Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@G0dlike Seeing how the Switch is pretty much sold out everywhere, maybe they thought they don't need to show more to begin with. In a way, it doesn't even matter if there's no VC at launch for example, people were apparently perfectly fine with pre-ordering the system without knowing whether it was going to be there at launch.

@Maxz Hey Maxz ! Yeah bizarre right !, Saw the username Maxz and as soon as I read the post I knew it was you

Yes! got my switch preordered with a copy of Zelda as soon as I could. I'm a sucker for any Nintendo console launch but this one feels especially exciting. It's got a high stakes, plucky underdog fighting back kind of feel to it.
Not to mention those classic Nintendo lifestyle adverts in which a bunch of 20 something year old art students immaculately dressed in Urban Outfitters have magic middle of the night basketball parties and occasionally play videogames.
Love it!

Ahh, I'm so jealous you got to try it , especially Splatoon 2! An 8-0 KD?! Were your opponents lost pensioners? ...
It's great to hear the console feels as slick and well made as it looks in photos. My one issue is the lack of a d-pad although I totally understand why it isn't there. It kind of makes the pro controller an essential purchase which was never the case with the Wii-U but I'll get over it

It's interesting you didn't get on with ARMS, its had a somewhat mixed reaction but I really like the look of it although I of course haven't tried it yet. Might be worth having another go sometime, I'm sure it won't do you any 'arm.... Waheyyyyy

Food for thought, the 3ds was/is Nintendo's most pre-ordered console yet it still had a slow start which needed a hard price cut and big titles to turn it around.

@jump I came across the leak, and it's not old rubbish lol, it's about the retail Switch, but they also listed some dev kit specs. Yes, apparently the image files are old, but that makes them even more believable (how else could they have predicted all of this?). It's pretty interesting, though I agree that the final number may change, but several devs have already stepped in and confirmed this. However it isn't specified whether they confirmed everything, or just part of the leak. Regardless;

The dev kits are pretty bulky. It also confirms the Ethernet port from the Foxconn leak. It's missing from the retail unit though. Two versions of dev kits confirmd, SDEV are the bulky Switch units with the ports and the EDEV are the black retail-like Switch units we've seen in some pictures already. In case anyone's doubting its validity, images of dev kits in action have confirmed some of the menus that were leaked by this leak.

Some interesting tidbits;

• Confirms the Maxwell-based architecture for their SoC based on the Tegra X1.
• Apparently developers can make use of a web applet, despite the lack of browser at launch (also means you can connect to Wi-Fi without using a browser).
• Developers are able to create season passes for Switch games (not sure if this was possible on the Wii U).
• Game cards come in 1GB, up to 32GB (expected 64, but 32 should be able to run most games, could be a bottleneck for some games though).
• You can register up to eight users on a Switch.
• Friend requests and game invites possible through the Switch itself (you don't need the app for this).
• Matchmaking features allows you to create communities for future use.
• Cloud saving is confirmed as well, although it's called Data Store.

@Octane Other info:

-It is possible to log in on more than one Switch.
-eShop funds carry over

Neato for the cloud saving.
Season passes arent anything new, I think I remember reading about a kerfuffle when season passes for I think batman on wii u were refunded since the DLC was cancelled for the console. But maybe I'm misremembering

Hallelujah about the friend requests and game invites being done through the Switch itself as well as the app.

Cloud saves are a huge win.

As far as I can tell, cloud saves are only possible if you're subscribed to their online service. That's expected, but I just wanted to point that out.

@Operative2-0 I think the issue was how Nintendo treated DLC on the Wii U. I recall someone saying that DLC was counted as a new game and publishers had to pay royalty fees over DLC as well, hence why most publishers didn't even bother with DLC for the Wii U versions to begin with. Although I can't find a source on this one.

In related news, pre-orders are starting to sell out in Australia now. BigW closed all pre-orders last week, EBGames are now only accepting pre-orders for the Grey SKU. I have a feeling the Switch is going to be pretty hard to get your hands on in the first month or so. Unless you have a pre-order.

See in the UK, they are still widely available, which isn't surprising considering us brits enjoy nothing more adventurous than a game of FIFA or shooting some filthy 'remain' voters in an online death match.

However, and I'm aware the point was raised to say, hey we don't need to tell you anything about this console, you'll buy 2 anyway, but the debate I was trying to get started was, is it all so underwhelming that they're simply not going to show anything? Was it rushed out to simply make a shed ton of hard cash before the fiscal year ends, as opposed to releasing it in the fall or even holiday season, when it would have been ready?
Have I used to many commas in this comment, as well as some really questionable punctuation?

@G0dlike I doubt Nintendo would have wanted the Switch to be delayed until the holiday season. Firstly it would mean going up against Microsoft and whatever Scorpio ends up being, secondly what would Nintendo do for revenue for an additional 10 months? Zelda would need to be delayed to accommodate the Switch launch which would anger more people and likely get lost in a sea of blockbuster games (which it could still do looking at March), and Mario Odyssey would be when? Late 2018?

@G0dlike
If it's selling well at launch then clearly the timing was right. They have Zelda and they have Mario Kart and Splatoon lined up soon after. The software is there enough for a launch at the start of the year. It's also worth remembering all the rants on forums like this where people said them dragging out the reveal was a mistake. Not having "NX" at E3 for example. But clearly Nintendo know what they are doing given how well things have turned out for them.

@G0dlike
Nintendo hosted a Wii U Direct 11 days before the launch of the Wii U. It was roughly 35 minutes long and was focused on highlighting the system's features. It's not too late for Nintendo to host a similar direct for the Switch. We're actually one week early by Nintendo standards.

I wonder why the UK still has lots of Switch units available for pre-order. Is it because -

1) The UK was assigned a higher number of units
2) Nobody in the UK wants a Switch, so there are loads left
3) People are expecting just to walk into a shop and grab one rather than pre-order
4) People want a Switch, but are not pre-ordering/waiting for some reason (eg price/games etc.)
5) Retailers are under-estimating how many units they will receive

Seems odd that the rest of the world has run dry, yet the UK (apparently) still has truckloads.

Not if the trucks get stolen.

EB didn't ring me like they did you, but I went in and paid off some of my preorder and they asked if I was picking it up that weekend. Had to say twice that I was taking the day off to get it. "Two weeks" preorder hold guarantee my foot.

6. Nintendo UK lost the internal memo of how to make a successful launch, fake shortages and sell them on ebay.

My guess is that in part it's due to Brexit.

I mean pre-Brexit this thing would be £249 and we'd all be talking about how "that's a decent price for what it is. I guess it would be nice to have a game bundled in though". At £279 it's "wow that's pretty steep given you get no game and you can get much more powerful consoles for cheaper". I know the price is only £30 different, but the image of being above/below £250 was important for this console imo.

And I think the cost of it in the UK is going to limit this machine to only being bought strong Nintendo fans. I mean even though I've got one pre-ordered even I am looking at this thing going "it doesn't represent great value". In fact, I've had friends ask me about it and my answer for them has generally been "I think it's great and it's going to have a great supply of games, but wait until October/November when it'll probably have a little price drop/include a pack-in game as its a bit pricey at the moment unless you're a real diehard Zelda fan".

For what it's worth, I think the Switch will do fine. I think it'll have a decent amount of early adopters but nothing major, and then if Nintendo do the price cut/bundle move in the fall it'll continue to sell well. If they don't then we'll enter a Wii U 2.0 situation where the sales plummet after the opening months.

You might be onto something...

Also worth mentioning that it has been pretty difficult to guarantee a Switch in the UK on launch day until recently.

Amazon sold out soon after the initial announcement, which is why I ended up ordering from the Nintendo UK store. Then there was a period where Amazon were selling the console, but with the caveat that they had sold through their allocated stock and couldn't guarantee a launch day release. And now they seem to be selling them as they were after announcement, with the launch day guarantee.

So it's not like they've been sitting around collecting dust in the Amazon warehouse. Stock allocation has seemingly come in waves.