Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Therad
It would only be sub par to the tech heads I think. Most people who buy tablets just buy for a name or after seeing a demo unit working in a shop and like the picture. The specs mean nothing as it's getting far to complicated to work out what's what these days so it's about functionality and ease of use for a very good percentage of buyers.

This is why I can see it entering that market as a new product. People trust Nintendo and I'm sure a dent can be made.

Another example, say if a son or daughter or adult gamer plays 3DS, at the moment they will probably (not in all cases) have access to a separate Tablet to watch TV shows.
Now if Nintendo bring this out and say "well here you go, here's a tablet AND our new gaming machines in one, it has killer content, great apps and a good screen" it will clearly be an obvious choice, as the Nintendo gamer wants the new machine and now they can sell their old tablet for cash and buy games for NX 🖒

So my thinking is we won't hear anything about the NX until after Color Splash/Star Rush drops on the 7th October. I think with the 3DS direct at the beginning of September that it was clear that Nintendo wanted to try and give one last push with sales on the system before moving over to the NX. After those drop the rest of the games are basically Wii U ports (of which have been heavily rumoured to also become NX ports too) or Pokemon (which again has been heavily rumoured to have an NX version and if not, will still sell well on the 3DS because y'know... its Pokemon).

So my guess is that Nintendo will be ready to talk about the system a little time after the 7th October. Whether that is immediately after to get in an announcement before PSVR drops, or waiting after that til the end of October is another question.

But the problem is that it won't have "killer content, great apps and a good screen" over other tablets. There is no way for Nintendo to be able to gain a foothold in that market. A big problem for Nintendo are the lock-in effect. People have bought countless of apps on their current favorite platform, why give them up for a new tablet from another vendor? If Nintendo can't compete in the console space it wouldn't be wise to try and compete in the smartphone/tablet space.

I am also quite sure tablets have seen their peak, better phones with bigger screens have made them much less compelling to buy.

My sub-par comment are for those that are interested in a home console and have a Wii U. If you are not interested in having a portable gaming machine, you want to use NX in your home, right? What would it offer to those people? For me, it seems more like a downgrade, since it won't have a gamepad as it is rumoured, so things like mario maker becomes clunkier to use. And why should I pay a premium for a battery and a screen I am not interested in using? It seems rather wasteful, both for my wallet and for the environment. For me to want to buy it, it needs a more compelling sell argument.

@dtjive They should reveal it sometimes before black friday. And I don't think Nintendo should try and play around the PSVR, a new console launch beats an addon 99 times out of a 100.

It depends on how you measure it I guess. Though I think you're giving too much credit to the Gamecube there. You need to take into account the download only titles. I'm not saying they're as big as a full AAA retail release but not all releases pre-Wii were big games. These are things you need to consider.

As an example you could say that DL titles don't count and portable games don't count. Then try to argue that only 200 games had been made this console generation. Therefore the NX will have far less than the 660 games that were on the Gamecube. Or you could go to the other extreme. Add up all the DL titles, all the portable games and give them all the same weight. Then say that the NX will be Nintendo "back at their peak", churn the Wii-era numbers and come up with 4000 games for NX. Both are probably wrong.

I'd argue it's somewhere in the middle. I'd give portable games a weighting of 50% and download only titles the same. I'd then plot the numbers for the last 5 generations of Nintendo consoles. Take the 1st and 3rd quartile. And then argue that if the NX is a unified platform it'll probably have somewhere between 30% and 100% more games than the Gamecube had. Compared to the Wii U which had ~25% less than the Gamecube by the same metric.

@Therad

I think the screen element is important as even on the WII U people really liked the off screen play (as long as you are not taking the game pad very far) so this really does answer that problem AND....
Gives a better image (720p on a 6 inch is fine)
Gives true portability
And much better content. (As promised by nintendo)

Surely these are factors

Agreed. I think the question is whether they will be satisfied with just plugging those games until the release date to hope for as many pre-orders as possible, or whether they'll let them continue on for another week or two for hopefully some positive reviews to help push additional sales.

Personally, I am thinking that a reveal in the last two weeks of October is more likely than any other two-week period at this point. Nintendo wait for a week/maybe longer after the release of Color Splash/Star Rush and then they give the big news of an NX direct reveal.

Well, 720p or 1080p on a 49" or a 55" screen is better... And off-tv play isn't a sell argument for most people.
True portability means nothing if you are not interested in portability.
What kind of content? And better for who?

But this isn't really what the argument was about, it was about Nintendo marketing it as a tablet killer. And they really shouldn't do that. My guess is that their best bet is to market it as a secondary console. If you are trying to swim away from a red ocean (consoles), you shouldn't swim towards a black one (smart devices).

In terms of Nintendo Published games this will be the biggest Nintendo console ever.

I am 2 of those owners... and they have both been replaced by smartphones and/or tablets. Almost, I am a sucker for Ace Attorney. One of them I bought because I was travelling at the time, and didn't want my phone battery to be drained. The other one I apparently bought to have somewhere to collect dust, since my daughters have had almost no interest in it.

60M might sound impressive, but don't forget that DS/PSP sold a combined 170M units. While this gen has a combined sales of 70M. I wouldn't be surprised if the handheld market shrinks even more this gen. I can say for a fact that they get at least one less sale this gen, maybe two.

Look, all I am arguing is that they should aim to be a secondary console, because that is their best bet as it stands. Trying to compete with smart devices would be a foolish move.

ive given up on a 2016 reveal.

If the detachable controllers idea is true, then perhaps Nintendo could allow you to combine them with your own tablet and use your tablet as a Gamepad like Microsoft did with SmartGlass. That might work out better for them because then they don't have to sell a competitor to people that are already entrenched in mobile.

@MarcelRguez
Not that it means that much though. Basically what happened is that after the success of the Wii and DS Nintendo invested a lot of that money. They brought Monolith, they got closer to studios like Level 5 and Platinum Games. They've also got games they've developed in partnership with other studios like Atlus and Namco Bandai. So they're publishing far more games than they did in the early 2000s.

They're also developing more content.... but it's a bit of both....

So Thursday is when fall officially begins. I'm thinking we get an announcement on Monday/Tuesday of next week, with a reveal during the first week of October.

@IceClimbers I'm thinking Nintendo have totally forgot that they're supposed to reveal the system and are busy congratulating themselves on a job well done.

I'm thinking they've been experimenting with Iwata's sleep sensor and have all fallen into an eternal slumber.

I am holding on to the thinnest of hopes that that Link archer amiibo listing was the first in an upcoming run of NX news releases.

It's probably been out for 3 months knowing Nintendos marketing team

Re: NX only having two shoulder buttons (and no trigger buttons).

Can anyone who played the BotW demo confirm whether the Wii U version used the ZR and ZL trigger buttons? Or did it only use R and L (or vice versa)?

@dtjive The game uses both the L/R and ZL/ZR buttons.

One thing I always found Nintendo systems to have is great controller ergonomics.

To be honest, if this thing is as portable as it's rumoured to be, I'm kinda thinking they might sacrifice some of that Nintendo comfort along the way.

Perhaps, if it is a portable system with a dock, the remote controller will make up for it.

Well the remote controller is just the controls of the portable de-attached from the system...