Dcubed

I'm half asleep and struggling to wake up, cut me some slack :p

A GAF GIF for the occasion...

Oh! Something that kinda got lost in the hype bubble of the Switch E3 conference video announcement... So they're planning a pre-release demo tour for January in Europe? Nice

It is pretty crazy when you consider that they're not letting any 3rd parties go into detail about their games until then. 2 months is not a lot of time to give 3rd parties the breathing room they need to tell people about their Switch projects. They're all gonna have to fight over the very limited message time they have (it's like launching a console 2 months after E3) and I reckon that many are gonna suffer for it. And if your game isn't 100% ready to be shown? Then you're screwed. You don't get a chance to be part of that initial hype wave as your game will just reflect poorly in comparison to everything else. While it might be good for the hardware itself (I mean, Apple basically invented this announcement model and the results speak for themselves), consoles aren't phones. It might get people hyped up for the machine itself in short order, but will the actual games benefit from the short hype cycle? I'm not so convinced... Nintendo has tried this tactic before to very mixed results (Wario Land: The Shake Dimension springs to mind...). I'm not necessarily convinced that this is a good idea. Mind you though, it wouldn't be such a bad idea if they only had a very limited number of launch titles... You know, if we have already seen all of the launch day titles in that teaser video....

So no reason to check out Nintendo's sites until Jan 13th? Gotcha.

In a sense, aren't Microsoft doing exactly that with the Xbox Play Anywhere programme? It might not be an all in one device like with the Switch, but the principle isn't a million miles off. It's the same game across all of your Windows/Xbox devices - cross buy/cross save and all; hell you could actually play them on a Surface Tablet if you wanted to!

I'd love to take part, but that Saturday and Sunday is unfortunately a no go for me. I'll happily donate though!

Kinda, I guess? In a sense you could say that they are because they operate without a large concern given to their competitors; they march to the beat of their own drum. But at the same time, you can't really argue that their release timeframe doesn't line up with their competitors; and that is what generations are afterall, a line of descendants. Hell even the Switch kinda fits in with the PS4 Pro/Scorpio in terms of timing, but that brings about another question; is the concept of console "generations" even valid anymore? With iterative consoles now being a thing (thanks smartphones!) we're never gonna see these kinds of generational transitions again. In a sense, the Switch will probably be Nintendo's last console (given that Iwata wanted to follow the iPhone/iPad model of hardware development with "NX"), just like how the PS4/Xbone will basically carry on forever now; so in that sense, the answer is no. They're existing in the same generational sense as their competitors.

Good thing that Nintendo feel the same way

Course it could. Nothing stopping it from happening. That being said, I would imagine that Nintendo will probably have you format the SD Card before use (so you wouldn't be able to use it on another device without re-formatting the whole thing; same thing as with USB storage on Wii U). exFAT and NTFS are Microsoft owned formats, so Nintendo won't use them (Nintendo? Pay licensing fees? LOL!) and FAT32 has a file size limit of 4GB max (fine for 3DS, not so fine for Switch though). So they'll have to use their own proprietary file format, like what they do on Wii U. Meaning that any SD Cards you use on Switch, won't be interchangable with other Non Switch devices. Would also mean that you wont be able to take pictures/videos with its built-in camera (assuming it has one) and just take out the SD Card/put it into your PC to copy/paste files. They'll have to come up with some sort of PC syncing app (like iTunes/Vita Content Manager) if they want to do that.

What bolded bit? It never happened

Buy on rumours, sell on news. Investing 101. You'd think that they'd know that

I do wonder if the Switch would be capable of emulating the 3DS... I mean, I think it should be able to, given the gulf in power and the fact that they both use ARM processors (so there's an architectural similarity; making the emulation process easier on the Switch's CPU). Maybe they'll have software BC instead of actual 3DS hardware? (or perhaps they'll release 3DS games as Virtual Console titles on the Switch) Wii U is out of the question of course. No way would they be able to pull it off. We've already seen their solution to that (native ports with enhancements, as seen with MK8.5 and Splatoon). Oh God yes please! There's a killer launch title for me right there! ( I WANT TO BELIEVE!)

That's the worldwide figure. It did roughly 6 million worldwide from launch to the end of March 2007 and was sold out constantly during that period (and beyond for almost a year!) Of course that doesn't mean that they expect it to sell as much as Wii did, they want to avoid the mass shortages that they had before after all. It just means that there should be a healthy supply of units during the launch period. Though if they did sell out, that would be incredible!

So Nintendo's latest financial results for the last quarter are out now... Mario Kart 8 has now, hilariously enough, hit the 8 million mark. It's almost poetic really (and once again I'm taking the opportunity to point and laugh at Polygon here for their absurd pre-release sales prediction ) And Pokemon X/Y has finally done the impossible and outsold Pokemon Black/White! With 15.64 million sales under its belt, it is no longer the worst selling game in the mainline series! Hooray! (poor Gen 5 deserved so much more...) I honestly didn't think it would ever happen; Pokemon Go really did have a huge impact here. Speaking of Pokemon Go, it's not listed on Nintendo's balance sheets, but they mentioned that they earned 12 billion yen (around $115 million) from all entities accounted for using equity method (these are all of Nintendo's outside affiliated companies, including TPC). As it was only 1.5 billion yen for the previous 6 months, we can clearly see that the grand majority (probably around 10-11 billion yen) comes from their share of the Pokemon Go takings. Not a bad chunk of change really! Luigi's Mansion 2 has hit the absurd 5 million mark (no really, what a ridiculous success!) and it looks like Splatoon (4.57 million) is gonna end up catching and even surpassing Smash Bros Wii U (Which is now at 4.9 million; sure to crack 5 million when all is said and done); who the hell saw that coming!? Also Mario Party 10 is almost at 2 million (currently at 1.94 million), not bad at all! Kirby Planet Robobot cracked 1 million this quarter (1.08 million), but sadly it seems that the European version of Fire Emblem Fates failed to capture the success it found throughout the rest of the world as it is absent from the report (that extra 5 month wait we had to endure really did a number on it; what a huge mistake that was!) Ediit: Handy dandy quarter-on-quarter comparison courtesy of Chris 1964 on GAF... You can clearly see the positive trends from Nintendo Selects and Pokemon Go here.

Of course, but it's the best indicator that we have, given that the Switch's hardware is based on the Shield's (or rather, it's cancelled successor - albeit with a lower res screen, which will help offset the costs of the more powerful processor in comparison to the K1). I do expect it to be higher than the K1, but $249.99 really isn't an impossible figure to hit (you also have to consider that Nintendo can afford a much smaller profit margin in comparison to N-vidia selling the Shield on its own - since the latter didn't make any money off the software sold for it, unlike Nintendo here). Again, it all comes down to whatever else is coming in the box as standard outside of the main tablet unit. But oh boy! If you thought that we were Rip-Off Britain before! You ain't seen nothing yet...

2 million sounds about right to me. Not far off from the Wii's first month shipment IIRC. Chances are that it'll probably release in the latter half of March, so probably around 15 days worth of sales. Edit: Correction, it's almost the same as Wii, which did 1 942 000 from launch until December 31 2012 according to GAF, so I'd say it's pretty bullish actually! As for price, I mentioned in the Other Switch thread that it's probably gonna be $249.99 (The N-vidia Shield K1 was $199.99 on launch for reference) and higher in Europe because of Brexit, so... £249.99? I could see it happening. Pound is probably only gonna get worse over time... No matter what, it's gonna cost way more in Europe (and especially in the UK - we're gonna get reamed bigtime) than in the US and Japan.

I'm expecting $249.99 myself. The Nvidia Shield K1 launched at $199.99 and the Nintendo Switch is basically the successor to it (using a customised K2 processor that was originally intended for the Shield K2 Tablet). The processor will be more powerful than the the one used in the K1 Tablet, but the screen is lower res, so that helps to balance out the cost somewhat (and greatly improves game performance too of course). Plus you have to remember that Nintendo can afford a smaller profit margin on the hardware than Nvidia could when they sold the Shield on their own (since, unlike Nvidia, Nintendo actually make money on the software and accessories), so that's gonna help get the price down too. In terms of pricing, it's the extra bits that are the big ? here. What's in the JoyCons? The Dock? Whatever else comes with it? I have no idea That being said, that only applies to the US. Brexit really has fucked up everything; the pound has tanked, the Euro is in turmoil and the yen has rocketed upward (causing Nintendo to record an operating loss today as a result), so expect the EU price to be significantly higher than anywhere else. 2 million units is a healthy start. Should mean that there wont be major shortages and it would be a good indicator of success if they can sell those within the first month or so! (For reference, the Wii did 1,942,000 from launch until December 31 2006 according to GAF - so if they sold out of that shipment, that would be Wii levels of launch sales!)

I wouldn't buy it before it comes out TBH. The longer you wait, the cheaper they'll be (SD Cards are only becoming bigger and cheaper over time, so it makes sense to just wait as long as possible before you need one). You can get 128GB ones for the same price a 32GB one would've cost a couple of years ago now. By the time the Switch comes out, 256GB ones will probably be the price that 128GB ones are now (and 512GB ones will probably be about £60-100)

Nintendo have to use SD cards with Switch. They have literally no other choice (can't attach a hard drive to the portable part of the device!) I do wonder if they might do something clever though and have some game assets stored on the dock/attached USB HDD (these would be high res assets that are only used when the game is running in "console mode") and some stored on the SD Card (the lo-res assets that are used in "portable mode"). Would help games to use up less space on the SD Card for portable play.

It's the light bar that drains most of the battery on the DS4 no? Motion controls have a negligible impact on battery life really.

Can't imagine that it would. I wonder if they draw power from the screen/dock thingy or if they have to be charged seperately though...

I do hope that it supports mini USB. I'm sick to death of proprietary chargers!

Might do. That's kind of how the HOTD games worked on Wii (it was basic triangulation that allowed you to "look down the sights" of the Wii Remote to aim without a cursor - worked very very well actually!) Food for thought though. Maybe it'll still have a sensor bar port on it anyway, for those who already have them on Wii/Wii U? (But it probably won't come with one)

Nice to see that even Jim Sterling (son) approves of the Switch trailer. Pretty much agree with everything he says in the vid (except what he says about Star Fox Zero, he's still totally wrong about it :p )