Nintendo finally reveals the Switch console

Super Mario 3D World has full-on 1-4 player mode, as each player can drop in and out at will. But I don’t know if you’re excluding that from the “3D Mario” titles or not.

Huh, my mistake. I thought it was only the New Super Mario Bros games that had that.

[quote=“Ginger_Yellow, post:1115, topic:126573, full:true”]
It’s pretty dispiriting that the Switch, even plugged into the dock, can’t do Zelda at 1080p/30. It really seems to be stuck in an uncomfortable middle ground - not powerful enough as a home console, not enough battery life for a handheld,[/quote]
Indeed, but ultimately the real problem is that being much slower than table-stakes Xbone or PS4 it won’t get cross-platform titles and is thus doomed to Nintendo exclusives and the odd “remaster”.

The original Wii did quite well in the market and it still didn’t get many cross-platform titles for this same reason-- it simply wasn’t powerful enough to run them, so the developers had to code separate inferior versions for the Wii.

I wouldn’t mind that, as long as it was a good handheld. After all, I own a Wii-U and I was pretty happy with its library, having gone in with eyes wide open (and paying a lot less for it than the Switch will cost). I really like Nintendo’s first party games.

Nintendo fans like yourself may be satisfied with that, but if the Switch finds the same market as the WiiU, Nintendo is screwed deep and hard. They need to sell more consoles.

If they go all in on the “it’s a handheld” marketing and convince 3DS devs to move over they might be ok. The extremely variable battery life and expectations due to the docked mode make that a hard sell.

Well, sure. I think the Switch could have been a decent commercial success if a) they’d waited another six months to get the games and service side ready, b) had a more focused single Nintendo platform message, and c) been cheaper. As it is, I don’t see this doing all that well until they slash the price, and maybe not even then. The message coming out of that presentation was so confused, despite all the talk beforehand of them learning the lessons of Wii-U. I’m frankly stunned they pushed the motion controls so hard instead of showcasing amazing handheld experiences, that they’re not going all out with some kind of Virtual Console Netflix, that 1-2 Switch isn’t a pack-in, and that the launch line-up is so thin after all this time (even padded with old games and Wii-U leftovers). I guess people won’t think it’s just a peripheral for the Wii (or a DS refresh), so that’s a good thing.

[quote]
If they go all in on the “it’s a handheld” marketing and convince 3DS devs to move over they might be ok. The extremely variable battery life and expectations due to the docked mode make that a hard sell.[/quote]

Agreed, but they seem to be running away from that position instead, and extremely loath to run down the 3DS brand.

Agreed. It’s almost as if what Nintendo thought they were selling was waggle without the tyranny of having to be near a tv.

Because that was what made the waggle train stop rolling.

Another stupid question. If the TV display function is tied to the dock, does it mean you can’t have both touch controls and display on TV? Or does the console send a signal to the dock that mirror it to the TV?

You are correct. No touch when docked.

Have they formally confirmed that? There was speculation pre-reveal that the motion controls would act like a virtual stylus.

Sort of like having a Wii mode when docked, and a 3DS mode when undocked then?

But with only one screen. That was the theory, but like I say, it was pure speculation based on the idea that Nintendo wouldn’t want games that could only work in the one configuration.

So, one definite point of confusion: does the Switch even have pointer IR/sensor bar when docked? I didn’t look too closely, but the motion control that I saw in Arms and 1-2-Switch seemed like the accelerometer variety, not the pointer variety.

Edit: found this:

The right-side Joy-Con controller will also include a motion IR sqensor. That sensor can read how far away objects are and can even detect shapes. Nintendo said the sensor is capable of telling the difference between hands in the shape of paper, rock and scissors, meaning games of roshambo are possible on Nintendo Switch.

That IR motion sensor is on the bottom of the right joycon and points away from the screen, and is apparently meant to scan hand gestures and physical objects.

Isn’t it a bit early to be judging whether or not it’s a commercial success yet? You know pre-orders in the US are all sold out right? Amazon, Gamestop, Bestbuy, Target, and Walmart. ;)

Anyway, maybe that’s part of the plan, and this release is for the early adopters. Reggie said they’re thinking of the long game (like 3DS), and the current pricing allows for future price cuts while still making a profit on each hardware sale.

So maybe a price cut and Mario for Christmas…

I mean yeah… 2 million units. Nintendo is really good at selling out all of their available stock since the Wii U physical inventory disaster. The fact that it is sold out doesn’t mean much. The Wii U sold just over 3 million units in it’s first month and half of availability, and then less than 400k in the next 3 months, and only 2.5 million in the second entire year of availability.

So, the fact that they are saying 2 million pre-orders are filled isn’t much to judge off of, other than they have less Switches available at launch than Wii U’s.

It’s not even 2 million pre-orders filled, as I’m pretty sure the 2 million is world-wide and there are still pre-orders open here in Australia for example.

But still … the main point was, “isn’t it a bit early to be judging whether or not it’s a commercial success yet?”. So I wasn’t claiming pre-orders as a sign of success at all, more a sign of ‘may not yet be a failure’.

So why assume it is a failure already? Because the Wii-U was? That seems just as invalid.

Nobody’s got a crystal ball here, but with what hindsight we have on the Wii U I think it’s reasonable to look at how it failed despite great first party titles and wonder what will be different this time around. We’ve covered it all before, but skepticism is valid. We skeptics might be proven wrong, but you can love Nintendo’s games and still worry about the trajectory they’ve been on.