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

 

[duffmmann]

I am sure because i am a software engineer with proper hardware knowledge. And i know the limitations. Sure, the Switch uses custom Tegra chip, but some things just aren't feasible. This won't happen, this is just a dream for 12 year old kids.

Sorry, but that's just based on your knowledge. Who knows what they might have been able to cook up behind closed doors. There could be some brilliant new technology under the hood next to no one has any idea about at this point. I'm glad you think you know what's up, and hey, you may be right, but at this point, I'm not dismissing anything (except 4K gaming, that's just not happening, and i don't care at all haha).

 

[FireEmblemGuy]

Tons of wrong with this post:

1) You can buy a 50+mb/s 16gigs capacity microSD card where i live for 5$. Bulk prices are a lot lower than that. 128gb microsd cards are pretty widespread currently and will become really cheap in the near future. And that is a lot more than a blu-ray disk.

2) Cartridge speeds are quite fine for streaming HD textures. They are a lot faster than HDDs and let's not talk about optical mediums here...

Flash based storage is the future for all consoles. You can definitely expect PS5 to be cartridge based.

1) Cost per GB for flash memory is still much higher than that of a Blu-Ray disc; a 25GB Blu-Ray at bulk rate is a lot cheaper than a 16GB flash chip. And as Blu-Ray discs go up to 100GB with the BDXL format, there's not really a huge difference in max affordable size.

2) That's largely subjective based on the type and interface of the card, but I can pretty much guarantee that if you want to go load Fallout 4 onto an SD card and play it (you're gonna need at least a 64GB card for that, just so you know), it'll be a hell of a lot slower than running it straight from your hard drive. Yes, optical media has slow seek times, which is why most modern console games require large chunks of data (mostly textures) to be installed on the HDD before playing. We're gonna find out pretty quick how well these carts work for rapidly loading large textures, unless the Tegra has a damn good caching system.

Flash is not the future for home consoles, not until the price drops off a cliff. Only feasible way for that to work, short of jumping the price up to $80 a game, would be if the cart was used for licensing and the rest of the data was downloaded from a remote server and stored to the HDD.

 

[player594]

I don't need 4k resolution. Give me good quality story and gameplay and I'm good. I still play original Nes games. Still have my original NES in the box with the zapper and duck hunt. My SNES broke years ago though. My Atari 2600 still powers on just no video output. Point being, graphics aren't everything.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[duffmmann]

Still, I think you're being too pessimistic. Even if you are a software engineer, you still said there is "no" possibility that the Switch will have a dock or advanced graphics, which is a bit of a bold statement..

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


I think I saw a list of companies stated to be involved with Switch software (aka third party developers) from the Nintendo Japan site or somewhere like that earlier today, it was quite long. I'm pretty confident the Switch will have good third-party support, which in addition to the portable thing will really bring back the "hardcore" crowd.

Yeah, thats why I mentioned TakeTwo, they're in there:

 

[tarumbo83]

You know what would be cool? If anyone could develop Unity games for the switch, without having to be a certified dev, and without having to purchase a devkit.

This. I'm interested in becoming a Wii U dev (they opened it up more to indies recently) but the cost of the devkit and the whole complicated process is setting me back.

 

[TemplarGR]

Still, I think you're being too pessimistic. Even if you are a software engineer, you still said there is "no" possibility that the Switch will have a dock or advanced graphics, which is a bit of a bold statement..

I explained why. Graphics calculations happen in a certain way. They just can't add MAGICAL STUFF ON THE DOCK and improve the graphics. Code has to run, code has to be merged, synchronization needs to happen, this is no joke.

The obvious thing is an SLI configuration. Having another Tegra chip with its own memory on the dock and running in SLI, doubling potential performance. This is suicide in terms of marketability, cause it will lead the console to cost around 500-600$. Not feasible.

Other than that, it could have a hardware upscaler to use a "hack" to improve the resolution without using more gpu resources (something like the checkerboard PS4Pro 4k). This is feasible and cheap, but hardly ideal.

 

[gudenau]

No idea if this was covered in the thread, TL;DR.
Failed to fetch tweet https://twitter.com/gudenauPub/status/789157251944636416

 

[Xzi]

That's entirely possible, I'm just speculating based on the rumours. The dock could very well be just the charger and an HDMI extension - we don't know. If that's the case though, expect support for modern games to be nil. Skyrim Remastered is all nice and dandy, but Skyrim originally ran on the PS3/360, all the remaster does to "look better" is upping the resolution and texture detail. I have my reservations based on what I've seen, the system will not be competitive on the AAA stage, but it will introduce gamers to high performance mobile gaming, and I love that.

Honestly it will be competitive on the AAA stage as long as AAA games continue to support 1080p, and that resolution is not going anywhere any time soon. A majority of PS4 and Xbox One owners surely still play on 1080p screens, so any extra horsepower in Scorpio or Pro would go to waste anyway. It's the difference between medium and high settings, and I guarantee the Switch will be considerably cheaper in exchange for a very minimal difference in texture quality.

You want pure horsepower, you go for a gaming PC, the device that makes even "powerful" modern consoles look like Atari's E.T. Therefore the best reason to buy a console is for an experience you can't get on PC, strong first-party support and multiplayer presence, as well as some sort of uniqueness or novelty about the device itself. Switch checks all these boxes, while everything on offer for the PS4 and Xbox can be done better by my PC.

 

[KingVamp]

Wonder how many games will support Download Play?

 

[tarumbo83]

I explained why. Graphics calculations happen in a certain way. They just can't add MAGICAL STUFF ON THE DOCK and improve the graphics. Code has to run, code has to be merged, synchronization needs to happen, this is no joke.

The obvious thing is an SLI configuration. Having another Tegra chip with its own memory on the dock and running in SLI, doubling potential performance. This is suicide in terms of marketability, cause it will lead the console to cost around 500-600$. Not feasible.

Other than that, it could have a hardware upscaler to use a "hack" to improve the resolution without using more gpu resources (something like the checkerboard PS4Pro 4k). This is feasible and cheap, but hardly ideal.

"This is feasible and cheap, but hardly ideal."
If it's feasible and cheap, explain why it's not ideal. Sure it wouldn't be as effective as a proper graphics upgrade, but it's very possible..

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

This. I'm interested in becoming a Wii U dev (they opened it up more to indies recently) but the cost of the devkit and the whole complicated process is setting me back.

Ditto. I've only considered PC development so far, because console development is difficult for an indie dev.

 

[TemplarGR]

"This is feasible and cheap, but hardly ideal."
If it's feasible and cheap, explain why it's not ideal. Sure it wouldn't be as effective as a proper graphics upgrade, but it's very possible..

Because it won't be competitive. The other consoles will be outputing true 1080p graphics, and the similar in price PS4Pro will be outputing "hacked" 4k. Not to mention Scorpio.

It might work for Nintendo first party games, and Disgaea/Persona type of games, because of the cartoony graphics, but the mainstream realistic AAA games won't look good relative to the other platforms.

 

[Veho]

So it's a handheld console with TV-out and some neat features. All that "hybrid console" crap had me worried but this looks okay. All in all, not bad.

Now let's just hope it's not horribly underpowered like their other consoles.

 

[duffmmann]

"This is feasible and cheap, but hardly ideal."
If it's feasible and cheap, explain why it's not ideal. Sure it wouldn't be as effective as a proper graphics upgrade, but it's very possible..

There's also unknown advancements in technology that may be happening behind closed doors. I'm with you, I think its possible, and until officially we're told otherwise, I'm not dismissing any possibility with this device (except as I've stated, 4K gaming, don't see that happening, but again, I'm more than ok with that haha).

 

[Autz]

You know what would be cool? If anyone could develop Unity games for the switch, without having to be a certified dev, and without having to purchase a devkit.

Unity runs like trash on most systems because most "indie" devs doesn't know how optimize the engine.

 

[tarumbo83]

Because it won't be competitive. The other consoles will be outputing true 1080p graphics, and the similar in price PS4Pro will be outputing "hacked" 4k. Not to mention Scorpio.

It might work for Nintendo first party games, and Disgaea/Persona type of games, because of the cartoony graphics, but the mainstream realistic AAA games won't look good relative to the other platforms.

It wouldn't be competitive in graphics in the first place, and it's not supposed to be. The purpose of the TV graphics upgrade was just to make the graphics more suited to a larger screen, not make the graphics look closer to PS4 graphics or whatever.

 

[HaloEliteLegend]

Because it won't be competitive. The other consoles will be outputing true 1080p graphics, and the similar in price PS4Pro will be outputing "hacked" 4k. Not to mention Scorpio.

It might work for Nintendo first party games, and Disgaea/Persona type of games, because of the cartoony graphics, but the mainstream realistic AAA games won't look good relative to the other platforms.

Seeing Skyrim running on there has me hopeful. It's a 5 year old game, sure, but I do have hope.
Actually, they better, for their own sakes.

 

[KingVamp]

The thing about the dock or even the handheld, they both can be updated just like the New 3DS or PS4 Pro.

 

[DanTheMan827]

Cool that they got Skyrim running on it at all, but I have my doubts that it'll take off. Cart based games limit storage space, and the Tegra processor isn't as capable as the x86 architecture the PS4/XBone are using. Games won't be as easy to port, and you'd have to cut down textures both for storage and power reasons. Expect Western devs to drop it like a brick after the first eight months, although I don't doubt Japan will go nuts over it. I'm gonna guess the first year will see ports (or announcements of ports) of Persona 5, Disgaea 5, pretty much all the Danganronpa games if they have Spike Chunsoft on board.

Also the lack of hard drive support, outside probably external drives when it's docked, is going to be frustrating as hell. Streaming HD textures from an SD card or similarly-fast cart is not gonna end well.

Cartridge based games are the exact opposite of disc-based games...

Flash storage is relatively cheap

It's also fast (compared to disc)

Also, with flash you have the capability to release larger games than you could initially due to advancements in flash technology...

 

[Foxi4]

I am sure because i am a software engineer with proper hardware knowledge. And i know the limitations. Sure, the Switch uses custom Tegra chip, but some things just aren't feasible. This won't happen, this is just a dream for 12 year old kids.

External PCIe is a thing, so is Thunderbolt which features X4 PCIe over a *cable*, here there's no cable so they can shove in however many lanes they want, it'll just make the connector bigger. Most modern GPU's run close to a 100% efficiency on PCIe X4, and that's just four lanes of bidirectional traffic and the clock bus, as power can be routed separately. In fact, most SLI setups run at 2x X8 - bandwidth is not a concern. eGPU's are commercially available right now, don't use the appeal to authority when you don't seem to know what you're talking about. The "limitations" exist solely in your head, solutions like this have existed for years now.