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As the day of the Nintendo Switch conference and hands-on impressions draws to a close and the beans have been thoroughly spilled, we want to ask you - what do you think?

What are your impressions on the overall unveiling of the Switch given the pricing, games and hardware capabilities? Will you be Switching? Perhaps you've already pre-ordered one.

Vote in the poll and let us know! And be sure to share your comments in the thread below.

 

[CathyRina]

The Launch line up is absolutely godawful
Ninty entering paid online with their joke of a online infrastructure
32Gigs of internal storage
2-6 Hours of battery life
absolutely ridiculous pricing for accessories

I think I'll pass. Definitely not interested until that cool looking Mario and Xenoblade game comes out (and that's coming from somebody who doesn't give a crap about Mario games)

The VC is a rental *so to speak* so it wouldn't really fuck people over.

And people seem to forget that crossbuy isn't exactly something on the PSN anymore with PS4.

Except it is still a thing. Most if not all indies that come out on PS4/Vita are cross buy. That's how Sony has been getting away with only putting 3-4 games on PS+ for the last few months.

 

[Bladexdsl]

this is what happens when a die hard ruthless businessman takes over as CEO. don't remem his fucking stupid name but all he is thinking about is how much $$$ he can wring out of you

 

[Tigran]

Yeah cause the PSVR is so cheap... Or lets not forget the PS3......

 

[Captain Library]

This is a difficult thing for me because, naturally, I will have to buy it. I can't help myself; I am physically incapable of denying myself the newest Zelda and Pokémon machine. It's like a cigarette addiction - I will just walk to the store as if on autopilot. I'm still deciding whether or not to get it at launch, and I'll have to decide quickly before the meagre stock allocations run out. Here are my difficulties:

- The pricing has surprised me. I don't understand how Nintendo expects to compete in that price range. Obviously they're not trying to compete on the same terms as its console competitors - but any dedicated gaming device is still going to have to compete.
- I think the console will be a relative failure outside Japan. Although it appears to be very well designed, it needed to come a lot earlier. I don't think it captures the console market (PS4 Slim and Xbox One S are cheaper, more powerful, have larger install bases and strong game libraries), or the mobile market (whose consumers will not be looking for a separate dedicated gaming device). In reality, I think it only appeals to existing Nintendo fans and one would hope the 3DS install base makes the jump. However, we return to that point about the prohibitive cost.
- As for cost, the games look expensive. £60 for Breath of the Wild. That doesn't convert well against the $ regardless of how the £ sucks now. Thanks, Brexit. One presumes the pricing reflects the more expensive medium and the notion of getting a console AND portable game all at once...
- The launch line-up is pitiful, except for Breath of the Wild looking absolutely fantastic. Some solid titles through 2017, but I would want more assurances about third party support.
- If third party console games ARE being ported, generally they will perform better on my other home consoles. The only advantage will be portability, then...
- I could buy Breath of the Wild on Wii U for £20 less and wait for the Switch price to come down... but then I won't have the extra power of the Switch or the portability. It would be a shame not to play the best version of the game. I could just wait altogether, but see my initial paragraph in which I express my inability to exercise restraint.
- Portability is limited by poor battery life (not a huge surprise or a big issue for me).

I am worried for Nintendo with this one. It seems they've missed expectations by being overpriced and not stocked with games or a strong virtual console right out of the box. It's a shame, because I think the actual Switch is really smartly designed. It's obvious that Nintendo have put a lot of effort into making this thing a really cool device - it just isn't clear who it's for in 2017. It's going to be said by a lot of people; this is what the Wii U should have been.

 

[chrisrlink]

I may get it after some more games come out when i got the money

 

[snails1221]

I think its Nintendo's dreamcast

 

[Joom]

I despise the pay to play model. I feel Nintendo is shooting themselves in the foot with this one.

 

[Armadillo]

£60 for Breath of the Wild. That doesn't convert well against the $ regardless of how the £ sucks now.

Isn't it $59.99 in NA? and that's without sales tax.

£59.99 without our VAT is £49.99 or $60.89.

Expensive compared to other games in the UK, but it's basically a proper conversion from $ + our vat. It's not Nintendo's fault we have 20% VAT, while NA has much lower sales tax or in some cases none.

 

[Captain Library]

Isn't it $59.99 in NA? and that's without sales tax.

£59.99 without our VAT is £49.99 or $60.89.

Expensive compared to other games in the UK, but it's basically a proper conversion from $ + our vat. It's not Nintendo's fault we have 20% VAT, while NA has much lower sales tax or in some cases none.

I always forget about sales tax because I don't have to think about it - fair point well made.

 

[Justin20020]

I pre-ordered it. I want play TloZ (big fan) and its so cool to play it if you're travelling for about 3-4 hrs. I like it really. I hope, we will see an super smash game for it. For now, i will play mario kart 8 on it against my girlfriend xD maybe we can still use later NDS, wii u games etc about an hack or something else. I would like it but its really sick about the online service :/

 

[Deleted User]

My reactions:

The live event itself could've been much better. They used to do these in English, not dubbed Japanese, and the stage presence of the people they had do most of the talking wasn't exactly great.

They were doing it live somewhere in Japan, otherwise they probably would've done it in English. I agree with pretty much everything else you said here though, just thought I'd mention that.

The Launch line up is absolutely godawful
Ninty entering paid online with their joke of a online infrastructure
32Gigs of internal storage
2-6 Hours of battery life
absolutely ridiculous pricing for accessories

I think I'll pass. Definitely not interested until that cool looking Mario and Xenoblade game comes out (and that's coming from somebody who doesn't give a crap about Mario games)

The launch lineup isn't fantastic but I'd say 'god awful' is kind of a stretch.
With payed online maybe they're making it better?

 

[Oshibo]

I've said this before, I feel it will do really well long term, but it will have a weak start seeing as it has so few launch titles. Sure there has been similar cases w/ few launch titles, but a lot gamers are more demanding and entitled now of days especially new ones.

 

[mgrev]

I mean it looks cool and shit, and has some awesome-looking first party titles, and promises good third-party support (we'll see about that), but why did nintendo shoot themselves in the leg with storage and paying for online pay. 32 gigabytes is nothing. i have 4 times that in my phone. and 71,5 times that in my pc. YES, it does have microsd, but god, the speed on those are horrible. i mean i have a 5400rpm drive with an avg of around 120mb/s r/w and loading certain games is bad enough on that

 

[Deleted User]

I was thankfully quick enough to preorder a Switch and Zelda from Amazon before they both were gone

 

[Judas18]

I'm disappointed in the launch lineup but I've pre-ordered it anyway. I don't really like Zelda but the new one looks kinda fun so that'll do until Mario Kart 8. Plus I'm sure there are many more 3rd party titles out this year that haven't been mentioned.

 

[Dr.Hacknik]

I'm rather impressed by this console. But, all my thoughts are pretty much summed up in this video that I posted:

 

[guisadop]

Definitely not buying on launch, but I'll force myself to get one if a mainline Pokémon is released on it.

 

[kingaz]

If this had been the direct successor to the Wii, I think the tone of this whole conversation would be wildly different. A vast majority of people would be flipping out in excitement. Not to say that there isn't excitement for the Switch, but there is a lot of uncertainty.

In a vacuum, the Switch presentation might very well be one of the best executed console reveals that I can think of. In terms of other launch lineups, having Breath of the Wild automatically puts it leagues above nearly every other console ever. Most consoles launch with jack squat. Tech demos and hastily thrown together ports of last-gen titles. If you're lucky, you get one killer app to tide the early adopters over until everyone can pump out their games for the system, and this takes a lot of time, energy, skill, and risk, since you're working with unproven tech and a platform with a non-existent install base.

So yeah, relatively great launch lineup, distinctive concept, range of in-development titles appealing to both core and casual gamers (Nintendo clearly wants this to both play core games and something that you easily bring to parties for lots of silly fun). Also, what looks to be a proper online service. In another timeline, this would have knocked our socks off.

But we're not in a vacuum, are we? They're competing against consoles that also have a $300 price point, and with more graphical horsepower to boot. They're competing against mature and proven online services. They're competing against software libraries that have had a few years to build up. And they're competing against existing install bases.

Even worse, Nintendo is coming off of a console that was quickly abandoned by major third party publishers. It was a tremendous disappointment on many fronts, and given Nintendo's tumultuous history with 3rd parties and their tradition of marching to the beat of their own drum, for better or worse, the Switch has tremendous expectations riding on it. We don't have any way of knowing whether or not the Switch is going to be abandoned like the Wii U, and while we had a lot of showings from third parties talking about how excited they were to partner with Nintendo, we also saw that with the Wii U, and it didn't last there.

Nintendo has its work cut out for it. It needs to market the hell out of its console. It needs an insane amount of buzz, and Nintendo cannot count on the Wii's lightning in a bottle nature and assume that it will magically happen. And it needs games. Lots of games, good games, and fast. They need to get dev kits in as many hands as possible, and they need to make developing for Switch as easy as possible. During release droughts, it needs to be doing whatever it can to fill the gaps, whether it be ports of Wii U games or big notable VC drops. They need to give people a reason for the Switch to be a must-own device.

We shall see if they can do it.

 

[Coto]

I mean it looks cool and shit, and has some awesome-looking first party titles, and promises good third-party support (we'll see about that), but why did nintendo shoot themselves in the leg with storage and paying for online pay. 32 gigabytes is nothing. i have 4 times that in my phone. and 71,5 times that in my pc. YES, it does have microsd, but god, the speed on those are horrible. i mean i have a 5400rpm drive with an avg of around 120mb/s r/w and loading certain games is bad enough on that

You know, compression algos are helpful in this case. If switch games could be split in even blocks with most standard cluster sizes, then the paging from microsd would make it not so slowish given today sd controller standards (faster class read/write requirements), so you'd have good reading performance at lower cost.

To me that means : you can use either msd or external usb for massive game libraries, and just the bare minimal stuff for OS.

Remember the 2GB SD card the 3ds came bundled with? You cram a very small NAND for OS, and extend the OS content through cheap media. This is all over the same and I see no problem with it... also you could use USB .. but that just for home console mode.

I think it's a good thing that OS rely on whatever media devices (cheaper), that leaves room for hardware developer how to improve that (and I guess they already did that). Causing device: 1) to become cheaper - mass produced, 2) improve the OS (where programmers just implement software layer tailored for embedded devices), that extends scalability as it relies on external materials.

In all honesty, if I want performance I could use home console mode, and improved battery life then external media IS the way to go!
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About the paid online I barely play online, we have yet to see..

 

[CathyRina]

The launch lineup isn't fantastic but I'd say 'god awful' is kind of a stretch.

So far confirmed launch day titles:
- 1-2-Switch (which should've been bundled with the Switch and not charged 50$ for "Imagination: the game")
- Zelda (which also comes for the Wii U)
- Super Bomberman R
Japan only:
- Dragon Quest Heroes 1 & 2
- Nobunaga's Ambition

That's like 3 games if you're not living in Japan.

With payed online maybe they're making it better?

I sure f*cking hope so. Although that VC rental thing doesn't sound that great and the Voice chat functionality isn't built in the switch but has to be used on a separate smart device, preferably with a headset that uses an audio-jack (surprise! as a PC gamer I have only usb headsets).