[News] Nintendo Switch

I might just get a Nintendo Switch sometime next year, which I generally prefer Sony's consoles, but this will be a good addition to the side of my ps4(and ps4 pro) and my x1.

If this marks the end of the 3ds, I'll be disappointed.

ordinaryOddball said:

Not to mention the attitude you take toward enforcing your opinions on others. You said that just because you don't like it, your friends and family aren't allowed to play it either.

Again, I don't mean to turn nasty, but I think it's justified to be disgusted with views like those. That was simply my reaction to how you chose to express yourself. Your free speech is yours to wield, but what you don't get to choose is how people react to you.

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On the gimmicks of other consoles: I feel that my bringing up the consistency with constantly redesigning controllers

I never stated as such, and I've already explained the console purchasing situation. Even though my brother spilled water on his PS4, I doubt he'll be purchasing another console any time soon. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean I can make a great case against it, effectively preventing others I know personally from purchasing said product, but again, I already explained before that it is much a moot point anyway. I'm not forcing my opinion upon you or anyone else in this forum and I feel that's enough to voice and validate my concerns.

It's true, I don't get to control what you say or to whom, and never expected as much. In my opinion, I simply find it... alarming perhaps? That you feel strongly enough to place me in some sort of shaming corner without first asking me why I feel the way I do or how I would prevent my friends and family from purchasing it concerns me more so. I've already explained my reasoning behind it.

I've given you the examples, and showed that I'm not going to wring the necks of my friends or family if they show interest in it. There is no cause for concern in those areas as I've stated before, the only person even remotely likely to purchase the system already has said that the switch is "Gay ass shit" - Steven so there is no more need to bring up my friends or family as it serves no purpose. He's stated he's fine with his X-Box One and is not willing to give Nintendo the time of day and is not affected by your concern.

There is no need to constantly flip the topic back upon me even after I've explained myself multiple times. My family and friends are under no threat of violence in any way or form should they choose to show interest. I would extremely advise against it, show reasons why they shouldn't purchase one (namely bring up their own failed purchases) and that would be that. But once again it's a moot point because XB0XFanN300o0 is the most likely candidate to purchase one whether you approve of that scenario or not.

Utilizing my friends as a tool to justify your behavior is something I now take issue with. Again, they are under no threat, and ultimately not your concern. You do not know them, and are more than likely not going to know if one of my family members is hit by a truck unless I acknowledge that fact. They do not need to be defended, least of all from me. This is a console, and at first I was upset at the gimmick, than acknowledged my failing to explain in my initial post, and expressing my concern. Now I am genuinely irritated to note that someone is utilizing the aspect of my family and friends against me to authorize the use of belittling and antagonistic behaviour.

I don't find the use of furthering this non-issue by consistently bringing it up. There is no longer any reason or cause for concern on this end as previously stated twice, albeit the first response was a tad jestful. I would have assumed that

"...and will gladly thank you for looking out for my peasan- I mean loyal sub- no, no, no I mean my slav- family. I meant to say family, not slaves."

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came off as comedic, but I suppose I was mistaken. Once again, the family is under no duress and BoX-B0i will not be purchasing the Switch console.

I sincerely apologize for any slurs or hardship you have suffered due to the previous post, and hope that the back and forth ends here. There is no need for it and we probably wind up looking no better than Beavis and Butthead to everyone else here. I'll be Butthead if you want to be Beavis, but I honestly think both leave a lot to be desired mentally and are equally poor choices anyway *shrug* nothing else needs to be said, I've apologized and explained my position.

On the Switch topic, I feel that the lack of details regarding the memory space, pricing, and battery life a little concerning. I don't know how long the lifespan of tablet is but I think it might become a huge yay or nay for a lot of people. I also feel that Nintendo is limping way behind of everyone else on cross-console games. In one of their trailers for the Switch, the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim can be seen being played on the system. Skyrim is already five years old and most people, I assume, that have heard of the game has already played the game. Further more, is Skyrim itself going to be Remastered on the Nintendo Switch? It hasn't been confirmed yet, which leads me to believe that there's a potential possibility that it will not be remastered, but simply it's Vanilla original that was released back in Fall of '11.

I'm not sure if it makes sense to showcase a game, and not confirm whether or not if it's going to be released with the console. With the upcoming releases of the X-Box One slim and the PS4 slim, consumers on the fence may or may not choose depending on what is available for the console. The only reason why they wouldn't announce it now is either due to legalities or the possibility that it isn't what PS4 and X-Box One users will be receiving later this month, which would also place the Switch in a lower processing capacity category. It's just a hypothesis.

I don't know the specs, I don't know the capabilities, I don't know a whole lot and I don't think that if I do know the specifications that it would change my mind. I doubt that the durability of the machine matches that of the other consoles on the market, with the portable aspect of the system potentially destroying a huge chunk of its lifespan just due to the fact that it has the capability to move frequently depending on your preference. The controller looks cheap to me. How much are replacement parts going to cost if one side breaks? How sturdy is the tablet? I won't know until it comes out and it probably won't even matter to me. I'll just wait and see if what I think is true about the console, but that doesn't mean I'll have to like it or buy it.

Of course, none of this means I hope the rest of you have a terrible time with the console if you do purchase it, far from it. I like to see quality and hate cheap products and manufacturing processes. If you have fun with it, great, but I won't be praising it from what I've seen already. Playing console games on the go isn't what I buy a console for. I think it's a stupid gimmick just like the portable screens of yore for the PS2 and X-Box.

Oh my lord... Nintento.... just take my money! This is amazing!

Just going to leave this here...



Now that, was a Wii U gamepad concept back in the early days of the development of the current game pad. Does that look a little bit similar to something....hmm.....

Having seen the promotional video via the Nintendo eShop, and some of the other details, the Switch does seem a bit of a "third pillar", even though everybody's saying it's going to be the Wii U successor. On the surface, it looks to me the Switch is being positioned to compete with gaming laptops and tablets, given the places shown in said video, with the capability of connecting the new "console" to your TV much like the Wii U and all of its predecessors (which I'll call the Famicom series).

I do sometimes wonder if eventually, both the Famicom console series and the handheld series that started with the Game Boy will be completely supplanted by the Switch (with the aforementioned existing two product lines being "consolidated" into the Switch) at some point.

Of course, some will be coming out and saying "Nintendo blew it yet again" (like they did with the Wii U).

As for no backwards compatibility, people seem to forget that the earlier entries in the Famicom series weren't forward or backward compatible (from the first NES all the way until the GameCube. It wasn't until the original Wii that backwards compatibility arrived for Nintendo's console series.)

JDJacket said:

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You know what? I thought of something, while away from the computer. I think I might just be able to shift your perspective a bit!

Now, hear me out here. I promise not to be combative.

Alright, so your main concern was that Nintendo is over-innovating and leaning too heavily on all kinds of gimmicks, if I'm understanding you correctly. Is that about right?

So, let's go through these, one by one.
The 3DS's gimmicks:
1. Stereoscopic 3D.
2. Dual screens.
3. Touch screen.*
The Wii and Wii U's gimmicks:
4. Motion control.
5. Remote-shaped controllers?
6. Dual screens, again, in the form of the Gamepad.
7. Touch screen, again.*

*I'm not sure if the touch screen counts as a gimmick since everyone's doing it. Literally everyone, from your phone to your tablet to other consoles, and it's taken to come standard in the modern age. Like car windows that you don't have to roll up.

Now let's run down the list and see which gimmicks the Switch has.

1. Nope!
2. The screen on the portable is never lit while the TV is lit, in the footage. It's either-or, not both at once like the Gamepad. So, no.
3. We didn't see a stylus, or anyone touching the screen with their finger. Besides, when you're playing on the TV, you're not even playing with a screen within reach -- the little portable screen is in its charging station and not lit. So, no, my running theory is that it's not a touch screen. It would be weird if the game has to deal with being a touch screen while portable and NOT a touch screen while a home console.
4. We don't know yet. It wasn't showed off in the footage, at least. If there's motion control, it would only be a gyro like the Gamepad had, not something huge like the Wiimotes.
5. They look similar when you pop out the Joy-Cons (or Switch Blades, as the internet has nicknamed them. I hope that catches on.), but nah.

Also, if you don't like the controller in general, that's fine, they're selling another controller that's shaped like a more standard model from X-Bone or whichever~

But yeah, my point is that there's no gimmicks in the Nintendo Switch. It's a rather straightforward gaming console. The only "gimmick" is convenience.

Convenience in: the ability to pause your game, take it to portable, and play it on the bus, the same game. Or vice versa.
Convenience in: the ability to pop out those Joy-Cons, give one to a friend, and play multiplayer on a ridiculous miniature controller! :P Could be handy if you didn't plan for this and you didn't bring a spare, or just don't have the cash to buy both the system and an extra.

If there are any gimmicks I failed to address (besides Amiibo, but that's not a new thing and I don't consider it tangentially related to the Switch), let me know!
I hope that helped you see the Switch in a different light.

Otter Mii-kun said:

As for no backwards compatibility, people seem to forget that the earlier entries in the Famicom series weren't forward or backward compatible (from the first NES all the way until the GameCube. It wasn't until the original Wii that backwards compatibility arrived for Nintendo's console series.)

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I can understand from a certain perspective what you're talking about, however, the NES, SNES, Nintendo 64 and the Game Cube all used a different media base. The older cartridges were incompatible with the newer consoles at the time. The reason why it's always a big issue is that Sony began the backwards compatibility trend for consoles with the PS2 being able to play Playstation games. To further cement this is the fact that Sony released an 80gb PS3 fully capable of playing Playstation and Playstation 2 games. With the main base of most games being disc, it becomes a more difficult position to dig yourself out of in terms of using discs. PCs have been able to play Disks and if you find an FDD you probably could boot up Wolfenstein 3D or Doom '93 (which came on four or five floppy disks) today on windows 7, 8 or 10 depending on your coding capabilities. Not being able to play older games on a newer console bugs people. To some, they view it as another item that they are required to keep.

Even though the Switch has no 3D (that I'm aware of thus far), motion control (it may or may not, as Sony's Dualshock 4 is motion capable), 'dual screens' (which has only legitimately been seen in their hand-held systems for well over a decade), touch screen (I would put money on them including it, as Sony again has shown that the Dualshock 4 is touch capable), I still do not find it appealing in the least.

Even if the Switch doesn't have the same controller as the WiiU it means absolutely nothing solely going off of Nintendo's track record with the things, so I find the "controller isn't the same" argument for the console to be the antithesis of what irritates me about the thing.

I think two screens is more fitting to label the Switch's capability, even though, technically, the Switch itself only has one screen albeit an integrated one. Everything about it puts me off. It has more than one piece required to utilize the console from what I have seen, as opposed to two for both the PS4 and the X-Box One being the console itself and a gaming controller for each respective console. The Switch has at least five pieces required for it's use!

A) The controller is made up of three parts on its own.

B) The Docking station, or charging station for the tablet is its own piece.

X) The portable tablet, as I have seen so far requires two additional pieces from the controller to remain operable.

Y) This fact, in regards to each individual piece, exponentially increases the risk of damage to any one component to the console. The tablet, no doubt, will be dropped once or twice by the vast majority of owners that opt to go portable with the Switch.

L) The Controller for the Switch being comprised of three separate pieces does not assuage the fear that the controller's components can become disconnected, damaged or lost rendering half, if not all of the controller inoperable. This means, and if the market price for new controllers is anything to go by, that the replacement of a lost or damaged controller in such a way could potentially result in a net loss of a $60 piece of hardware. This is unacceptable.

R) I previously brought up concern for the tablet itself. I do not yet have any confirmation over how integral the tablet is to the Switch console itself. If the tablet is damaged, lost or cracked will the Switch remain operable? How much will the resulting cost be for a new tablet or a replacement?

Select) The Price. I do not know the price and I doubt I'll be surprised. They blundered with their $249 3DS and apologized by dolling out free digital games. Sony came out with a much superior handheld and everyone lost their mind at the Vita's price. Nintendo, when the price was announced for their WiiU was hideously priced at $349, which brings me to my next issue.

Start) The memory capability of the console. Currently, Nintendo offers their WiiU console for a $299.99 buy in price. This purchase nets you a whopping memory size of 32gb. To put this in perspective, my phone has 32gb worth of space and my Playstation Vita has 64gb worth of space. Sony and X-Box One curb stomp the hell out of Nintendo's memory stores with their buy in price placed at the same bar, $299.99, and offering 500gb for the same exact price.

D-Pad) In this day and age where such things are possible [memory wise), all Nintendo has left at the end of the day are excuses, not results. If the WiiU is any indication of the memory capabilities of the Switch, many consumers will not be pleased at the disadvantage a small memory capacity offers them. Many will be rudely awoken to realize that the showcased title, Skyrim Remastered (if it even is the remastered version) will take an estimated 20gb for PS4 users (33gb in Europe) 17gb for X-Box One users (25gb for Europe). If there is any way that Nintendo's console does not meet or break the 500gb memory limit I hypothesize that they will not see an increase in sales until later in the year near the holiday season.

Otter Mii-kun said:

The Switch does seem a bit of a "third pillar", even though everybody's saying it's going to be the Wii U successor.

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That may be it right now, but the response to the console will finally decide that. The DS was supposed to be a third pillar but it was so successful that the Gameboy had to be discontinued. The WiiU has failed commercially. If the Switch is a success I see no reason for Nintendo to make a WiiU successor.

As a wise puppet (yes, puppet) put it,

Each generation, Nintendo fans have had to dish out the cash for two separate systems. At this point, selling one single Nintendo system that's got EVERY game on it, is genius. Buy this, and play your Zelda, and your Pokémon, and your Mario, and your big graphical epics, and your mobile-type time wasters, and EVERYthing. That is a HECK of a selling point. There were so many people who thought the Wii U had some cool games, but not quite enough of them to justify a purchase. But now the Switch could potentially have TWICE the games and thus TWICE the value any other Nintendo console has ever had.

Being able to take it with you IS its THING. All the changeable controller bits are definitely unique, but those are just there to let you play it in different situations, and they're really just pieces of plastic that shouldn't cost as much as something like the Gamepad. The Switch's THING, as it were, is really just PLAYING games. And that is EXACTLY what everyone has been begging for! Most people don't want two screens or motion controls or whatever. They just want GAMES that you PLAY. The Switch is different enough to be exciting, but is still focused mainly on just a regular old gaming experience.

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And more talky-bits that may interest you in

They moved to discs in the mid 90s because a CD back then (actually, ever since CDs were created) had much more storage capacity than any cartridge. Now we're at a situation where cartridges can store more, and need a smaller space, and run faster (this has always been the case). The only reason everyone is still using optical dics is because they are so much cheaper to manufacture.

Team Fail said:

The reason why cartridges are probably of choice are for a few reasons:

1. They're smaller, so it's more portable (And with the handheld nature of the device, portability is key, plus my next point makes this even more important)
2. Less moving parts (So you can use it in your hands without having to risk damage to the media)
3. The capacities are higher than even a Blu-Ray disc (With the SDXC standard, you can go well past 64GB, Blu-Ray discs can only store a max of 50GB on a given side if dual-layered) which the Wii U made use of, albeit in a modified fashion
4. Cartridges are harder to damage and cannot be scratched and rendered useless
5. Read/Write times are faster - no having to wait for the system to access the part of the disc that it needs to load from. It's just like having a solid-state drive in a computer - it finds and loads content faster than having to get its location on a disc, go to it, then read it (And possibly re-read in the event of a read error). This will increase the speed of the console and decrease load times.

I'm not sure what it is in terms of production cost for cartridges vs discs (Although I really should go and investigate that), but I'm sure that there's a lower cost for at least one of them, but I'm not sure which it is.

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If the specs you described actually happen to describe the Switch's cartridges' specs, then I guess I'm comin' around. My main concerns are pricing (micro SDs are expensive enough, so this might not be cheap-ish) and cleaning dirty cartridges; my copy of Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition is so filthy, it might damage my N3DS, so damaging the Switch is just as eyebrow-raising.

Full details are coming on January 12th! Who's excited?

I'm expecting, at the very least, a price and up to three launch titles.

EvilChameleon said:

I'm expecting, at the very least, a price and up to three launch titles.

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Price is confirmed, as for launch titles, I think we'll see a few more then those. I wouldn't expect more then maybe 7 though. Depends on the ports and actually new titles. We'll probably get close to half a year of lineups though. It should be pretty big.

I'd roll the dice and say $350 just like their last console. I am beginning to have doubts about the Switch's compatibility with TES:V. Could they be waiting for secured modification deals like X-Box and Sony? I'm not going to hold my breath for a $299 asking price, and if there was any interest for me to get the thing, if it was more than $299 it would become an instantaneous deal breaker.