Nintendo has finally decided to show off their new "home gaming system", code-name NX. It's time to see what Nintendo has up their sleeves and put all the rumors to rest.
GBAtemp will covering the announcement and the OP will be updated as new information rolls in from the preview. Remember, the video starts at 9AM Central Standard Time, so be sure to watch, and discuss your thoughts here!

Nintendo Official Site

Trailer

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It's called the Nintendo Switch. Rumors are true, it's a tablet with connectable buttons that you can play at home and on the go. Console Controller looks similar to the Xbox One's. Has small little remotes and supports multiplayer. NBA game being shown. 3D Mario title. When you connect the portable controllers the system goes from console to portable. Skyrim and Splatoon shown. Still coming March next year.

Press Release​

Detachable Controllers Reinvent Gaming

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- In an introductory video released today, Nintendo provided the first glimpse of its new home gaming system and revealed that it is called Nintendo Switch. In addition to providing single and multiplayer thrills at home, the Nintendo Switch system also enables gamers to play the same title wherever, whenever and with whomever they choose. The mobility of a handheld is now added to the power of a home gaming system to enable unprecedented new video game play styles.

At home, Nintendo Switch rests in the Nintendo Switch Dock that connects the system to the TV and lets you play with family and friends in the comfort of your living room. By simply lifting Nintendo Switch from the dock, the system will instantly transition to portable mode, and the same great gaming experience that was being enjoyed at home now travels with you. The portability of Nintendo Switch is enhanced by its bright high-definition display. It brings the full home gaming system experience with you to the park, on an airplane, in a car, or to a friend’s apartment.

Gaming springs into action by removing detachable Joy-Con controllers from either side of Nintendo Switch. One player can use a Joy-Con controller in each hand; two players can each take one; or multiple Joy-Con can be employed by numerous people for a variety of gameplay options. They can easily click back into place or be slipped into a Joy-Con Grip accessory, mirroring a more traditional controller. Or, if preferred, the gamer can select an optional Nintendo Switch Pro Controller to use instead of the Joy-Con controllers. Furthermore, it is possible for numerous people to bring their Nintendo Switch systems together to enjoy local multiplayer face-to-face competition.

“Nintendo Switch allows gamers the freedom to play however they like,” said Reggie Fils-Aime, President and COO, Nintendo of America. “It gives game developers new abilities to bring their creative visions to life by opening up the concept of gaming without boundaries.”

Developers can design their games supporting a variety of play styles, which gives gamers the freedom to choose an experience that best suits them. Some of the publishers, developers and middleware partners announcing support for Nintendo Switch are as follows:

Companies that will support the Switch
505 Games
• LEVEL-5 Inc.
• Activision Publishing, Inc.
• Marvelous Inc.
• ARC SYSTEM WORKS Co., Ltd.
• Maximum Games, LLC
• ATLUS CO., LTD.
• Nippon Ichi Software, Inc.
• Audiokinetic Inc.
• Parity Bit Inc.
• Autodesk, Inc.
• PlatinumGames Inc.
• BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc.
• RAD Game Tools, Inc.
• Bethesda
• RecoChoku Co., Ltd.
• CAPCOM CO., LTD.
• SEGA Games Co., Ltd.
• Codemasters®
• Silicon Studio Corporation
• CRI Middleware Co., Ltd.
• Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.
• DeNA Co., Ltd.
• SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.
• Electronic Arts
• Starbreeze Studios
• Epic Games Inc.
• Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
• Firelight Technologies
• Telltale Games
• FromSoftware, Inc.
• THQ Nordic
• Frozenbyte
• Tokyo RPG Factory Co., Ltd.
• GameTrust
• TT Games
• GRASSHOPPER MANUFACTURE INC.


• UBISOFT
• Gungho Online Entertainment, Inc.
• Ubitus Inc.
• HAMSTER Corporation
• Unity Technologies, Inc.
• Havok
• Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
• INTI CREATES CO., LTD.
• Web Technology Corp

Screens





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It will be powered by a custom Nvidia Tegra chip.

Nintendo Switch is powered by the performance of the custom Tegra processor. The high-efficiency scalable processor includes an NVIDIA GPU based on the same architecture as the world’s top-performing GeForce gaming graphics cards.

Nvidia Blog

Nintendo Switch Site

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Nintendo First Look​

The detachable controllers are called Joy-Con controllers.

Gaming springs into action by removing detachable Joy-Con controllers from either side of Nintendo Switch. One player can use a Joy-Con controller in each hand; two players can each take one; or multiple Joy-Con can be employed by numerous people for a variety of gameplay options. They can easily click back into place or be slipped into a Joy-Con Grip accessory, mirroring a more traditional controller. Or, if preferred, the gamer can select an optional Nintendo Switch Pro Controller to use instead of the Joy-Con controllers. Furthermore, it is possible for numerous people to bring their Nintendo Switch systems together to enjoy local multiplayer face-to-face competition.

“Nintendo Switch allows gamers the freedom to play however they like,” said Reggie Fils-Aime, President and COO, Nintendo of America. “It gives game developers new abilities to bring their creative visions to life by opening up the concept of gaming without boundaries.”

Developers can design their games supporting a variety of play styles, which gives gamers the freedom to choose an experience that best suits them. Some of the publishers, developers and middleware partners announcing support for Nintendo Switch are as follows:

Nintendo Site

 

[Xzi]

Gamestream isn't a guarantee though...

You can easily make a gamestream compatible app... In fact there's already one made for iOS/Android/PC

The real question is will the Switch allow android apps?

That or have an outright app store not just limited to games...

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Switch is Android-based. Given their list of partners, it would make sense. Not to mention it would curtail the usual ease of piracy associated with Nintendo consoles. For a while, at least.

Even if this isn't the case, gamestream isn't a make or break feature for me, it would just be a nice extra.

 

[netovsk]

Is a nintendo handheld (which means the best games and franchises)? Check
Is Capcom going to support it? Check
Is Square Enix going to support it? Check
Is Level 5 going to support it? Check

Sounds good to me, better than that p.o.s. called the indiestation 4. Definitely buying it.

Now I have one legitimate concern about it. It seems that when the handheld is docked, its battery , assuming it will be lithium, will end up being constantly trickle charged and kept at 100%, which will undermine its lifespan. I hope there is a way to easily remove the battery before docking it.

 

[RemixDeluxe]

Only specs revealed is that it's a custom Tegra chip "based on the latest graphics cards", which highly suggest a custom Tegra X2 chip (pascal and all that).

Backwards compatibility isn't going to happen, except through emulation (tegra chips don't use powerPC architecture, which means gamecube-wii u won't be able to run natively). I'm sure there'll be a new shop where you get to redownload all your nes games again though

Backwards compatibility has never been a selling point to me anyways (I never sell my systems.) But I asked because I was curious how potential homebrew could use it.

I actually like the idea of this new system starting with a clean slate rather than improving on existing tech.

 

[Xzi]

Ok I'm sold

Too bad this is photoshopped.

You know Nintendo will release new skinned versions of it within a year or so of initial release, lol.

 

[Bobbybangin]

are thoose confirmed? they look very shitty and guessed IMHO

He claims the source is from devkits. Historically, he's always been a respectable and honest hacker. You can learn more by asking him about it on his original tweet

https://mobile.twitter.com/GovanifY/status/789108098258575361

 

[osaka35]

Is a nintendo handheld (which means the best games and franchises)? Check
Is Capcom going to support it? Check
Is Square Enix going to support it? Check
Is Level 5 going to support it? Check

Sounds good to me, better than that p.o.s. called the indiestation 4. Definitely buying it.

Now I have one legitimate concern about it. It seems that when the handheld is docked, its battery , assuming it will be lithium, will end up being constantly trickle charged and kept at 100%, which will undermine its lifespan. I hope there is a way to easily remove the battery before docking it.

I'm hoping they switch to AC, rather than keep a constant trickle.

 

[Xzi]

Now I have one legitimate concern about it. It seems that when the handheld is docked, its battery , assuming it will be lithium, will end up being constantly trickle charged and kept at 100%, which will undermine its lifespan. I hope there is a way to easily remove the battery before docking it.

The base station almost certainly powers the unit directly, bypassing the battery entirely after it is charged.

 

[TemplarGR]

Cmon ppl!!!!!!!!

Whats going on??????????

Power and on par or even stronger than PS4/X0 (big bet for an tablet/hybrid), backward compatibility (big bet if uses a completely different architecture), thunderbolt, OLED, VR, and on top of it, all that for 300 - 400$ price range?!?!?!?

SERIOUSLY? Dont expect too much, you will be disappointed. Cmon, Nintendo doesnt even put cheap triggers on their controllers......

This is true. This system won't be nearly as powerful as PS4, it will at best match XboxOne when docked. Which is not bad, it will still be able to receive multiplats albeit in lower quality, and play them on the go. The handheld form has 720p and the docked 1080p, which means that the clocks will be halved (1080p is 2x the pixels from 720p) in handheld form, for the same framerate and detail.

Not bad, but there is also the issue of price, for both the system and its games. The system will most likely cost around 300$, which is rather cheap for a home console but really steap for a handheld console, so this will alienate handheld players. Remember the 250$ 3DS?

But what concerns me is the cost of the games. The games will cost around 60-70$ obviously, since they will be the same games the other consoles will receive. And that creates a huge problem, people won't like to pay such prices for handheld gaming. One of the cool things about handheld gaming is the lower cost of games. But now, they will totally alienate handheld gamers. No longer parents will pay small price for a handheld console and a pokemon cartridge. Now the prices will be prohibiting, especially if you own another console and/or PC. Why pay such a price to have the same game you can play with better graphics on other systems? I have a feeling this will lead to lower sales for 3rd parties, and will lead to the same old same old problem of Nintendo: 3rd parties will abandon the console for most of its life. At least we can hope that it will replace the Vita for jrpgs/niche japanese games, but that is small consolation regarding its success in the West.

I will definitely get one if it gets hacked. I won't rush to buy at release.

 

[nedron92]

Android or other mobile OS, don't think so.
There will be a own Nintendo.OS xD
New IOS comming maybe SIOS

 

[Noctosphere]

HEY just noticed something
take a close look, if you rotate both Joycon so the clip face upper, they are exactly the same (except for whats written on button)
So I guess the D-PAD becomes the ABXY button. I guess that's why it is different

 

[Xzi]

Android or other mobile OS, don't think so.
There will be a own Nintendo.OS xD
New IOS comming maybe SIOS

That's the thing though, you can build pretty much any type of OS on Android, it'll still be Nintendo's own design. I just think it likely that whatever OS they go with will be built on top of Android. I think they were testing the waters of it via mobile game releases.

Biggest reason it's plausible is that Nvidia Tegra chips are mostly used in Android devices.

 

[Bladexdsl]

those detachable controllers look pretty damn flimsy your kids gonna break them real good and have to keep replacing them

 

[nedron92]

That's the thing though, you can build pretty much any type of OS on Android, it'll still be Nintendo's own design. I just think it likely that whatever OS they go with will be built on top of Android. I think they were testing the waters of it via mobile game releases.

Biggest reason it's plausible is that Nvidia Tegra chips are mostly used in Android devices.

Or can simply use a real *Nix-Kernel

 

[Foxi4]

Even if it's a custom Tegra X2 with that whole pascal stuff? I mean, yeah, it might get closer to One status, but since the games made for pro and scorpio will have to work on the originals, we'll still get ports of them on the switch. I think I'd rather be able to play a game on the go than have 4k resolution, at the moment.

Yes, and by a lot. Even assuming that the system ran a vanilla full-blown X2, NVidia boasts that the chip pushes about 1.5 Teraflops, which *seems* to be more than the Xbox One on the surface. What NVidia doesn't tell you, or does so begrudgingly in small print, is that that's an FP16 (16-bit floating point), not an FP32 (32-bit floating point) result like the One's, so the actual capability to push in-game graphics is slashed in half (two FP16 instructions equal one FP32 instruction), down to 750 GFLOPS, which is respectable for a portable device, but a far cry from the Xbox One. Another problem rises with cooling - the word on the street is that the X2 is a ~25W TDP chip last I've read, so using its full capabilities would require an active cooling solution. This is unlikely in a tablet, it's for automotive use, so the Switch will definitely have lower specs than that - probably in the range of 500GFLOPS to inch towards the 15W mark which is considered the top standard value for passively cooled chips, or 10W if they don't want to use a heatsink, which will sink performance further. Naturally we won't know the real power consumption and thermal profile until we see the chip and it can always be tweaked, but only at the cost of performance.

 

[SagaP]

Looks alright but I am mostly interested about the system's games after the first party silence of the last months.

well they show a bunch of frist party games and the list of 3rd party developers looks amazing, i mean we even got take2 and FromSoftware on board, so Dark Souls and Red Dead maybey?, also i know spikechunksoft suport nintendo previous consoles whit the zero escape franshise, but whit danganrompa v3 rigth arond the corner i hope to see it being realesed for the swtich after it came out in vita and ps4

 

[Bladexdsl]

slightly interested now

https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2016/10/20/nintendo-switch/

they better have a better launch lineup than just mario and skyrim

 

[Xzi]

slightly interested now

https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2016/10/20/nintendo-switch/

I was about to post the same thing, lol. That's the most in-depth info we have for now. The one real interesting part I think is that Nvidia is using a brand-new API for Switch.

 

[Juiss]

>Custom Tegra SoC



Oh god, performance is gonna be bad...there's no way a custom Tegra SoC is gonna hit PS4/Xboner levels of performance, no way at all. That's really disappointing.

If that custom chip is anywhere close to their Parker chip we'll have a device that will compete with the PS4 and Xbone

 

[MionissNio]

well they show a bunch of frist party games and the list of 3rd party developers looks amazing, i mean we even got take2 and FromSoftware on board, so Dark Souls and Red Dead maybey?, also i know spikechunksoft suport nintendo previous consoles whit the zero escape franshise, but whit danganrompa v3 rigth arond the corner i hope to see it being realesed for the swtich after it came out in vita and ps4

Personally for me I only buy Nintendo consoles for first party ganes, but I understand from a business point of view how third party is important, and for one I am sure that latest AAA games like red dead 2 are not coming to this device at all, although from a portability stand point it would be very unique and interesting though. It simply would be last gens excuse only because of it being *Cough* underpowered (not for me though).

 

[anhminh]

So how long do you think we can hack into backward compatible firmware?

Last time it was quick for DS flashcart to work with 3DS, maybe it would be like that this time too.