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[SolarLune]

This is a system that says nothing to me, realy. It's a tablet that has no browser, so no point in aquiring it to "replace" any other tablet one might have just to browse the web.

The amount of paraphernalia is a bit too much, I mean, we all have stuff lying around anywhere. Will love to see videos of dogs munching joycons, babies messing with the Switch and make joycons disappear and what not.

I mean, it's a complicated device to play, specially when you have tablets that don't need the extra peripherals.

And the price point isn't that atractive.

But it's not a tablet. Not sure why I've seen people try to compare the two when Nintendo keeps making distinctions and separating the idea that this is a tablet. It's a game console, first and foremost. That's why it isn't priced competitively with tablets. That's probably also why they never really mentioned that it has a touch screen. That's why it doesn't run a mobile OS, like Android. That's also probably why the box shows the screen docked with the controller out - it's not a tablet to be used on its own. I personally would've shown both sides of the coin - the screen docked with something on a TV, and the Switch with the joycons together, in a handheld approach. However, it still gets the point across, I think.

I'm not certain what you mean by peripherals - both the Switch and tablets have peripherals, but you have to purchase peripherals for physical controls with tablets, whereas you don't with the Switch. Very few games work with physical controls on mobile gaming, and you can't really compare playing on a touchscreen phone with playing with handheld physical control. Even beyond the control scheme itself, the majority of the games on these platforms are wildly different because of the control schemes.

It's not any more complicated to play than any other game console. In fact, it might be the easiest Nintendo console to play and port to because the control layout on the standard joy cons is very similar to other consoles. There's also fewer available control schemes compared to the Wii U.

If you just don't like the idea that Nintendo's going for, that's fine, of course.

[Richard Kain]

Thank you, SolarLune, you made a lot of the points that I wanted to get across.

It's true that the price point is not that attractive. However, I think a lot of the more sensible fans have been willing to cop to this, as well as point out WHY the price point is not that attractive. On its own, the price point is fine. In fact, I was worried it would be higher before the reveal. For the kind of device that the Switch represents, and for the amount of technology being packed into the Switch itself as well as it's controllers, the price is actually very reasonable. And everything you need short of a game comes in the base package. The dock, the controller-esque holder, the cables, everything is in the box. So while some may lament the high prices of the peripherals, it is at least comforting that those peripherals are optional. And of course, it is important to remember that this is a mobile device. Mobile devices are always going to be more expensive, even more so if you cram advanced tech into them. Smaller = higher price for the same power, it has always worked this way. And the level of graphics the Switch is able to crank out as a handheld is rather impressive.

The price becomes a problem when you stack it up next to the competition. While its rendering power makes it a decent price as a tablet, its feature-set is lacking in that department. It's size is also geared more toward a smaller tablet, and those tend to be lower-speced and priced lower accordingly. If all you care about is mobile touch-screen gaming, the Switch is not priced competitively, and any consumer of that nature is going to be spoiled for choice with low-priced alternatives like the Amazon Fire.

If you stack it up next to home consoles, that is also a comparison that doesn't benefit the Switch and its price. It is clearly less technically capable than either the PS4 or the Xbox One (S). And in the current environment, both of those consoles are being sold for the same price, and usually bundled together with a variety of game choices. Moreover, PS4 is the current industry leader, with an extremely solid install base, a constantly expanding library, fantastic 3rd party support, and a solid stable of exclusive 1st-party developers and titles. That's entrenched competition that hasn't been making any major or risky mistakes. And their flagship product is priced identically, comes with a game, has had its first hardware revision, and even has an optional premium model if you are so inclined. An uphill battle indeed. If you aren't interested in taking your console gaming on the go, either competitors' console represents a more appropriate choice with considerably less risk.

If you look at the price in a vacuum, it makes perfect sense. If you look at it while also taking the current state of the industry into account, it becomes a much harder sell. It is true that Nintendo has their work cut out for them.

[s0]

Switch is gonna be the same thing as as the past 4 nintendo consoles: good for people who are satisfied playing only nintendo games, safe to ignore for everyone else.

[s0]

Here's a crazy idea: nintender could abandon the mass market with consoles (but keep their mobile games around) and make "boutique" gaming systems for a narrow consumer base. attempts at doing this so far have admittedly crashed and burned, but those were kickstarter trash. nintendo has the quality of games and dedicated fanbase to pull it off.

[gimymblert]

OR
The siwtch is basically a smartphone in architecture, they can just stop making game for it and put it (not port) onto high device at no cost. Then they will sell peripherial only to make them compatible (ie home/vr dock repurpose to take any high end smartphone).

[SolarLune]

make "boutique" gaming systems for a narrow consumer base.

What's a boutique gaming system?

OR
The siwtch is basically a smartphone in architecture, they can just stop making game for it and put it (not port) onto high device at no cost. Then they will sell peripherial only to make them compatible (ie home/vr dock repurpose to take any high end smartphone).

I'm not sure what you're saying here - could you clarify what you mean?

[gimymblert]

THe switch has teh same hardware that smartphone, therefore it can be replaced by equivalent smartphone in the future (ie game can be put on them with almost no heavy porting). Which mean they can leverage their ecosystem to phase the switch directly.

[s0]

make "boutique" gaming systems for a narrow consumer base.

What's a boutique gaming system?

designed for a specialized audience

[ProgramGamer]

That also implies a somewhat inflated price, and a certain level of elitism among consumers.

[s0]

yes, but

1. nintendo stuff already appeals to a specific audience that is different from the standard AAA gaming audience. and their fanbase is extremely dedicated.

2. nintendo consoles since the n64 (the wii was a fluke) have had maybe 10 actually worthwhile games per console, all of which were nintendo games.

3. nintendo games focus on high polish and craftsmanship and a specific design philosophy.

4. nintendo is a "pure" game company and is small compared to SCE and microsoft's xbox divison, both of which are part of huge international media/tech corporations.

abandoning the mass market would allow them to scale their production more dynamically with demand and focus on what they're good at ratherthan trying to appeal to people who don't care about them.

not sure if the idea is realistic at all (probably not lol), just throwing it out there

[gimymblert]

And they are overprice anyway, in the sense there is never price drop ever, unlike most game after 2 month

[s0]

yes exactly

[Superb Joe]

let's push nintendo over after school and steal his rucksack

[_glitch]

Let's do so! I'll call my bros, then we will beat tha shiet out of him!!1!1

[SolarLune]

@sil - Hmm, I dunno. I still don't know what you mean by "boutique gaming consoles" - I thought you were talking about installations at first, like arcade machines or something. I don't see how "a boutique console designed for a specialized audience" is any different from your current point (that Nintendo consoles are only for Nintendo fans - a specialized audience, not the gaming public).

As for the selection of games, any Wii U fan would probably tell you there's a solid amount of games that weren't Nintendo-only that were really great games for the system. The GC had solid third-party support, as I recall.

The thing about the Switch is that even games that are available elsewhere have an additional allure because they can be taken with you and only need to be purchased once. Even well-played games can be repurchased because of this.

@gimy - Still not quite sure what you mean. I probably wouldn't care if they were to, say, take an existing smartphone, wipe it, modify the case to hold their peripherals, package it, and just use the device to load and run their own OS and marketplace and stuff. But there's not much point to that.

I'm pretty sure everyone doesn't care much about the underlying tech, as long as it's not just an ordinary Android smartphone with a controller stuck on with a Nintendo bootloader or something. It wouldn't make much sense for Nintendo to permanently give up a consistent console platform to fight for the top spot and deal with low pricing schemes and bad reviews on a mobile platform like Android or iOS.

@Richard - Your points are valid, for sure. I think Nintendo's going about this the right way by spacing out the launch window, though, to ensure there's always something to look forward to in terms of game releases.

[gimymblert]

Think of the smartphone like the TV, conceptually it would be the same, they aren't fighting against app like they aren't fighting against HBO or CBS with a regular console. It's a perception things, they could divert attention from the smart phone to their peripheral, just like the console is a tv peripheral.

Anyway nintendo always had followed the money, they left the arcade for console game during the console crash, it didn't make sense back then either. Ultimately they have completely phase out arcade, just like they did toys, love hotel, and card games, console could be next as soon as they find their footing.

Also, retrospectively, they are truly ninja master, that QOL smokebomb during the height of the wii u storm was genius.

[gimymblert]

You’ve mentioned the 3DS there. Will you continue to support the dedicated handheld given Switch could potentially replace it?

Certainly I think 3DS from a price perspective is quite a bit lower, and it’s a system we’ve released a very large library for. So I think from that perspective it’s a very good system for kids to have as their first system. We still see a lot of potential for 3DS in that area. And with that in mind we’re thinking of games to release for 3DS not just in 2017, but in 2018 as well. And the hope there also is that kids playing on 3DS will also shift over to Switch at some point in the future.

Koizumi: "Soon you will a lot more (Switch) announcements from third-party partners."
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1343404

[gimymblert]

Apparently there was a leak, seems to be real and confirmed, but old data (might contain obsolete or revised data):

This is from July 15th IIRC.

EDIT: here it is, July 15th, so this isn't the final devkit, makes some sense with some of the features too like disabled SD card slot... It tells us a lot of new stuff, but not the final configuration.

No this leak is from july. eurogamer leak is more recent than that, but I'd have to read it again to give you an exact time frame. foxconn leak is from september and cites building finalized hardware. it also contains predictions (now details) on the console that were never discussed by various leakers and wouldn't be confirmed until the switch presentation in january

http://dystify.com/Overview/contents/Pages/Page_124923644.html

   
Four ARM Cortex-A57 cores, maximum 2 GHz
L2 cache, 2 MB
64-bit ARMv8
Crypto extension enabled

1 core reserved for app

   
NVIDIA second-generation Maxwell architecture
256 CUDA cores, maximum 1 GHz
1024 FLOPS/cycle
Texture: 16 pixels/cycle
Fill: 14.4 pixels/cycle

   
Capacity of 4 GB
Bandwidth: 25.6 GB/s
VRAM: shared

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1343614

[gimymblert]

Switch Can't Output Video via USB-C; Nintendo Comments on GameCube Virtual Console Possibility

[Smerik]

Switch Can't Output Video via USB-C; Nintendo Comments on GameCube Virtual Console Possibility

But this is not a limitation of USB-C right with its 40 Gbps transfer rate. Also there is peripherals: