The next console from Nintendo has finally been revealed – the Nintendo Switch (formerly thought to be called the NX), and both the introductory trailer and the accompanying press release are all very telling.
Here is everything you need to know about the Nintendo Switch
What is it?
The Nintendo Switch is a hybrid between an at-home system and a handheld, with the handheld screen connecting to a docking station at home. It will release in March 2017. The mobility has been advertised with the ability to play any title wherever, whenever.
The controller has two detachable sliders called Joy-Con controllers that contain the joysticks and buttons. These detach to create several other iterations of the controller. You can attach them directly to the screen at the docking station and create the handheld, you can detach them and use them like you would a Wiimote, or you can separate them entirely and have one person use each one for a multiplayer game.
It also has a controller separate from the Joy-Con controllers, called the Nintendo Switch pro controller that looks like any other gamepad.
No Touchscreen
While it's not explicitly stated in the trailer, you'll notice that no one ever interacts with the screen on the handheld. Pair that with the fact that the trailer also showed three controllers besides the handheld that all don't even have a screen, and it's hard to escape with any other conclusion.
While it's hard to believe that any screen nowadays will not be a touchscreen, there's just nothing to support that the Nintendo Switch will have one. Even in the press release, the word touchscreen is never used, and they only describe the screen has having a "bright high-definition display."
Hopefully that wasn't your favorite part about the Wii U, because every indication is that it's gone for the Nintendo Switch.
Game Cartridges
If you like the way games are handled with the Nintendo 3DS, then the Nintendo Switch is your console. Since the docking station appears to just be a way to connect to your television, the handheld unit is what holds all the physical games, and those appear to be the same or similar to the cartridges used in the 3DS.
Third Party Publishers
Holy third-party publishers, Batman! Lots of them have already agreed to be publishing partners with Nintendo on the Nintendo Switch, include heavy hitters such as Activision, From Software, Bethesda, Capcom, SEGA, Ubisoft and Warner Brothers. See the full list (thus far) below.
Launch Titles: Prepare for Remasters
Not the most exciting part of the trailer, but almost every game they showed appeared to already exist on one console or another. Skyrim, Splatoon, NBA 2K17, etcetera. Now, this could all be generic game titles to fill the screens on the trailer, and that would make total sense, but it could also mean that we're going to see a lot of ports and remasters in the early days of the Nintendo Switch.
At this point, launch titles are anyone's guess, but that's where I'm putting my money.
Powered By Custom NVIDIA Processor
Meanwhile, over at NVIDIA, they've announced that the Nintendo Switch is powered by their custom "Tegra Processor," which also includes an NVIDIA GPU that apparently rivals the "world's top performing GeForce graphics cards.
In fact, everything about using the Nintendo Switch seems to be custom created by NVIDIA, including the physics engine, game tools, audio effects, etcetera.
This will hopefully quell concerns brought about by the Wii U, which was effectively a toaster when it came to Specs.
Check back with GameRevolution for updates on Specs, a full list of launch titles and other important details as they become available.
