Nintendo NX / Switch Discussion

[eastman23]

https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/788900063833493504

Preview Trailer goes live at 7 am Pacific / 10 am Eastern. Sounds like it will be a short video though, so probably not a lot of details.

Several people and outlets were suggesting about an hour before the Nintendo tweet that some NX news will be released tomorrow but they were not sure what form it will take (ie. press release, Nintendo Direct, etc). This is in advance of an investors meeting next week which would be the latest that they could announce anything. We'll probably get more details then.

At this point, all we know is that Nintendo said they would talk about the NX sometime this fall, and that it is planned for a March 2017 release.

 

[Kelthaz]

Oh, thank god! I thought this day would never come. Only 11 more hours to go!

 

[SPCTRE]

 

[SPCTRE]

 

[SPCTRE]

 

[eastman23]

Called the Nintendo Switch, still targeted for March 2017.

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[Robert Maxwell]

Wow.

This looks like what the Wii U should have been.

And was that Skyrim?? Fuck it, sign me up now.

So it's basically a new portable that comes with a TV dock. Uses cards, rather than optical media. Looks like a focus on local MP, which I am down with.

Unless it costs an insane amount of money I'm all but guaranteed to buy one. I would've bought a Wii U if it had been this.

 

[eastman23]

And was that Skyrim?? Fuck it, sign me up now.

I think it was. At the end of the trailer, there's a trademark line for Bethesda.

So it's basically a new portable that comes with a TV dock. Uses cards, rather than optical media. Looks like a focus on local MP, which I am down with.

I think there still might be a disc slot on the base station. It kinda looked like there was a vertical slot behind the tablet screen in the first segment when the guy was playing Zelda.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I bet the disc slot is for Wii U compatibility. Makes sense--don't want to throw out that library. It does make me wonder if it has some kind of online streaming feature, though. If I'm in a coffee shop with wi-fi, can I play a Wii U game that's loaded in my Switch dock at home, streaming it over the Internet? That would be pretty badass, but I'm well aware that game streaming is still a bit wonky.

 

[eastman23]

Could be, although I wonder how they would handle the 2nd screen where it's required for some games like Splatoon. They did show an enhanced version of Splatoon at the end and were not using the 2nd screen at all.

The card slot on the portable unit also looks fairly close to the DS/3DS card slot size as well, so maybe some compatibility there too?

In the end, it looked great. And the first segment of showing the guy going from playing Zelda on the TV to on the handheld almost instantly was exactly what they needed to show to get their concept across.

 

[eastman23]

Games shown in the trailer:
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (which we knew was coming to the NX... erm... Switch)
Skyrim (looked like it and there was a Bethesda trademark at the end)
NBA game
Splatoon (enhanced version, had some features not currently in Wii U version)
Mario Kart 8 (enhanced version, had some features not currently in Wii U version)
New 3D Mario game

 

[Robert Maxwell]

DS/3DS compatibility is an even bigger issue--those have dual screens, as well! How do you put that on a one-screen slate?

It's possible they'll just end up having Wii U ports, although it would suck if you have to rebuy your Wii U games (not for me, since I don't have any).

Their list of third-party developers is impressive, including:

• Activision
• Atlus
• Bethesda
• Capcom
• Codemasters
• EA
• FROM (does this mean Dark Souls? )
• Konami
• Level 5
• Sega
• Spike Chunsoft
• Square Enix (rumors of FF7 port: go!)
• Take-Two
• Telltale Games
• Ubisoft

Not a bad list at all. Looks like they rounded up a lot of support this time that they lacked for the Wii U. Nintendo makes great first-party games but there's just no library without third-party participation.

 

[eastman23]

It looks like I was wrong about the disc slot on the side of the base station. In a brighter side view of the base station, it's just 2 USB ports. So they might be making a clean cut with the Wii U and 3DS.

 

[SPCTRE]

 

[SPCTRE]

 

[eastman23]

NVIDIA is providing the tech in the Switch:

https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2016/10/20/nintendo-switch/

Nintendo Switch is powered by the performance of the custom Tegra processor. The high-efficiency scalable processor includes an NVIDIA GPU based on the same architecture as the world’s top-performing GeForce gaming graphics cards.

The Nintendo Switch’s gaming experience is also supported by fully custom software, including a revamped physics engine, new libraries, advanced game tools and libraries. NVIDIA additionally created new gaming APIs to fully harness this performance. The newest API, NVN, was built specifically to bring lightweight, fast gaming to the masses.

 

[SPCTRE]

Essentially, all the rumored stuff was true.

 

[SPCTRE]

Not a bad list at all.

The list is meaningless, Wii U had nominal third party support as well. There was a slew of initial third party releases by EA, Ubi, Activision that a ton of people don't even know about. Doesn't mean it will be the same story this time around, I'm just saying that list itself doesn't mean anything.

 

[eastman23]

Yeah, EA was all about the "unprecedented partnership" with Nintendo that resulted in... an unsupported port of Mass Effect 3 released the same week as the entire trilogy on other platforms.

Ubisoft and Activision continued to support the Wii U with their more family friendly games (Just Dance and Skylanders), but that's about it.

Really good selection of indie games on the Wii U though.

 

[Aldo]

I'm sold.