Nvidia CEO Hails Nintendo Switch As "A Home Run", Is Open To Working On Other Consoles

Cue the grumbling about it not being an X2...

Supposedly they scrapped this year's update to the Nvidia Shield line so they could focus on helping the Switch be all it could be.

Seems to have paid off for them!

Sounds like Nvidia might do business with Sony or Microsoft on their consoles, but the money better be good.

I suspect Switch will prove the hybrid hypothesis, and then other companies will move into the zone. Whether it's phone manufacturers or console maunfacturers, I doubt Nintendo will have the hybrid market to itself for too long.

Give me a mobile phone with detachable joy-cons, and the ability to run Nintendo/Steam/Playstation/Xbox games properly and I'll be there. I don't need 4k or even 1080p visuals. There's 30 years worth of games out there, most of which I've never played, that could run on a device like the Switch. Who's going to make this happen for me?

Which is why I think Nintendo need to be careful about pricing strategies on Switch. At the minute things seem a bit too high and it's leaving the door open for someone else to come in and undercut them. Being there first is great, but it won't count for much in the long run if Nintendo keeps its reputation for expensiveness, too kiddy-friendly, no western AAAs, too slow on the VC etc.

Either way, it should work out for Nvidia quite nicely.

@gcunit I'm not so sure. I think the Switch works because it's Nintendo, with their history, library of games, etc... There's been other devices with similar features, not the least of which was the nVidia Shield Tablet. Tablets have been able to connect to TVs for sometime. There's also been semi-gaming phones, such as the Sony Xperia Play. I'm not saying Nintendo will never be challenged, but I don't think that Hybrid gaming is the new big thing that everyone will be looking to do. Don't get me wrong, I love my Switch, and it's probably my favorite system since the SNES, I just don't see many other manufacturers attempting to challenge Nintendo here. Especially given other companies past track record of challenging Nintendo on the portable front.

@WiltonRoots I do still think that's a valid point. Obviously not a deal breaker to me, but have a little extra power would have been great for the switch.

@Mart1ndo The Nomad and PSP were handhelds that connected to the television. The Switch is pretty obviously more that.

@roadrunner343 I think the main reason that other manufacturers might not venture into the market is because it comes at the cost of performance and will also cut into the profits of their non-portable console.

@roadrunner343 A 'semi-gaming phone' is not a gaming phone though, is it? Look at the Xperia Play - it just doesn't compare with the Switch.

@roboshort Perhaps that's part of the reason, but I don't think that's the main reason. You just mentioned the Sony, who definitely has a large console market - but they launched the PSP and the Vita. The PSP was successful, but the Vita got stomped into the ground by Nintendo. If dominant gaming companies companies like Sony and Sega didn't stand a chance, I don't see many other companies willing to take the risk.

@gcunit Of course it's not the same as the Switch. That's why the Switch is successful and the Play wasn't =) I'm just saying, the idea has been around for some time, and it never took off, and I think that's because of Nintendo's unique spin and their gaming library. The Xperia Play also launched 6 years ago, so it shouldn't compare favorably to the Switch. I guess I could have also mentioned the nGage, but that's better off forgotten XD

Who knows, we'll have to wait and see. I'd say Nintendo is fairly safe, and we won't see any true competitors for the next several years. I think we'll likely see new hardware taking some influence from the switch, but nothing to compete with it directly. Should be interesting either way.

@gcunit I think it's an obviously very attractive market (I suspect the data on usage for the Switch and the game buying patterns of Switch owners will make it even more attractive than we think) but there are a few major challenges to anyone who wants to challenge Nintendo.

For a start they'll have the same problems that Nintendo has faced and will face - at the very front of that queue being that the big Western publishers don't want to create "downgraded" versions of their AAA games.

Beyond that they'll face a few big challenges that Nintendo hasn't had to face. Principally a well resourced competitor who has already established a strong install base and with a format can offer exclusives that you will never be able to match (i.e. Nintendo themselves are already in the market).

For Sony and Microsoft there are other technological and marketing obstacles. They could be overcome - a Sony PS4 Portable could work - and there are ways that other competitors can eat away at the edges but there are no obvious easy routes to creating something that matches the Switch on a level platform.

I honestly think that building and marketing a premium (i.e. not "freemium") ecosystem around a hybrid device will be very tricky for anyone else other than Nintendo.

If NVidia branches out to Microsoft or Sony, or goes on their own, more power to them. They did a great job with the Switch. It may not be the full powerhouse that people hoped it would be, but it still manages to do the job it sets out to do.

We may see an upgraded Switch in the future and that's fine with me. I'm enjoying it as-is for now and I'll look into upgrading if/when the next one comes along.

@gcunit I think a major part of the appeal of the Switch is the on-the-go local multiplayer aspect . And when you think of local multiplayer games what games come to mind? Mainly Nintendo games for me and my generation, cos this is where they excel. I don't see companies jumping into the hybrid market too soon as they don't have that brand of all inclusive multiplayer games that suits the market. Density, COD, Halo etc belong on the big screen played on a device marketed as the most powerful beast of its time. A hybrid can never be marketed as that.

@gcunit
Being Kiddie image for Nintendo is a Good thing.
That's show the Nintendo machine is appeal for kids and all peoples.

@roadrunner343 The Switch is relatively safe. But I'm talking longer term.

@StuTwo For the sake of my point (ignoring how realistic it is for the time being): Gabe Newell (Mr. Valve) is ex-Microsoft and obviously well connected. What if Xbox and Valve teamed up to make a hybrid, or even Valve just go alone and do it? Sure - it won't run the latest AAA Steam games, but it would probably run everything more than 18 months old, and many new games that aren't as demanding. A project with that kind of stature could take off.

I own more than 200 Steam games that I barely play cos they're stuck on my PC, and I have 200 more on my wishlist. If Valve sell a decent hybrid, maybe incorporating the Steam controller tech that the likes of @JaxonH think so highly of, then I'm there.

Sounds great and all. But what CEO would ever come out and bash his company' own product. If the switch sells well Nvidia and it's CEO makes more money. This is no surprise statement.

They praised a product that they helped make and stands to earn them money? Well I'll be.

@gcunit That's fair. And for your Microsoft/Valve team up (Or even just Valve) I'd love a portable like that. I'd still own my switch, but I'd love to have all my PC indies on a portable, if nothing else. Personally, I hope there are more products like the switch, even if they aren't super successful.

I don't see Sony or Microsoft in hybrid gaming any time soon. If anything, I see Nvidia as the best opponent of Ninty for this generation and they don't seem to have ambition to create systems. If anything, I think Ninty should make some type of exclusive contract with Nvidia moving forward to avoid Sony and Microsoft getting support. It isn't like Nintendo will regret Nvidia working on their next handheld or Switch 2. 😝

I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony with a new portable at E3 that also hooks up to a TV.
Anyone remember when the Wii was such a success that Sony slapped together the PS Move in time for next E3? Not a great product, but supposedly imitation is the best sign of flattery?

@gcunit It could, of course, but dedicated Steam machines have been a tough sell and will likely continue to be so. Plus a device that might or might not run a newly released game? Or might run it but not very well... It's the reason why PC gaming is great but will always have a limited audience.

Part of the marketing success of the Switch so far is that the messaging is very simple and very clear. I don't see Microsoft being in a position to do that any time soon - if nothing else it would clash with the message they're putting across with Scoprio "XBox One is the best place to play 3rd party games at the highest resolutions".

It's not impossible to imagine at all but, as I said earlier, I think there are significant marketing and technological challenges there for any would be direct competitors.

@Alikan
PS3 Moves = Blah... blah... blah...
Looks like a Glowing Deodorant stick.
Ew.... even Joy Cons or Wii mote looks Sleek and Beautiful.
Kinect = Looks like Advanced Eye Toy, not a Copycat Wii mote.

@Alikan But in a year when Microsoft is going to aggressively re-position XBox as the gaming brand with the most raw power isn't it a risk for a company like Sony to start fiddling around with a (by necessity) weaker set of hardware under the Playstation brand?

Plus - for Sony specifically - if they release a hybrid that can be played on the TV then how do they position it against the PS4? It'd have to be the weaker of two systems with poorer quality games in which case it will struggle against the Switch's singular focus on providing the best that Nintendo possibly can. If they took it the other way and made a dedicated handheld then it will lack features that the Switch has.

I don't think it's impossible - I think there are routes to success there (particularly for Sony) - but there are major obstacles.

@StuTwo
The Real Though Rival of All , despite of Hyper Steroids specs video games that Sony / Microsoft offers is actually Mobile games.

That's the real problem. Most smartphone owners are Casual. Casuals don't need Ultra OMG HD graphics . As long HD enough, cheap (or actually FREE), easy to play & bring, they will choose Mobile games & forget all those bulky things.

But luckily, there are so many peoples still dedicated to real video games no matter what. And I think Nintendo is try to attract Mobile / Casual gamers to love Nintendo Switch more than mobile games. Switch is possibly will be their alternative choices.

@StuTwo I never said it'd be a smart move for Sony. When has that ever stopped them before? They will try to compete with a slapped together POS like they always do.

@Anti-Matter I agree on the move. As far as kinect goes: even though its "different", it would never have come into existence without the wiimote/sensor bar being the success it was.

@Mart1ndo Do you know what the term handheld means?

@Pod they scrapped it this year so they could release the X2 in their tablet NEXT year

As a 35 year old gamer who has been playing since I had an Atari 2600 at 4...the switch is everything I wanted from a video game console. And it had prob one of the best games ever(botw) and more great games just keep on coming out. I'm up to 9 since launch so far. I wonder what a year will bring?

Lol, Switch may outsell the iPad going forward. Just some food for thought.

To some of you here who said Nintendo may not hold the hybrid market for long and Sony or Microsoft might play the same chess again (copycats), you don't even need to think about it. Many reasons for this have been given by the other posters and I would just like to add one more simple reason. It's not Sony's or Microsoft's fault that they won't do that.

If they ever come out something like this hybrid, their specs would be so gimped until their entire fanboy clubs would have splatted enough saliva to drown them into those slimy nonsense. Do take note of current n past years of technology (or in fact the next 10 years too in human tech unless you have access to alien tech, read the research papers in nano tech) that battery limitations n small form component factors always have to contribute to heat issues so in order to pump those specs especially for dedicated gaming to match the next gen specs (like Scorpio), it's like asking the engineers to die better.

Real life limitations, that's always a fact. Do note you are still living in the human world. If there's a breakthrough, it won't be coming from the gaming world first. It would come from the research world then followed by military, etc etc.

The most important fact is recall vividly how many hoooo posters who say Switch's specs are like poop? They are still there. It's on the internet. Finding these dudes are as easy as taking a dump. So for Sony or Microsoft to come out with a humanly possible dedicated gaming hybrid like Nintendo, oh man, you are just asking these dudes to eat their own words n take the next ship (space ones) n leave earth. No, this is not a joke.

I think, and honestly hope, that this spurs a move to the hybrid market in general for gaming. It just makes so much sense and is the logical direction for gaming to go. And I think Nintendo is proving that. Give me a Vita that's really a PS4? Yes please!

I think it might spur a flood of copycat devices that try to outdo Switch but fail. Building a piece of hardware that checks off certain marketing features is something any company can do. Samsung, Apple, nVidia itself, LG, logs of generic Chinese knock-off companies. But building one that just works cleanly as intended takes some experience. More importantly, if a company like Samsung or LG or even nVidia gets into it, they're going to run into problems with games. They're going to line themselves up with mobile developers and make it a very different, less practical setup for gaming. Going all in on the big publishers and stuff takes a bit of industry inside muscle, and that's hard to break into. Had Sega not flamed out MS would have had possibly an impossible time entering the market. Gaming is weird. There's big money there, but many companies have tried and few have succeeded. And as this statement from nVidia suggests, there's enormous opportunity cost involved, and that cost rarely looks good on balance sheets in an industry that shows little historical success for upstart competition.

I think "from the outside" Apple is the only meaningful real competition. Not nVidia itself as it has a lucrative deal letting Nintendo worry about software and still making money on it. But Apple makes its money on content. They could easily decide to challenge Nintendo and leverage themselves as a brand/platform holder. And they have their own Pipin gaming history. But they already have mobile revenues cornered...do they need to add the hassle and cost of the less profitable console space? And could they sell an iPad based console with built in or removeable controllers at a price that would compete with Nintendo?

I can't imagine anyone but Apple moving into this space from outside the business. I can easily see Sony as the obvious direct competition. They're the only other active handheld producer and most direct competitor. I'm not sure after the failure of Vita and the success of PS4 if they'd want to risk the kind of expense required to try, and even if they did I'm not convinced they'd handle the platform properly as they push PS4, PS5 etc, once again. But I can see them maybe trying.

Mostly I can see Microsoft giving it a go. Spencer said they're watching Switch, they're not ready to lauch a "bespoke portable device" yet, but they're watching. Considering XBox loses big money, is failing massively next to Playstation, and Microsoft's hardware direction has moved heavily mobile with the Surface line, they might be willing to take that risk for Xbox both to save the brand AND to integrate it better with their Surface strategy. But I also can't see them using Tegra. They're heavily focused on Wintel x86 mobile platforms. I see them doing something with Intel there if they did it. And given their empahsis on power, I see them doing an 8-10" device that's bigger and heavier than Switch, more in line with Surface, and I see it being a significantly expensive "premium" product, as the whole Surface line is.

@gcunit spot-on comment. Hopefully it's just Nintendo reaping the early adopters atm, cuz the Switch is gonna need to go lower to continue to be viable going forward.

@StuTwo You bring up good points. Regarding Microsoft, they're not in a good position. Today their position is the best place to play multiplats at the highest resolution.....other than a Windows PC. That's going to be a tough sell, particularly at rumored price points. Launching Scorpio, and launching it now, and more importantly still tethering it to X1, feels like an emergency strategy. Right now they have a machine that's not the best place to play multiplats and they have almost no exclusives. They had to do SOMETHING, so trying to be the most powerful place to play multiplats was it. But they're not only competing against sony's publishing stature with that, they're also competing against their own Windows & platform promotion division for PC. I understand why they're giving it a try, and I'm not sure they had any other direction to go, but I'm not convinced it will meat with resounding success, or even meaningful interest. Then they'll have a new super powerful platfrom that's just a pretty X1 that they can't sell as a new platform, when Sony starts moving on PS5. XBox Two won't be able to offer much more than Scorpio at the price point and timing they'll have to announce it. That leaves them in a weird position. If switch succeeds and Scorpio doesn't move many units they're going to have to do some re-evaluation in terms of their direction. MS being all about internal synergies these days, a move to an XBox Surface concept wouldn't be an illogical step for them and removes them from the sony competition they blundered.

Sony would have a harder time bringing out a portable. They're "safe" in their PS4/PS5 business, and they're not a company in a position to be taking big risks. They need to keep playing it safe as long as that safety looks assured. They could try to put out a product next to PS4/5 that they intentionally hamstring like they did Vita.....but then it's not meaningful competition. They positively can't upset the PS applecart no matter what they do. The company depends on it.

Big tech would get it wrong. Apple still remains a genuine threat were they do put their hat in the ring. If they did they'd probably irreparably damage the gaming market as a whole. But it's still a big question mark if there's enough profit to be made there for them to try. It's an industry that has a lot of expenses, and Apple has streamlined as a pure profit engine.

Sony will be the first copy cat i just know.

@gcunit Valve doesn't have the finances for mobile tech development alone. That takes MASSIVE investment on a scale they could only dream of. I could see XBox and Valve teaming up (assuming Microsoft doesn't just shut down XBox,. They've toyed with it for ages, and investors have not stopped demanding plugging the cash leak, to the point they've bundled their reporting of numbers with other products just to hide how bad it is.) Despite that Windows Store and Steam are effectively competitors, that won't work with XBoxs' weak position. But it would still be a very different product. if they wanted games to run without having to get special builds from each and every publisher/studio in that catalog (which wouldn't happen), it would have to be legit x86. That means more power, more cooling, more weight, and would overall be a larger, bulkier, heavier machine with greater power demands. You can't just put Steam on Tegra and let the library play. They may at some point do that, but I think it would more or less be its own market still. It would have to be like a Surface Pro but Intel onboard video might not be up to the standard of a dedicated PC gaming box yet. It could ONLY play old games. It could be like a Surface Pro but with discrete graphics...but that's basically a Surface Book. And that STARTS at $1500.

Well.. I can see Sony borrowing this idea set up before Microsoft attempts to. Even one of the major Sony executive was all up in that Switch reveal in February snapping photo shots of all angles. And on top of that Sony throws out a patent sketch/mockup/prototype to offset the consumers with the idea that they were working on something similar.

Man, can Nintendo just keep something that's exclusive to them?
Rayman Legends then, Nvidia support now.

Obviously Maybe I'm just reading too much into this, but the parallels are frightening at best.

They did an amazing job with the Switch. Though not a huge powerhouse, it is close to Xbox One graphics and makes things easier for third parties which is always good.

@The-Chosen-one yeah and just like the playstation, analog sticks and motion control, they will do it better too.

@SomeWriter13 hopefully it won't be called something like switch u

@gatorboi352 they didn't do it better with motion control that's for sure lol

@roadrunner343 I'm sure they had their reasons, obviously with more power there's issues like battery life and keeping the heat down in the unit, viability costwise etc... I'm sure as the tech improves and component costs come down such upgrades along the line might happen.

@WiltonRoots I'm sure they did. Though, my guess is it all came down to timing. If I remember right (Been a while since I read about it), X2 is also quite a bit more efficient. So we likely could have had much better performance or battery life, depending on what they prioritized. I would have been happy with either one.

@roadrunner343 I'd be happy just to get hold of one at the moment, new phone, new laptop, trips abroad all seem to have taken priority...ah well!

@gcunit
STEAM gaming is actually already available via handheld with GPD Win. It's not ideal, and alot of games don't run, and the analogs only work when a game has controller support, but it's good enough to be my brothers obsession for the last few years (until now with Switch).

I think the appeal of Switch is the full home console experience available in every aspect you could ask for. TV console gaming for sure, but also in handheld and tabletop. The detachable controllers are a big part of that appeal. And of course, switching between functions easily and seamlessly. Other handhelds have connected to TV, but none so easily and instantly as Switch. It may be the difference between a cable and a dock, but what a difference that makes!

Split STEAM controller would be awesome. And if it ran STEAM games competantly, even if not the new ones... I'd be all over that

Engineers for what? They just put there the same (good) chip they used for their Shield. -_-

@danielman9 nintendo was certainly more invested and dedicated in motion controls, sure. but it mostly equated to what became known as "waggle controls". RE5 on PS3 with the Move played every bit as good as RE4 on Wi. It's those kinds of experiences that amount to more than gimmicks. Although I will say I got plenty of enjoyment out of Wii Sports Resort basketball with friends.

@WiltonRoots If there's a premium version of the Nintendo Switch, don't be surprised if it contains the Tegra X2.

Considering that the Switch has effectively outsold all the Nvidia Shield tablets, handhelds, and micro-consoles combined in roughly a month, yeah, I'd say Nvidia should be very happy about this relationship with Nintendo.