Always interesting to see what Nintendo comes up with. I'm optimistic for this one.
Hopefully they wait for the newer Tegra. I feel like the X1 would be merely adequate, but that's based on its Android performance. I am curious about their speculation that there's more performance to be had without Android as the OS.
@Gargoyle said:
Always interesting to see what Nintendo comes up with. I'm optimistic for this one.
Hopefully they wait for the newer Tegra. I feel like the X1 would be merely adequate, but that's based on its Android performance. I am curious about their speculation that there's more performance to be had without Android as the OS.
Here's the thing with waiting on a new CPU: In order to make it to market in March, they already have production underway, meaning those specs have been locked down for quite some time. They aren't waiting on a new Tegra.
I don't see myself doing any of those things depicted.
I was all excited when the U came out, about the walk-away screen, and I have used it exactly once. And then only because I could, not be cause I had a real need (I know it's not the same since the U has to stay in range of the base).
I think they're overestimating the usefulness of a device that is both console and hand-held.
Also: I think they're overestimating the coolness of bringing your own tabletop video game thingy to a rooftop party (as well as the frequency at which people get randomly invited to rooftop parties)
I think this could foretell another Nintendo console that suffers with hardware performance, leaving many developers treating it as an also-ran. There are practical limits to the power and performance that can be shoehorned into that form factor. However, this presupposes that it's positioned as a console in the same space and terms as the PS4 or XBone. Nintendo cannot afford this blunder.
The success of the Switch hinges on whether or not Nintendo can position this as a handheld that docks, rather than a console that undocks. The 3DS is a strong area for Nintendo, and if they can extend the psychological borders of that space to include the Switch, then things might turn out a little differently. Taking this approach would also allow them to sidestep the diminishing returns that modern consoles are suffering through; handhelds have lots of ground to cover in terms of graphics quality, and an A:B comparison gen over gen would look quite favorable.
But I think it's also paramount that Nintendo sell this unit as the successor to the 3DS in two SKUs: handheld only (dock sold separately), or bundled handheld+dock. I think that approach sends the right signals to consumers to prompt the perception as a 3DS successor. I expect this is what Nintendo will do, given that the 3DS has now had two compatible Pokemon games. For many years, now, Nintendo has brought two Pokemon titles to a handheld and then rolled out a new handheld generation not long after.
I'm also not ruling out the possibility that the dock could contain more powerful hardware, which is activated like a 2-in-1 PC, to enable richer graphics when docked.
@CB said:
I don't see myself doing any of those things depicted.
I was all excited when the U came out, about the walk-away screen, and I have used it exactly once. And then only because I could, not be cause I had a real need (I know it's not the same since the U has to stay in range of the base).
I think they're overestimating the usefulness of a device that is both console and hand-held.
Also: I think they're overestimating the coolness of bringing your own tabletop video game thingy to a rooftop party (as well as the frequency at which people get randomly invited to rooftop parties)
CB you should take a marketing course
Those images aren't meant to be literal. They don't literally mean "Take your Switch to a rooftop party with all your young hip friends". It's meant to convey a lifestyle and brand that they are trying to reach. They're showing the console to those people, not old curmudgeonly gamer men like us
I'm choosing to view this as the new handheld system that I can finally play through the TV if desired. The Zelda demo was enough to convince me to buy it.
I'm kind of digging where they're going with this. My primary concern would be battery life. It's not as portable as the ad makes it out to be, but the fact that it's possible is cool.
The practicality of the walk-away WiiU console is pretty limited in my experience. I start to get signal degradation warnings just on the other side of a room with clear line of sight. The fact that you can take the whole console with you completely removes that problem.
My main concern is the future of the DS. This seems to be positioning itself between the Wii and DS, but more in the DS space than I think fans would like.
It is a cool concept, I tried to get the TV connector for my PSP years back but it wasn't supported on the old hardware I had. I could definitely see using this in University when I was coming and going between school and home a lot, riding the bus, etc (not sure it would survive outdoors in Winterpeg weather though lol). To me it would be more useful to just have a cable to connect to any TV rather than a dock you leave at home. I would be tempted to take the dock traveling to use in hotel rooms, for example. The idea of like multiple people playing on basically a phablet sized screen with tiny controllers seems fairly ridiculous to me.
I do agree they're probably overestimating the usefulness of it, and I wonder at the performance although they are making some pretty amazing and compact machines these days. I'm not a huge console gamer to begin with so perhaps other people may find it more useful.
Seeing that Nintendo has what I consider the only modern successful handheld systems, I would estimate that these are going to sell like pumpkin spice lattés.
It's all going to boil down to the games though. The Wii was such a successful console because it reached people who are not hardcore gamers. I scoffed at it myself, but I had friends who never touched a Playstation buy a Wii to play bowling with their friends. The status quo was challenged to the core with the Wii and tapped a population of new players. So much so that the other brands scrambled to replicate them in motion capture. If they can replicate that same scenario and recapture the social aspect and provide rich single player content, like Zelda, I think they have a winning formula here.
It looks like a very interesting idea. But it will need a lot of polishing to make it successful.
Needing to do some stupid convoluted friend code crap to connect to local players will be terrible. With how they have advertised the trailer, they need to really work on connectivity to make this worth the while. I wonder if you can only ever have 2 player couch co-op. I don't think they showed 4 people on a single console. Sure they had 4 consoles connected, but not 4 to 1 players.
Let me offer myself as the near-ideal Nintendo anecdote:
I don't get that much play out of Wii U because it takes over the TV in a fixed spot.
I definitely am not buying the same game for both mobile and the living room.
I don't wanna commit to a mobile system because it's a tiny screen; given 1 copy, I'll take console.
I don't have the patience to readjust to different controller form factors for 1 game.
I loooooove Mario Kart 8 and Mario Bros Wii U but only play them maybe once a month because I'm not a big fan of being stuck in the living room / the TV is often taken at the time I want to play.
I am exactly the guy who wants to use the kickstand and hide in the attic to play Mario Kart. Or grab it into the pub or basement to play with friends while other people are watching a movie.
This is exactly the scenario/system that would get me to play the games I already love more and put me in a position where I'm more likely to try more games.
Bonus points for not succumbing to a touch screen or other such nonsense.
Let me offer myself as the near-ideal Nintendo anecdote:
I don't get that much play out of Wii U because it takes over the TV in a fixed spot.
I definitely am not buying the same game for both mobile and the living room.
I don't wanna commit to a mobile system because it's a tiny screen; given 1 copy, I'll take console.
I don't have the patience to readjust to different controller form factors for 1 game.
I loooooove Mario Kart 8 and Mario Bros Wii U but only play them maybe once a month because I'm not a big fan of being stuck in the living room / the TV is often taken at the time I want to play.
I am exactly the guy who wants to use the kickstand and hide in the attic to play Mario Kart. Or grab it into the pub or basement to play with friends while other people are watching a movie.
This is exactly the scenario/system that would get me to play the games I already love more and put me in a position where I'm more likely to try more games.
Bonus points for not succumbing to a touch screen or other such nonsense.
Nailed it.
@primesuspect said:
THE perfect pooping console. Sold.
The Wii U has the ability to go pooping (or to the office or pub) with you. Do you ever use it for that?
I don't know who I'm kidding, though. As soon as there is a main Zelda franchise entry, I'm gonna want one. The REAL disappointment for me with the U is that I never got a Zelda game. I just assumed that there would eventually be one, since there always has been, but I won't make that mistake again.
Let me offer myself as the near-ideal Nintendo anecdote:
I don't get that much play out of Wii U because it takes over the TV in a fixed spot.
I definitely am not buying the same game for both mobile and the living room.
I don't wanna commit to a mobile system because it's a tiny screen; given 1 copy, I'll take console.
I don't have the patience to readjust to different controller form factors for 1 game.
I loooooove Mario Kart 8 and Mario Bros Wii U but only play them maybe once a month because I'm not a big fan of being stuck in the living room / the TV is often taken at the time I want to play.
I am exactly the guy who wants to use the kickstand and hide in the attic to play Mario Kart. Or grab it into the pub or basement to play with friends while other people are watching a movie.
This is exactly the scenario/system that would get me to play the games I already love more and put me in a position where I'm more likely to try more games.
Bonus points for not succumbing to a touch screen or other such nonsense.
Nailed it.
@primesuspect said:
THE perfect pooping console. Sold.
The Wii U has the ability to go pooping (or to the office or pub) with you. Do you ever use it for that?
I don't know who I'm kidding, though. As soon as there is a main Zelda franchise entry, I'm gonna want one. The REAL disappointment for me with the U is that I never got a Zelda game. I just assumed that there would eventually be one, since there always has been, but I won't make that mistake again.
There will be one, it'll just be the same one that is coming out for the Switch.
The Wii U has the ability to go pooping (or to the office or pub) with you. Do you ever use it for that?
No, it absolutely does not, at least not in a house where the bathroom is more than 10 feet from the TV. I don't know about your experiences with the WiDi or whatever they called it, but it SUCKS. The range is bullshit.
Nintendo can't be anything other than Nintendo. They are trying to please an audience everyone else is pleasing better.
Marketing 101, if you can't hold the quality or price position in the market, you need to differentiate. Nintendo did that with the original Wii. The DS... Mobile gaming has changed so drastically, they are even planning cell phone and tablet games because that's where mobile games live now. The Wii though, the original was a huge success... why? Differentiation. It was unique in the sense that it didn't alienate the casual gamer. Hardcore gamers left... so what? You outsold everyone in that generation of hardware, and frankly, still have the only thing I'd go backwards to play, it was that different.
The switch, it's a cry to appeal to an audience that has long abandoned Nintendo, an audience they no longer appeal to, the hardcore gamer that wants dual sticks and eight buttons on their controller. If they would just go back to basics, make the Wii HD, make a ton of simple games, go back to the familiar Wii controller design buffed up a bit, it would be what the Nintendo audience actually wants instead of an ill attempt to lure in gamers that have already moved on.
The Wii U has the ability to go pooping (or to the office or pub) with you. Do you ever use it for that?
No, it absolutely does not, at least not in a house where the bathroom is more than 10 feet from the TV. I don't know about your experiences with the WiDi or whatever they called it, but it SUCKS. The range is bullshit.
This. I have line-of-sight to my WiiU for more than 20 feet in my house and I get the degraded signal warning any more than 10, 15 if I don't move around much.
Cliff what are you even talking about? Nintendo has without question the best-selling handheld consoles of all time. They've sold something like 400 million handheld systems between their Game Boy and New 3DS XL. What is this "audience" that "everybody is pleasing better"? Are you referring to the home console/couch gamer/Call Of Bro player? I'm pretty sure Nintendo is not going after that audience. Notice in their single ad for the Switch there are no Cheeto/Mt Dew/Frat scenes. The only "male 18-24" demographic shown are the e-sports team and the basketball players and they're outside... playing basketball.
You're speaking in these huge general terms as if you alone know what "the audience" wants. I'm sure Nintendo's massive global marketing research is wrong and you're right. You know what the entire global Nintendo audience is and they have it all wrong, I'm sure . I think you're taking what Cliff wants and turning it into "well, I want this so the entire gaming world does too".
On a side note I find it fascinating that for the first time, we're seeing a major video game console company include e-sports on their day one announcement video.
Comments
Always interesting to see what Nintendo comes up with. I'm optimistic for this one.
Hopefully they wait for the newer Tegra. I feel like the X1 would be merely adequate, but that's based on its Android performance. I am curious about their speculation that there's more performance to be had without Android as the OS.
Here's the thing with waiting on a new CPU: In order to make it to market in March, they already have production underway, meaning those specs have been locked down for quite some time. They aren't waiting on a new Tegra.
I am also in the boat that this is still an AMD gig and that it will delay again. Time will tell.
Nintendo Switch is coming!
I don't see myself doing any of those things depicted.
I was all excited when the U came out, about the walk-away screen, and I have used it exactly once. And then only because I could, not be cause I had a real need (I know it's not the same since the U has to stay in range of the base).
I think they're overestimating the usefulness of a device that is both console and hand-held.
Also: I think they're overestimating the coolness of bringing your own tabletop video game thingy to a rooftop party (as well as the frequency at which people get randomly invited to rooftop parties)
I think this could foretell another Nintendo console that suffers with hardware performance, leaving many developers treating it as an also-ran. There are practical limits to the power and performance that can be shoehorned into that form factor. However, this presupposes that it's positioned as a console in the same space and terms as the PS4 or XBone. Nintendo cannot afford this blunder.
The success of the Switch hinges on whether or not Nintendo can position this as a handheld that docks, rather than a console that undocks. The 3DS is a strong area for Nintendo, and if they can extend the psychological borders of that space to include the Switch, then things might turn out a little differently. Taking this approach would also allow them to sidestep the diminishing returns that modern consoles are suffering through; handhelds have lots of ground to cover in terms of graphics quality, and an A:B comparison gen over gen would look quite favorable.
But I think it's also paramount that Nintendo sell this unit as the successor to the 3DS in two SKUs: handheld only (dock sold separately), or bundled handheld+dock. I think that approach sends the right signals to consumers to prompt the perception as a 3DS successor. I expect this is what Nintendo will do, given that the 3DS has now had two compatible Pokemon games. For many years, now, Nintendo has brought two Pokemon titles to a handheld and then rolled out a new handheld generation not long after.
I'm also not ruling out the possibility that the dock could contain more powerful hardware, which is activated like a 2-in-1 PC, to enable richer graphics when docked.
CB you should take a marketing course
Those images aren't meant to be literal. They don't literally mean "Take your Switch to a rooftop party with all your young hip friends". It's meant to convey a lifestyle and brand that they are trying to reach. They're showing the console to those people, not old curmudgeonly gamer men like us
I'm choosing to view this as the new handheld system that I can finally play through the TV if desired. The Zelda demo was enough to convince me to buy it.
I'm kind of digging where they're going with this. My primary concern would be battery life. It's not as portable as the ad makes it out to be, but the fact that it's possible is cool.
The practicality of the walk-away WiiU console is pretty limited in my experience. I start to get signal degradation warnings just on the other side of a room with clear line of sight. The fact that you can take the whole console with you completely removes that problem.
My main concern is the future of the DS. This seems to be positioning itself between the Wii and DS, but more in the DS space than I think fans would like.
The guts are Tegra, according to The Verge.
It is a cool concept, I tried to get the TV connector for my PSP years back but it wasn't supported on the old hardware I had. I could definitely see using this in University when I was coming and going between school and home a lot, riding the bus, etc (not sure it would survive outdoors in Winterpeg weather though lol). To me it would be more useful to just have a cable to connect to any TV rather than a dock you leave at home. I would be tempted to take the dock traveling to use in hotel rooms, for example. The idea of like multiple people playing on basically a phablet sized screen with tiny controllers seems fairly ridiculous to me.
I do agree they're probably overestimating the usefulness of it, and I wonder at the performance although they are making some pretty amazing and compact machines these days. I'm not a huge console gamer to begin with so perhaps other people may find it more useful.
Seeing that Nintendo has what I consider the only modern successful handheld systems, I would estimate that these are going to sell like pumpkin spice lattés.
It's all going to boil down to the games though. The Wii was such a successful console because it reached people who are not hardcore gamers. I scoffed at it myself, but I had friends who never touched a Playstation buy a Wii to play bowling with their friends. The status quo was challenged to the core with the Wii and tapped a population of new players. So much so that the other brands scrambled to replicate them in motion capture. If they can replicate that same scenario and recapture the social aspect and provide rich single player content, like Zelda, I think they have a winning formula here.
It looks like a very interesting idea. But it will need a lot of polishing to make it successful.
Needing to do some stupid convoluted friend code crap to connect to local players will be terrible. With how they have advertised the trailer, they need to really work on connectivity to make this worth the while. I wonder if you can only ever have 2 player couch co-op. I don't think they showed 4 people on a single console. Sure they had 4 consoles connected, but not 4 to 1 players.
lol here is all Nintendo needs to make any piece of hardware "successful"
Here are some stills of it. That controller does not look fun.
I am sold. This is brilliant.
Let me offer myself as the near-ideal Nintendo anecdote:
This is exactly the scenario/system that would get me to play the games I already love more and put me in a position where I'm more likely to try more games.
Bonus points for not succumbing to a touch screen or other such nonsense.
Nailed it.
The beginning of the end for a once great brand.
Someone fetch the fainting couch.
THE perfect pooping console. Sold.
Nintendo posted this image on Twitter with the quote:
(I'm bad at embedding/linking Twitter posts. Has never worked for me.)
And if nVidia really helped with the development of this system as I hear, then I think it has some pretty darn good potential.
I just saw @Dunigan quip on Facebook, "This might be the first console I ever buy as soon as it comes out." Ditto that.
Why hello all you beautiful people!!!!
Here is there press release about, its tagged Tegra.
The Wii U has the ability to go pooping (or to the office or pub) with you. Do you ever use it for that?
I don't know who I'm kidding, though. As soon as there is a main Zelda franchise entry, I'm gonna want one. The REAL disappointment for me with the U is that I never got a Zelda game. I just assumed that there would eventually be one, since there always has been, but I won't make that mistake again.
There will be one, it'll just be the same one that is coming out for the Switch.
No, it absolutely does not, at least not in a house where the bathroom is more than 10 feet from the TV. I don't know about your experiences with the WiDi or whatever they called it, but it SUCKS. The range is bullshit.
Nintendo can't be anything other than Nintendo. They are trying to please an audience everyone else is pleasing better.
Marketing 101, if you can't hold the quality or price position in the market, you need to differentiate. Nintendo did that with the original Wii. The DS... Mobile gaming has changed so drastically, they are even planning cell phone and tablet games because that's where mobile games live now. The Wii though, the original was a huge success... why? Differentiation. It was unique in the sense that it didn't alienate the casual gamer. Hardcore gamers left... so what? You outsold everyone in that generation of hardware, and frankly, still have the only thing I'd go backwards to play, it was that different.
The switch, it's a cry to appeal to an audience that has long abandoned Nintendo, an audience they no longer appeal to, the hardcore gamer that wants dual sticks and eight buttons on their controller. If they would just go back to basics, make the Wii HD, make a ton of simple games, go back to the familiar Wii controller design buffed up a bit, it would be what the Nintendo audience actually wants instead of an ill attempt to lure in gamers that have already moved on.
The Switch will break Nintendo.
This. I have line-of-sight to my WiiU for more than 20 feet in my house and I get the degraded signal warning any more than 10, 15 if I don't move around much.
We are so not sharing this console.
Cliff what are you even talking about? Nintendo has without question the best-selling handheld consoles of all time. They've sold something like 400 million handheld systems between their Game Boy and New 3DS XL. What is this "audience" that "everybody is pleasing better"? Are you referring to the home console/couch gamer/Call Of Bro player? I'm pretty sure Nintendo is not going after that audience. Notice in their single ad for the Switch there are no Cheeto/Mt Dew/Frat scenes. The only "male 18-24" demographic shown are the e-sports team and the basketball players and they're outside... playing basketball.
You're speaking in these huge general terms as if you alone know what "the audience" wants. I'm sure Nintendo's massive global marketing research is wrong and you're right. You know what the entire global Nintendo audience is and they have it all wrong, I'm sure
. I think you're taking what Cliff wants and turning it into "well, I want this so the entire gaming world does too".
On a side note I find it fascinating that for the first time, we're seeing a major video game console company include e-sports on their day one announcement video.