra) and a unique selling point. I think expecting under 500 for this is wishful thinking that has no logic behind it.
Logic doesn’t extend my budget.
True! and you can always wait for the inevitable price drop or bundles…
… I think jaedee’s point was some folks were having unrealistic price points of 200-300 for a *new* console =P
I think the point was made in a slightly rude manner though. I also firmly believe that it is likely running hardware with specs which are a few years old if comparisons to xb1 and ps4 are to be believed. I get that it is all compact and portable and Tegra, but still, Nintendo need to be competitive in order to stay relevant.
In my case, if I have to wait for a price drop, so be it. But they do not want to price themselves out of the market.
I wasn’t aware I was coming across as rude so sorry about that.
More just if it’s cheap, it won’t be good and built to a competitive quality with sufficient hardware to be equivalent or better. And if it’s not good it won’t sell because it’ll just be another silly product that’s not worth it.
It really is a tough position I imagine. Especially if it is true that they refuse to take losses on hardware, it will require premium quality if a premium price. Too cheap, people are critical, too expensive, people are critical. A bundled game is probably the only deal sweetener that could distract from either scenario.
If it’s anything like a laptop the GPU will perform better when plugged into power/docked.
The only downside of the cradle i can see is unlike the Wii-U, the screen cant be used or even seen when docked. I personally would of preferred the ability to see the screen so i can use the device (with a controller) while docked without a tv. Would of made a nice replacement for my docked tablet/digital photo frame/clock/alarm too.
That’s unavoidable. The Wii U had a lot of problems with single screen play because you have to build a game to be both single and dual screen compatible. The games tended to either not use the gamepad screen in any significant way or suck/break when you switched to single screen.
I do like your idea though. That little plastic gamepad stand on the Wii U was great for that. Put the gamepad in that on a table or something and then use a pro pad to play. I’d love to wall mount a dock and use it as a photo frame/clock/small screen.
So i wonder what Ubisofts “this is a real game console for super serious players” launch title they’ll have for the Switch this time, Wii had Red Steel, WiiU had ZombiU.
Whatever it is I am totally hanging out for it. Love those games.
My guess is another UbiArt game (as seen previously in Child of Light). In terms of aesthetic it suits Nintendo to a tee.
Level 5 Eh?
Dark Cloud 3 for Nintendo Switch!
At least this will bring the end of nintendo hardware in very fast time.
What a dogs breakfast and talk about out of touch. This is 15yrs too late.
Awesome, the console I thought I was buying 3 years ago. I’m not buying any of the hype, or this console.
I Just realized if nintendo make some kind of high end pokemon go type game with the portable tablet, they would literally be able to print their own money. That is if the tablet has some type of gps or camera feature.