I disagree with this on principle. It may not be the most marketable strategy, but the games industry is always in need of shaking up; competing on the industry’s own terms means submitting to an endless crawl of incremental advances in technology and exploitation. Doing things with “unclear” potential is much more noble, even if it is still entirely in the name of profit.
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Looks pretty cool. I don’t know how successful they’ll be or if this really will be Nintendo’s “last console” but I like that they’re still trying something kind of different compared to Sony or Microsoft, even if for them it’s just the logical end point of where the company has been heading for a while now.
Very interested in the pricing on this.
The Wii doesn’t work on the terms of the industry as of 2006, but it exists to fill a natural communication bottleneck in human interaction with videogames. In doing so, in theory it expands the level of dialogue that people have with the system, allowing games on the system to be relevant to an audience in a way they never were before.
It didn’t quite work out as well as that, but as you say the potential was the important thing.
This doesn’t do that. It’s not solving a problem; it’s creating problems, with no clearly defined objective. Doing things just because they’re cool tends not to be the most constructive mode of design…
i dunno the ability to lug around something that’s smaller than a console that i can still easily play with friends is pretty andvantageous
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The thing that worries me about Nintendo positioning it primarily as a home system is whether or not you can charge this thing any other way than the docking station. If I can’t take this thing on a trip, then it’s not really living up to the promise of the hybrid device, and in that respect, it’s only a mild improvement on the Wii U game pad.
I think they’ve established an objective; it’s clear from the marketing material that the intended selling point of the Switch is that people come together in real life to play video games. This once was not a strange thing, but we’re now in an era of ubiquitous online multiplayer, voice chat, Twitch streaming, social media sharing, etc., and many games and game consoles actively impede local multiplayer through demanding passworded accounts. Looking at other systems’ advertising, it is consistent in featuring lone people in dedicated video gaming rooms who are generally slipping into fantasy and connecting to other people only via mediated personas. I think Nintendo is quite intentionally reacting to that.
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I am into the cute little baby 2 player controller mode. That is the kind of hyper-toy thing I can get behind.
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Think im starting to genuinely admire Nintendo’s insistence on bizarre gimmicks for their hardware. It certainly helps them stand out next to the other guys. This is probably the best one yet and i think its a sick idea, but more than ever its gonna really depend on the games to sell it (in every sense of the term)
kind of appreciate how this is obviously a result of Nintendo looking at their overwhelming handheld:console success ratio and going “fuckit, let’s just do both” too
i wanted to say this is silly because the system is already going to have a Zelda that’s aping Skyrim on it, but it’s honestly a canny decision if you consider how many people will get instantly hyped at SKYRIM ON THE GO OMG.
i wonder if it will be at all “remastered” (considering Skyrim is whoa, 5 years old now) or just a hilariously shitty port on the level of an XBOX->PS2 downgrade.
Looking at this as a handheld system that I can dock, nothing about the modular design strikes me as clunky or intimidating except that optional shell used to house the detachable controllers.
At first glance, this doesn’t seem any worse than a tablet with a detachable keyboard or the original Wii, which had waggle wands, nun-chucks, and a sensor bar to worry about.
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Personally I’ve been increasingly obsessed with ergonomics and portability in my gaming so this is right up my alley. I can’t be sitting hunched all day working at a computer and then also slouched in front of a TV or PC in my spare time, everywhere from my eyes to my mid back hurts after a week of that. Also I find I often have the most free time to game while traveling – in planes or hotel rooms with bad wifi. So I favor portables, but that leaves me with sometimes lackluster iOS/Vita/3DS game options. So I’ll definitely be appreciating this. Not sure how representative I am exactly, but I guess I’m at least one of the target audiences here.
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I also find this appealing because I like to play games in very short bursts (5 minutes or less in most cases) and so this is right up my alley. It’s not so much about the portability to take it on a bus, but to take it to the office or the kitchen or the bedroom. and just play 15 minutes of Mario.
That said I ain’t buying it new just like I didn’t buy the Wii U new
I’m cheap folks
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My random theory with nothing to back it up:
Nintendo as of now will not comment if the switch has a touchscreen. I take that to mean that it won’t as there is no reason to not comment on it if it does. The only reason for the thing to not have a touch screen is to protect the 3DS from obsolescence. This would mean that Nintendo would still be split along handheld/console lines, which feels dumb but also exactly like what Nintendo would do.
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oh god you’re probably right
everything has a touchscreen now that would be incredibly stupid
my fucking refrigerator has a touch screen (no it doesn’t but some do)
my left foot has a touch screen (it makes me giggle)
When they teased the original DS they did a weird thing where they first announced there would be two screens, then months later announced one of them would be a stylus screen. It was pretty confusing. For all I know they’re doing the same thing now. It might be because they want to appeal to gamerz in this initial announcement (judging by the absurd splatoon esports fantasy).
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They make phone games now.
If this thing has a touch screen how will you touch it when it’s docked?
This thing just makes me want a WiiU a little.
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Switch x Hitch?
That was also my optimistic takeaway. When was the last time a system shipped with two controllers? One thing Nintendo has done well with the Wii U is to develop software that looks and feels modern yet can be played with controllers not much more complex than what the NES had. I think they’re banking on a market for those types of games in the only hardware niche that still makes any sense for them.
If nothing else, they’re addressing the steep barrier to entry that marred past handhelds for me by making it cheaper and easier for people to join in. Hanging out with a friend? Hand her the other controller. Two more friends show up? OK, let’s plug this thing in.
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too tired to try and make a clever obfuscated reference to Sega CD/PS2 weirdventure Panic!, which was called Switch in Japan, and all the literally monumental destruction/poopocalyptic disasters it featured when things went wrong
so there it is, raw
wonder if Minecraft is coming to this thing
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