Switch Discussion Thread

[Reprise]

The dock could potentially upgrade/upscale the graphical output to 1080p. Your streaming on-the-go comment is way off the mark though. How would it stream? That would require a constant internet connection and would result in inconsistent performance. It would be like the Vita with remote play. Nintendo have made it clear that this is a true hybrid of handheld/portable gaming and home-console gaming.

Look, no offence, but I don't know why people are obsessing over the power and specs. Clearly, it will be more powerful than the Wii U. This console generation has already proven to me one thing, and that is that the importance of power and specs have never been more overstated. The main thing here is we have a portable gaming device that will be able to provide a home console experience on the go. That is Nintendo's aim and therefore they will have sacrificed any capability to compete with the PS4 Pro or XBox Scorpio in order to create their vision for a console that can be picked up and played anywhere. The Pro and Scorpio are a con and waste of money anyway. Who the fuck cares about 4K right now?

Nintendo do need to attract third party developers and also provide hardware that isn't too difficult for developers to develop for. I'm hopeful that the Switch will be able to take multiplatform games without developers having to downgrade or compromise too much from the PS4 or XBOne versions. I'm also hopeful that potentially the NX will be able to also pick up where the DS and 3DS left off in terms of support and software library. The difficulty there is Nintendo always opted to create handhelds that are child friendly, relatively cheap and weren't hugely powerful. The NX may alienate some parents, as it is clearly a powerful and most likely expensive piece of kit.

[ElkinFencer10]

Reprise, normally I'd agree with you about power and spec concerns being overblow, but hybridizing consoles and handhelds hasn't been done before; it's only natural to wonder if it's going to look like a really strong handheld or a really weak console. It'll be great either way, but it's a natural curiosity.

Not that optimistic my brother who works with one of the licensees already told me to expect it to be on the level of the current systems, not their planned 4K/VR upgraded selves though. Im sure if that was said, they as do others have many working kits, its a fair assumption what is possible at a basic level. Also it was noted that one should expect a Nintendo Direct sooner than later that turns the corner and does not highlight the system, but all the games planned for it that are developed and capable of being shown at that time.

Not only that, but look what Nintendo has proven that they can do with their "underpowered" hardware in the past. If you put them at the same resolution (480i), Monster Hunter Tri looks very close to Skyrim on the 360, and Metroid Prime 3 looks about as good as most space-themed shooters on the 360 or PS3. Obviously the competition looked better with much stronger hardware, but Nintendo has proven itself more than capable of getting way better visuals than you would expect out of a set of hardware specs. Since they're no longer splitting resources between handheld and console development teams, I suspect that will be the case even more so with the Switch.

[Xeogred]

Jeeze, people still talking about "POWER"?

Let me repeat... Xenoblade, Bayo 2, 3D World, Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 8, etc, are some of the best looking games I've seen of the past two generations. Art style and being able to tax out only ONE platform brings out the best in games.

And thinking this will be weaker than the Wii U makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to me haha.

[isiolia]

From the pictures I see the dock is thicker than the tablet itself, so I will stick to my theory that the console is the dock, and on-the-go will be either streaming or lower quality graphics kind of like how Youtube will offer the same video but different quality.

Nintendo has already clarified that the dock will be doing nothing other than power/charging and providing TV output. As I mentioned, I think Nintendo will offer the system without it at a lower price point.

The big thing Nintendo is likely doing is keeping it targeting the native resolution of the integrated LCD, which seems to be 720p.

Reprise, normally I'd agree with you about power and spec concerns being overblow, but hybridizing consoles and handhelds hasn't been done before; it's only natural to wonder if it's going to look like a really strong handheld or a really weak console. It'll be great either way, but it's a natural curiosity.

Eh, I wouldn't really say that, since this isn't really that new. The core hardware is a tablet. Even if we don't count those, we've had consoles based off similar hardware - Ouya, Fire TV, Shield, etc. There have been decently capable mobile SoCs for years now.

They're accessorizing it a bit, and adding a cartridge slot (I'm not writing off there still being an SD slot), but the core concept isn't unheard of. It just hasn't sold that well.

The major standout isn't the hardware, it's that Nintendo is supporting it. That's also the potential hurdle they have though, since so many devices out there are basically a bluetooth peripheral away from replicating the functionality (TV dock is likely a moot point for newer devices, since they can likely use Miracast, or can just have HDMI anyway). So if Nintendo does succeed in selling the mass market on the concept, they'll have substantial competition overnight.

[Reprise]

"no more official announcement would come this year on 1) game titles 2) spec details, including region-lock status."

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2016/10/21/n ... until-2017

Erm, WTF? I hope that's bullshit, to be honest.

Jeeze, people still talking about "POWER"?

Let me repeat... Xenoblade, Bayo 2, 3D World, Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 8, etc, are some of the best looking games I've seen of the past two generations. Art style and being able to tax out only ONE platform brings out the best in games.

And thinking this will be weaker than the Wii U makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to me haha.

Exactly! Thank you

[Tanooki]

You'd be wrong. Watch the video where the guy plays Zelda at home then on the plane. No dock. The dock is for TV output the system is the device itself. The video makes that very clear.

[Jrecee]

Of course it is possible that the screen of the tablet itself is only 720, and when plugged into the dock it tells the system to output 1080. Maybe that would save on battery life?

[PartridgeSenpai]

Jeeze, people still talking about "POWER"?

Let me repeat... Xenoblade, Bayo 2, 3D World, Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 8, etc, are some of the best looking games I've seen of the past two generations. Art style and being able to tax out only ONE platform brings out the best in games.

And thinking this will be weaker than the Wii U makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to me haha.

Exactly! My main problem with the PS4 is that while many of the game may look nice, a lot of them run like shit! Frankly if Nintendo just focuses on releasing games that are very stylistic that WORK and RUN WELL, I think that's a really good position to be in for them compared to the other big guys. Especially if they can get rid of/cut down on those HORRID install times that plague the current gen so badly :/

[winds]

My main concern for the power of the console isn't for graphics, hell I still think n64/ps1 graphics look great. I'm more concerned about how powerful it is in terms of running 3rd parties newest games. If it doesn't appeal to 3rd party developers, this will be the same story as the Wii U. Unless of course i'm wrong

[Tanooki]

Winds think of it another way. It needs to be as powerful and more than the micro console market not the ps4 and the upgrade. You'd want conversions and ports of Android projects to be your go to source. They're not competing with Sony as that failed every time in two decades now.