Nintendo seem to have learned their lesson from the announcement of the WiiU. Where that announcement was a bloated, feature filled exercise in justifying its own existence, and the Console suffered from a confusing brand name that didn’t help.
The Switch looks different. The Switch is Different.
This is a games console. Definitely. It has one main feature and selling point. No 3d, no VR, no super processor. This is a hybrid games console. It’s a portable handheld and a main home console in one. You stop playing on the sofa, then take it with you. It is different, but immediately understandable.
Moreover than that, the Switch, formerly the NX, is for playing games. All the games. You’ve got the already confirmed Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You’ve got a new Mario game in the vein of Galaxy or 64. You have the hint that the WiiU titles will be getting ports, including Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon. Most importantly of all, you have Skyrim and NBA2k17
An Elder Scrolls Game is going to be on a Nintendo console. And sure, Skyrim is hardly the newest title (though I suspect that this is the imminent Remastered Version) but this is confirmation that, at least to start the console cycle, Nintendo has third party support. And third party support for games that are appearing on the other two Home Consoles.
The device itself then. I’m going to talk about it like a transformer here. We have the portable form. A screen taking up the entire middle portion of the tablet, same as a phone. Then two detachable controllers on either side are Joycons. These have control sticks and separated DPad and face buttons. This is important as the sections mirror each other, and allow each “Joycon” to function as a standalone controller, for portable multi-player games.
Headphone Jack on the top of the main device, and a flip out stand means that the handheld unit is its own screen for games. But how will you be playing games on this unit?
Through cartridges. This is actually clever play on Nintendo’s part here. A disc drive is loud, heavy and potentially breakable in many ways. Plus discs get scratched and don’t travel well for using in handheld devices.
Flash memory cartridges will fit in a pocket, have better load times and should have very little risk of getting damaged.
Nintendo making a choice that marries function with nostalgia.
Seemingly, there will be Local multiplayer functionality between two or more portable consoles but this is probably something to be apprehensive about until we get more data. Same thing with internet access in portable form.
We have the home console form. The joycons can be left on or detach from the machine and fit onto a holding cradle. (Which will presumably be charging them) The screen portion slides into a holding dock, which seems to boost processing power just a little.
From there, the system becomes a standard console hooked up to a TV. You can play with a full controller that seems very similar to the WiiU Pro controller. This just looks like a conventional system.
In the device, Nvidia have confirmed they’re supplying their Tegra Chips, so this console is running on top of the line hardware for portable devices. (The decision not to use AMD tools further distinguishes this system from the PS4 and Xbone)
No word yet on the Battery Life of any of the devices, or price. We should be getting more info soon, including technical specifications.
In terms of things that this system suggests, we may be seeing a merge of the handheld and home console markets for Nintendo in games development. If the third party support turns out as planned (I don’t hold out firm hope) then this will allow for the system to have a real USP.
By March 2017, we should know a whole lot more.