The official Nintendo Switch thread

[Zap!]

There have been a few off-topic Nintendo NX threads, but no specific ones that I could find. With a March, 2017 release date still on track, the announcement is likely imminent. There have been several rumors so far, such as those that continuously come up, like that it won't use disk media, it will be a hybrid handheld/system, etc.

So, when will the announcement come? I'd say mid October at the latest. How powerful will it be? Under-powered? Will Nintendo shock us and include 4k compatibility? What games would you like to see for it? What will it be called? If I were Nintendo, I'd strongly consider sticking to the NX name, IMO it actually sounds pretty cool.

[Tanooki]

Meh!!

[Greg2600]

I've yet to see anything close to definitive on what this really is.

[calthaer]

So why should I get it?

[Tanooki]

Meh!!

[lendelin]

The detailed speculations about the hardware don't make sense. It is enough if we know that the new console will be a hybrid console/handheld. This makes a lot of sense because Nintendo cannot compete (since 2006) with MS and Sony when it comes to hardware. Therefore they look since the Wii-times for something (wii mote, wii u gamepad) to distinguish themselves in the market to compensate for the underpowered hardware. The NX will be another effort in this regard, and even more; it might be, that this is the first step out of the traditional console market into the handheld market only.

I'm very mistrustful about speculations when it comes to hardware, what it can do and how the games will be. We will know when the NX is on the shelves and we play the games. I'm jaded. I saw the Genesis and SNES pics in mags, I watched the 64 Marios for the N64 running around (STUNNING graphics quality which was achieved with the GC five years later), the harware specs of the Dreamcast and the PS2, some were fulfilled, others not, but it was always different, positive or negative, when the games were finally played.

So far we know almost nothing about it, and even when the first reliable specs and the official pics will be released then we still won't know what this machine can do and if the games are good or not. Lots of speculations months ahead of the release don't make a lot of sense.

[Graham Mitchell]

@tanooki: thanks for the compliment. I had to stay late at work cuz of it!

@bojay: I REALLY miss when Nintendo had more competitive hardware. My mind was blown the first time I saw the N64 and SNES my mind was blown. I actually thought the Wii was amazing at first, before the poop train hit.

[Graham Mitchell]

That's priceless. I can't tell if the shots of the switch are ripped from the ad or not.

[Gentlegamer]

Nintendo Karen needs to be the Switch mascot, like Johnny Turbo.

[PizzaKat]

Lame parody. Yeah Im playing Skyrim while taking a dump. Ha ha..

[FieryReign]

Shit doesn't look very portable to me. If it don't fit in the pocket, it ain't portable.

[Graham Mitchell]

Oh, Nintendo will be fine whether or not this tanks. They'll just make amiibos and put out games on ios.

[Tanooki]

Meh!!

[Graham Mitchell]

Maybe I'm late to the party but I've been watching some vids and seeing what people's concerns and expectations are.

From what i gather people are pissed because the Tegra chipset is maxwell hardware and for some reason they expect pascal...the equivalent of a GeForce 1080. Are they fucking insane? Why would anyone expect that? Video cards with that architecture currently cos $500 retail. Not even a PS4 has that.

The concerns that I do agree with are those about Nintendo's insistence on doing something weird with the hardware that discourages 3rd party publishers from taking a bite.

First off, the machine is underpowered at baseline compared to other consoles currently around. So devs will have to make a lot changes to port their games over to this thing. In addition, the power reduces by 40% when you undock the machine, so devs will also have to make their games stable after a significant power drop.

Nintendo does this with every machine they release in some way. And the notion that they are "not competing" with Sony and ms is misguided, as much as Nintendo chooses to it. They make video game machines. By definition they are in competition with other console manufacturers. And if no one wants to deal with the extra work required to port to their machine, there will be a small library, and small libraries don't sell consoles.

[kupomogli]

The Switch is indeed underpowered, it's not even twice as more powerful than the Wii U, so being a 9th gen console, the Switch is now two generations behind in power, but the plus side is that it's still a hybrid. As someone who likes consoles better than handhelds and would have purchased the Switch versions over the PS4 versions if the power was similar, that way I'd also be able to play both the portable and console versions but not have any performance issues over the PS4 version I now can't do that. However, the plus side is that there are still a lot of devs that have 3DS exclusives that will more than likely jump over to the Switch, Atlus is one for example, and those games will not be able to be played docked on the TV instead of only as a portable. Additionally, the system is still what's essentially a portable with the power of the Wii U as well, so in that regard there are still things to like about it.

Overall, I'm disappointed, but I'm still going to be getting one because while I do like consoles more, I also like handhelds as well. It's not going to be any time soon, I'm not buying into the console as soon as there's a minimum of 10 games I absolutely want to purchase, not just, eh I'm kind of interested so I'll pick it up and end with about 10 games like what happened with the Wii U. Not going to happen again where I feel like I threw my money away on a Nintendo product because Nintendo can't get any support.

That being said, based on how many Wii U and 3DS owners, as well as handheld fans, plus the uniqueness of a hybrid console. I predict this will sell anywhere between 40m - 70m, with a more absolute prediction of around 50m, so if my prediction is anywhere close to actual sales, it should see decent support.

[Graham Mitchell]

The Switch is indeed underpowered, it's not even twice as more powerful than the Wii U, so being a 9th gen console, the Switch is now two generations behind in power, but the plus side is that it's still a hybrid. As someone who likes consoles better than handhelds and would have purchased the Switch versions over the PS4 versions if the power was similar, that way I'd also be able to play both the portable and console versions but not have any performance issues over the PS4 version I now can't do that. However, the plus side is that there are still a lot of devs that have 3DS exclusives that will more than likely jump over to the Switch, Atlus is one for example, and those games will not be able to be played docked on the TV instead of only as a portable. Additionally, the system is still what's essentially a portable with the power of the Wii U as well, so in that regard there are still things to like about it.

Overall, I'm disappointed, but I'm still going to be getting one because while I do like consoles more, I also like handhelds as well. It's not going to be any time soon, I'm not buying into the console as soon as there's a minimum of 10 games I absolutely want to purchase, not just, eh I'm kind of interested so I'll pick it up and end with about 10 games like what happened with the Wii U. Not going to happen again where I feel like I threw my money away on a Nintendo product because Nintendo can't get any support.

That being said, based on how many Wii U and 3DS owners, as well as handheld fans, plus the uniqueness of a hybrid console. I predict this will sell anywhere between 40m - 70m, with a more absolute prediction of around 50m, so if my prediction is anywhere close to actual sales, it should see decent support.

Yeah, the way I really see it is that it's the successor to the 3ds that just happens to work on a tv. Given Nintendo's dominance in the handheld market for 2 decades (maybe even more?) that's probably what it's going to be. It makes sense. For a handheld it's a pretty nice package. There are many 3ds games I wish were consolized. I hate playing on that thing. Maybe this is the handheld I've been waiting for?

My stance is this, however : metroid or gtfo. It won't happen, tho. Metroid doesn't make money for them anymore. Just Dance outsold prime 3 like 10:1.

[FieryReign]

Was talking to the girl at a local Gameslop and she told me they started taking preorders for this thing today. They're going to be short in supply on these things too. Each store only getting a few dozen, maybe. How do you expect to make money when you can't even put a product on the shelf?

Retarded. Expect to see ebayers and craigslisters selling their preorder tickets for 3x the price. Should've preordered a couple myself to scalp motherfuckers and make a few bucks.

[Graham Mitchell]

Was talking to the girl at a local Gameslop and she told me they started taking preorders for this thing today. They're going to be short in supply on these things too. Each store only getting a few dozen, maybe. How do you expect to make money when you can't even put a product on the shelf?

Retarded. Expect to see ebayers and craigslisters selling their preorder tickets for 3x the price. Should've preordered a couple myself to scalp motherfuckers and make a few bucks.

I'm so over Nintendo. I didn't watch the live stream yesterday but my friends said it was abysmal.

[Bojay1997]

Was talking to the girl at a local Gameslop and she told me they started taking preorders for this thing today. They're going to be short in supply on these things too. Each store only getting a few dozen, maybe. How do you expect to make money when you can't even put a product on the shelf?

Retarded. Expect to see ebayers and craigslisters selling their preorder tickets for 3x the price. Should've preordered a couple myself to scalp motherfuckers and make a few bucks.

It really wasn't that hard to get a preorder. Amazon, Gamestop, Target and Best Buy all had them available for online orders last night into this morning. Gamestop got between 5 and 50 per store just for preorders today which is a lot compared to something that really was short stocked like the NES Classic and especially when you consider Gamestop alone has 4400 stores in the US. I doubt there's going to be much resale value over MSRP on these as the supply levels out in the next few weeks.