Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@haigh1011: Definitely on the PS3. The 360 was relatively "normal" though in terms of price, right? 100 bucks cheaper than the PS3 if memory serves - probably about 300 bucks? I don't know, I could be wrong. But even as a poor college student I was able to afford one - I'll never forget standing in all of those 5 AM lines just to find one lol

But in this even newer age of hyper social connectivity, the NX will be damned by the masses if it doesn't sell like hot cakes right out of the gates, we can be sure of that. And like it or not, bad social media/gaming site word of mouth is going to poison a huge chunk of your potential market.

@rallydefault: Are you from the states? Because In Australia they were expensive the 360 was close to $700 and the PS3 was $1000 so not many people had them.

Also is the NX was to really compete it needs to have a Blu Ray player build in

@haigh1011: Yea, I'm in the States. Pricing is very different, wow!

And definitely a yes to the Blu Ray!

@rallydefault: @haigh1011:
Yeah, the PS3 took over the 360 fairly quickly in Europe. Not as quick as it did in Japan but it was still fairly quick. It was mostly in the US where the PS3 was slow to start. And that's where a lot of the early PS3 "doom" came from. The US dominates online discussion as do stories about platforms failing.

The fact that the US dominates discussion goes a long way to explaining why people think the 3DS is immortal. The fact that doom spreads faster than balanced discussions explains why the Wii U (and 3DS, PS3 etc) were "doomed" from the start.

NX is now rumoured to be doomed. We'll go from announced to be doomed, pre-ordered to be doomed to launched to be doomed.

I'm a day 1 doomed guy.

@skywake: Yep. See, in the US, the PS3 had an ugly, ugly reputation online. If you were to believe social media, you'd think only about 10 systems were sold total in its first two years or so.

In reality the 360 did dominate over here during the first half of last generation. Like, seriously dominated. But the PS3 bounced back at the end.

Since Wii U is said to be ceasing production by the end of the year that should confirm NX for a holiday launch. Can't see any reason why Nintendo would wait any longer.

@cookiex: pretty much. And I think it probably rules out a portable. It's either a home console or hybrid.

Well, it's been nice knowing you Nintendo.

Guess I'll have to switch to Sony now

The "I'm not believing any of this until Nintendo officially confirm it" Comments will be coming soon

Yup, if this rumour is accurate then there are only two reasonable conclusions. Either the NX is replacing the Wii U within the next year or something else is and Nintendo is releasing that AND the NX within the year. Either way this will be the last year where Nintendo talks about new Wii U games.

@skywake: FINALLY, someone with sense.

Would making it a hybrid console be cost effective?

The theory is that if you have one platform you don't have to make games twice. Currently every console generation Nintendo makes two Mario Karts, two Smash Bros, two Marios ect, ect. When they put resources into a game like Splatoon on the home console they're taking resources away from games for their portable system. Basically the entire "hybrid console" theory is a solution to that problem.

The thing it ignores are the hardware realities. If Nintendo were to make a new home console it'd likely be x86 based and at around the spec of the PS4 or XBOne. At the very least it'd be somewhere between the Wii U and XBOne. It could potentially be PPC based if they think backwards compatibility is more important than third party support. For a portable they would not go down that road. A portable would almost certainly be ARM based. It would likely have a spec that's somewhere between the Wii and 360.

Those two "most ideal" specs do not line up at all. Cramming a home console spec into a portable wouldn't work. You'd have a very bulky system that would run out of power in a few minutes. On the other side putting a portable system to run as a home console? It'd be a significant downgrade from what the Wii U can do.

@skywake: What I can see happening will be the NX will a hybrid, it will be have a gamepad similar to the Wii U but not a chunky and it will slot to play games that can be used to make it a handheld but when you are home you can play console games on it like the gamepad or you can play the handheld games on your tv. This is what i hope for

There are still problems with that though. In particular, that has no implications for gameplay. So just like with the Wii U, Nintendo will be bundling an expensive peripheral with a system for features that mainly offer convenience.

I suppose if they are sold separately, that could work, but that's not really a hybrid as much as compatibility between independent devices. Nintendo could do the same thing if they managed to get the 3DS to work as a Gamepad-like device.

@iKhan: I can see what your saying, but if I bought a Wii U and my gamepad played 3DS games and I could play them on the go I would have been pretty stoked with that

@skywake: What you say makes sense but I still cannot see Nintendo making a hybrid. I think they view hand held and home as too separate markets. I think they will make both still. I think they will share an eco system and maybe have features that are cross compatable, but I think if you want to play a game on the go and on a couch then I cannot see anything else than having to but a copy of the game for both systems. If you wanted to play Smash Bros on Wii U and 3DS it would cost about £80. I just cannot see Nintendo putting their profits in the console to regain the £40 they lose from a lost form sale. Add to that the many games that this will apply to! I may be wrong and Nintendo are totally reorganising their business structure (and that is possible with a new president)...but hybrid sounds too good to be true and also sounds rather under powered in the home!

Well ok but I'm saying that the idea of a hybrid won't work. You should read the other 2/3rds of my post

More games like Smash Bros for Wii U / 3DS are a likely solution. Mario Kart 9 for example will be available on both the home console and the handheld. Sure, it's not a straight port and it isn't something that could be ported within a week or two, but it is more cost effective than developing an entire new game from scratch.