Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

Reggie appeared in a dream (nightmare) last night and announced that all will be revealed next week.It was so realistic I had to check NL when I woke up.So next week it is then.

Guys get out of here if you value your sanity. You'll just end up driving yourself stir crazy otherwise.

I'm perfectly sane thank you very much. I don't come here with randoms dreams and unsupported expectations

@BiasedSonyFan
I think it's really great that the NX seems to be shaping up as a pretty smooth sale to 3DS owners. As you say, they could really market it as the "successor," and with such a large install base, it would be great to get those people on board right away.

But we did see the Wii, with an install base that was insanely large, didn't exactly transfer over to the Wii U. So Nintendo still needs to be VERY careful with its marketing message while being very aggressive and persistent in getting that message out there.

@rallydefault I don't think based on what leaks are going around, especially Eurogamer based ones, that Nintendo will market the NX as a true successor to the 3DS. It sounds like they'll try to please everyone at once. So while it'll likely please at least some of the 3DS crowd, I'm not sure as to how well the message will be put across that it's a true handheld console. And as for Nintendo being aggressive with the message - that's a big ask for a company that routinely struggles with the simplest of messages. But you said they need to be VERY careful with how they message this thing. Perhaps that's the reason they're not saying anything, because they are worried about messing it up.

As a company that tried to make the wii u an "everyone machine" by adding in a second screen in the hopes it'll match the success of their handheld line while roping in the wii's casual audience, they haven't done a good job, historically, of trying to capture both audiences at once. I hope this attempt fares better.

@FragRed @Operative
Yea ... about trying to "please everyone," as you say, @FragRed, I hope they don't try to. Please, Nintendo: Do NOT try to please everyone with the NX. Please focus on a segment of the market that you think this device can absolutely dominate in. Whether that's families or gamers or kids or whatever - it didn't work with the Wii U; it's not going to work this time.

Trying to please everyone usually equals winning no one. You have the previous generation's sales data to support that statement.

Start with a laser focus on the segment you think you can "win." Get those people first. Get a substantial base on this machine within the first half-year. And then, if things are going great and you have 3rd parties on board and lots of great games, then start reaching out to other populations. You know people like us, your fans, will buy it no matter what - it's the tens of millions of other people out there you need to convince. Don't start too broadly, or you risk diluting your message too much yet again.

The Wii U was, in my opinion, easily the best console of this gen: But that doesn't matter if you spread yourself too thin in marketing right out the gate. A bad first impression (or none) is hard to surmount.

@skywake You are looking at the year where Nintendo had the most amount of releases. If every year was 2014 for Wii U then there wouldn't have be droughts. Also, the rumored NX is going to be higher powered than the Wii U, which means more people working on fewer projects. Maybe if we look at every year each system (Wii U and 3DS) was on the market and come up with an average of the number of games Nintendo produced, we will see a different number, a more realistic number. I do wonder how many games Nintendo will be able to publish from 3rd parties when their main source of income is only the NX.

@rallydefault I think it has been pretty clear that Nintendo isn't fully counting on Mobile for income. They are using Mobile to try to bring people towards their own systems. Nintendo currently has 3 games announced for mobile and have only had 1 mobile release so far. I don't see that as Nintendo considering mobile to be a main source of income. Also, if they really are going to "throw their hat in" then that will affect NX software output negatively.

Hi, I'm back for a bit.

There's been some talk about Augmented Reality being something that's a part of the NX.
While I don't think that this exactly is something that will be incorporated into the NX, there's a very interesting AR related technology being developed by Google that would certainly provide "new ways to play". It's called the project Tango.

I'll link a couple of interesting videos about it. For those who can't watch the videos, it's a tech that utilizes motion tracking and depth perception sensors that allow the device to learn the spatial dimensions of the area you are using it in. It essentially knows the shape of your room. It can scan the area and create a 3D model of it.
This can greatly enhance Augmented Reality applications and games.

Somehow this tech feels very Nintendo-like! It couldn't be in the NX though, because it's being implemented into a lot of devices by various vendors (like Lenovo).

@BiasedSonyFan I agree the number of games a console has does not equal quality. I really like my Wii U, but software droughts do hurt a system's sales, which hurts how much software it receives. Nintendo has other things they need to get right too, but I think you miss the point of what I am saying by trying to change the subject. I was specifically talking about software release schedule, not what Nintendo needs to do to have a successful launch.

I don't think we can look at a previous generation and say they will support this generation. Just look at the Wii to the Wii U. I am a 3DS owner, and I probably won't upgrade to the NX (until a new Pokemon game is released for it, but that could be a while) So I don't think all 3DS owners are going to just run out and support the NX. I do agree that Nintendo is probably looking for better sales numbers than the 3DS, at least better software sale numbers since more teams will be working on 1 platform.

I have had two 3DSs break on me, their home console quality may be pretty high but their portables can't take much of a beating. I also am less worried about it breaking and more about losing a piece of a controller. How much will those be to replace? The GamePad was never sold separately, will these things? Lots of questions Nintendo will need to answer if these rumors turn out to be true.

@DefHalan
I'll run through the numbers later. I mean, ok. It may have been the best Wii U year for quality. But quantity? And the 3DS also?

And anyways. Do you measure performance based on the start or the peak?

RUMOR - LEAKED INFO ON NX FROM A LARGE RETAIL PARTNER

For every sensible NX rumor, there are tons of others that just don't make any sense. This one certainly seems like it's worth sharing with you guys. The info has been vetted by mods over at Reddit and they have gotten enough stuff verified to their satisfaction level to share. Take that as you will, and always keep in mind that nothing is verified until it comes straight from Nintendo.

Marketing

"Interact with your game on the go." phrase seen on a poster.
Strong co-branding effort with a Mario launch title on many posters.
Console is currently set to launch with least 4 titles on deck.
Stores should be receiving demo units around February.
Base price point seems to be sitting at $299.99

Bundle

The NX is currently set to have a bundle option.
The contents of this bundle is currently unknown.
Bundle price is currently sitting at $399.99

Packaging

The packaging for the NX will be slightly larger than the Wii U's packaging.
The packaging is relatively clean and simple and is similar to the Wii U in terms of package design.
The color scheme for the packaging is white and blue (compared to the Wii U's blue and black).
The packaging still says "NX" however there is still no indication if this is a placeholder or the final name.
The areas of the packaging that would usually depict the hardware were blurred and redacted by Nintendo in attempt to keep it hidden.

Features and Specs

Games will be on cartridges - Information from another source leads us to believe that these will be about the size of a Compact Flash cards and will be in 32GB and 64GB variants. Even though this may seem low, the system reportedly contains a dedicated processor just for decompressing the card data. Best case scenario is ~100GB compressed into a 64GB cartridge, however real world usage pegs it at closer to ~85GB on a 64GB cartridge. Level based games and games with load screens will compress better than open-world style games. Edit: This secondary source (who had not yet completed verification) has been busted.
4k streaming has been mentioned. - What this likely means is playback of content such as Netflix, etc. Not gameplay.
1080p and 60fps are being used by the marketing teams in relation to gameplay on to the console portion. I've heard unconfirmed rumblings of 900p for the infamous hybrid part of the device.

http://gonintendo.com/stories/266504-rumor-leaked-info-on-nx-...

@SLIGEACH_EIRE That rumor's BS. Don't trust anything from that subreddit; their verification methods are dubious at best.

The biggest red flags: the price, and the blue and white marketing color scheme.

They'll be using red and white in their marketing guaranteed.

@IceClimbers I think they'll use red as well for the game cases as well as packaging but we don't know. And that price seems very high, especially for a company that is going to find it hard to gain the trust of the general public.

@BiasedSonyFan Could be fake but all the sites are jumping on the story, including this one just now.

As I said I would, here's a graph of Nintendo published releases over the last five years. Including the tail end of the Wii/DS, excluding eShop only releases.

The yellow section are "duplicate" releases, games in that group are not included in the other two. They're releases that wouldn't need to exist if it was a single platform. So I've included Mario Kart 8 and the 3DS version of Smash Bros. I've also included games like Super Mario Maker 3DS, Xenoblade Chronicles 3D and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D. But games like OoT 3D and TP HD I counted as regular games.

Once again more rumours. I agree the packaging sounds fake with the colour scheme and blurred out images. I doubt Nintendo would even show packaging to anyone at this point, especially if said packaging was a rough template.

Posters I can kinda understand being shown to retailers but I question, if this person with the apparent insider knowledge is in a position at a large retailer to gain such information then they really aren't going to last long at their job. I can't see anyone high up putting their own job on the line for such a leak, it would be suicide.

@FragRed I guess the assumption is that the retailer has the NX promo material already because they will start promoting it soon.

The box art reading "NX" is a major red flag though. It's highly unlikely that NX would be the final name, since for example Siemens has NX trademarked for one of their services/products.

That rumor is fake. This was verified by Tingle, therefore I am right.

People will be disappointed as far as I can see. People would rather pray rumours of a powerhouse hybrid are true rather than wait and see what's actually in the box. I'm still convinces the handheld element is our phones and tablets. Developers may have an unmarked tablet supplied by Nintendo which may be weak enough to just run the games and a base unit (console) to run through a TV.
The NX OS is what will receive regular upgrades like IOS and Android and from now on Nintendo won't have to reveal there new base units (Console) until a few weeks before launch as it's just a means to run the OS. All this mess to begin with is because it HAD to be announced at the meeting where they announced their Mobile partnership with Dena.

That's where I'm at....