The 'Other' Switch Thread

[Hero-of-Time]

A couple of things came from the earnings report.

 

Kimishima has said that they plan to ship 2 million Switch units before the end of the fiscal year ( March 2017 ). He also reiterated that the Switch won't be sold at a loss but they are listening to what consumers expect from Nintendo when setting a price.

 

It was also reconfirmed that Nintendo will not be talking about a price or a release date until next year.

[drahkon]

It was also reconfirmed that Nintendo will not be talking about a price or a release date until next year.

 

Didn't even know it had been confirmed before.

 

Well, that's me not saving my money for the Switch but instead for something else.

[Hero-of-Time]

Didn't even know it had been confirmed before.

 

Well, that's me not saving my money for the Switch but instead for something else.

 

Yeah, it was said this would be the case the other day, although it was just a rumour at the time ( I should have just put confirmed rather reconfirmed ). The same guy WSJ guy tweeted it again this morning after the earnings report came out.

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

Didn't even know it had been confirmed before.

 

Well, that's me not saving my money for the Switch but instead for something else.

 

Why would not knowing the RRP now stop you from saving for it?

[drahkon]

Why would not knowing the RRP now stop you from saving for it?

 

Because I make a savings plan based on the price of whatever I'd like to buy. As a student with not a lot of income it's the only way to make sure I still have money for rent and certain activities (theatre, buy video games, bowling, drinking, etc.)

 

Example: I know what PSVR costs so I can estimate what I can spend on free time activities. I don't know what the Switch will cost so I don't know how much I can spend.

[Dcubed]

A couple of things came from the earnings report.

 

Kimishima has said that they plan to ship 2 million Switch units before the end of the fiscal year ( March 2017 ). He also reiterated that the Switch won't be sold at a loss but they are listening to what consumers expect from Nintendo when setting a price.

 

It was also reconfirmed that Nintendo will not be talking about a price or a release date until next year.

 

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!)

Edited October 26, 2016 by Dcubed

[Rummy]

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 2012 according to GAF - so if they sold out of that shipment, that would be Wii levels of launch sales!)

 

That surely can't be right :p

 

Sure, I get it. I bought a Wii and launched and it was quite magical to be discovering this new, quirky thing with lots of other forumers. I didn't buy the WiiU on launch and don't feel like I missed out on anything. Part of this will be down to the Switch's lineup. The Wii launched with Zelda: Twilight Princess, WiiSports and games like Red Steel, which was a big deal at the time. I can't even remember what the WiiU came with. NintendoLand and I'm sure the rest of the lineup was a big insignificant really.

 

I'm with you on that. I did know I was eventually going to buy a WiiU anyway but I didn't on launch and then around March/April 2013 iirc HMV and a few other stores started their clearout - I got the WiiU with Nintendoland+ZombiU for £200 just, what, 6 months after launch?

 

If they price the system too high they run the risk of running into that same situation again. Retailers buying in then not being able to sell the thing; and resorting to clearing out. I'd wonder how much goodwill there still is with retailers after the WiiU, and how much they can afford to take big risks with the price.

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

Because I make a savings plan based on the price of whatever I'd like to buy. As a student with not a lot of income it's the only way to make sure I still have money for rent and certain activities (theatre, buy video games, bowling, drinking, etc.)

 

Example: I know what PSVR costs so I can estimate what I can spend on free time activities. I don't know what the Switch will cost so I don't know how much I can spend.

 

Fair dos man. I was an irresponsible student, so my gaming hobby was being funded by my student loans.

[Dcubed]

That surely can't be right :p

 

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!

[Rummy]

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!

 

You didn't actually re-read the other bolded part, did you? :p

[Dcubed]

You didn't actually re-read the other bolded part, did you? :p

 

What bolded bit? It never happened

[Hero-of-Time]

 

And if the dock truly does nothing more than charge and TV out the console then no matter what Nintendo say, or their fans, this is a handheld device!

Now if the dock does do something more, a boost of power, adds memory or features, then fair enough... but until we know for certain, it's like we're calling an apple an orange just because Nintendo say it's an orange.

 

On one of the podcasts I listened to recently ( honestly can't remember which one it was due to the amount i've listened to ) said that Nintendo maybe pushing the home console angle because of the price. Maybe it will be priced as a console £300+ but would be a hard pill to swallow if they were calling it a handheld.

[drahkon]

Now that we know how long we have to wait for further information, I'll say it again: Nintendo killed the momentum they've gained.

 

Reading around the internet it appears I'm one of a few who think that way. Good for Nintendo that it's only a few, then

[Shorty]

I imagine they've done the best they can. It's not like they have people sitting around thinking "how slowly can we release information?" More likely, they really didn't feel ready to talk about the Switch at all yet but were pressured into it by the constant feed of "just announce it already!"

 

The older I get the more aware I am of how business and industry works, and how many steps (licensing, red tape, approvals) there are to go through before you can talk about your product. Then people constantly complain as if the company has made the literal choice to do things in a way that doesn't appeal to the public, just because they're incompetent or something.

Edited October 27, 2016 by Shorty

[Hero-of-Time]

I imagine they've done the best they can. It's not like they have people sitting around thinking "how slowly can we release information?" More likely, they really didn't feel ready to talk about the Switch at all yet but were pressured into it by the constant feed of "just announce it already!"

 

Probably had more to do with the investor meeting than fan pressure. Investors certainly would have grilled them about the Switch had they not shown it before hand. I imagine if that had not been this month then they would have remained silent until January.

[Kav]

On one of the podcasts I listened to recently ( honestly can't remember which one it was due to the amount i've listened to ) said that Nintendo maybe pushing the home console angle because of the price. Maybe it will be priced as a console £300+ but would be a hard pill to swallow if they were calling it a handheld.

 

Which is exactly why they should be called out for it if so.

 

Although the only reason I think they're touting it as a home console is because they want to shift as many 3DS units as possible this holiday season.

If they said this was its successor people would hold off buying the 3DS.

 

Which I get counters my point on showing the Switch before Xmas but still, I think it'd be better to push for more sales of their new console as opposed to an old one!

[Fierce_LiNk]

I'm not so hung-up on whether it's a home console or handheld. It does the job of both. If you want it to be a handheld, then you can take it out with you. If you want to just play at home, keep it in the dock. At least, that's what it appears to be marketed as.

 

I'm also not too bothered about the lack of information. If there was absolutely nothing else to play, then I'd be a bit more annoyed. But, in truth, I'm quite satisfied at the moment with how my gaming life is going and am treating the Switch as something that I could potentially want, but don't necessarily need. The console isn't suddenly going to appear one day in stores without information, so the news will come. Plus, in this day and age of Internet leaks, speculation and so on, it'll be interesting when we do get little snippets, which will inevitably happen. We knew what the Switch (then NX) was going to be weeks beforehand due to leaks and insider reports, so I'm expecting the same thing to happen with system features, launch line-ups and prices.

 

I feel very serene about it all.

[Rummy]

Very much with Flink on this. I can wait til January and tbh I'm glad to have a date so I can stop thinking/worrying about every little bit of it knowing that new stuff's coming. Also don't particularly care what they call it for the ultimate ends - home console, handheld, hybrid; whatevs - the functionality doesn't change. The only reason it bothers me is if it's for marketing reasons or they're trying to play an angle due to limitations.

 

Now though I'm fairly happy - I've seen the 3 minute vid, know a little about it, and know that we'll get more info in a few months. No point bothering myself with too much worry until then, though ofc I'll still be on here discussing and speculating :p

[Hero-of-Time]

A couple of rumours are flying around about memory capacity and storage.

 

Hey all, we got more Nintendo Switch information for you today.

According to our source at Nintendo, the Nintendo Switch will support memory expansion via Micro SD card much like the New Nintendo 3DS did before it.

 

Where the New 3DS supported Micro SD up to 2GB and Micro SDHC up to 32GB, the Nintendo Switch development hardware supports Micro SDXC cards up to 128 GB in size. It is currently unclear if this upper limit will be reduced on the retail model, but the development model of the Switch does support running software directly off the Micro SD card as you would off the internal memory or a game cart.

 

In addition, a source close to the production of the Switch reveal trailer has informed us that the Micro SD slot on the Switch can be located underneath the handheld’s kickstand on the model shown in the reveal trailer.

 

No USB solution for the dock.

 

Probably our last bit of Nintendo Switch news for a few days, so drink it in while you can.

A source at Nintendo has confirmed to Let’s Play Video Games that the company doesn’t have any plans to support USB Hard Drives being connected to the Nintendo Switch Dock to expand system storage.

 

Nintendo’s concern internally is that allowing consumers to attach large external drives to the Dock will cause players to see the system as less inherently portable, harming their core branding for the system as a portable home console.

 

Additionally, Nintendo want to ensure that players can at any time disconnect the handheld from the dock without having to wait for games, save data or other information to sync first. Nintendo’s solution to this is to only allow data to be stored on the handheld, so that any time you disconnect the handheld all the same data is available to the player.

[Kav]

Ha, it's a bloody handheld. How they're trying to pass it off as a home console I don't know!

[Fierce_LiNk]

Ha, it's a bloody handheld. How they're trying to pass it off as a home console I don't know!

 

It's both. What makes or defines what a home console is? When the Switch is docked and linked to the television, it's the same as if you had a WiiU linked to it.

 

Whether it is on par with current home consoles should be the question. This will easily be the most powerful handheld up to its point of release, but the part that interests me is how it matches up to other home console systems. This is where memory expansion, OS, additional features, tv/video/streaming services come into play. Right off the bat, we know it won't be capable of playing physical media like blu-rays or DVDs, so that's out.

[Kav]

It's both. What makes or defines what a home console is? When the Switch is docked and linked to the television, it's the same as if you had a WiiU linked to it.

 

Whether it is on par with current home consoles should be the question. This will easily be the most powerful handheld up to its point of release, but the part that interests me is how it matches up to other home console systems. This is where memory expansion, OS, additional features, tv/video/streaming services come into play. Right off the bat, we know it won't be capable of playing physical media like blu-rays or DVDs, so that's out.

 

That they've said how the dock only charges and outputs to the TV, it's the same as a GBA Player. The GBA was considered a handheld and not both.

[Fierce_LiNk]

That they've said how the dock only charges and outputs to the TV, it's the same as a GBA Player. The GBA was considered a handheld and not both.

 

The GBA player by itself was useless though, was it not? You needed to attach it to the GameCube. The dock by itself is pointless. You can't do anything with the dock unless you attach the Switch to it. The Switch won't attach to any existing consoles like the GBA did with its player.

 

You can look at it that way if you like, that it's just a handheld with TV-out. It's true and I'm not denying it. But, you could also look at it as both a handheld and a home console. Whichever way you do look at it, the end result is the same. You can start a game on the move before docking it and playing in on the tv. That's the main selling point.

[Hero-of-Time]

An interview with Kimishima has been posted over on Bloomberg.

 

Nintendo Co.’s new gaming console Switch is part of a bigger plan that will include more accessories, a deeper lineup of software and possible tie-ups with other technologies.

 

In his first interview since unveiling the brand-new flagship product, President Tatsumi Kimishima said details about add-ons will be available in the new year. Kyoto-based Nintendo said earlier on Thursday that it will announce pricing and a specific launch date for Switch on Jan. 13, followed by an event where the public can try it out.

 

“By no means was that everything,” Kimishima said, referring to a video a week ago that introduced the product’s name and showed Switch being used as both a console and portable device featuring modular controllers and accessories. Nintendo’s stock declined after the three-minute clip was released, which Kimishima said was unexpected.

 

"To tell you the truth, I was surprised," Kimishima said. "I don’t understand why."

 

Getting Nintendo back on track is a top priority for Kimishima, who became president a year ago after the death of his predecessor, Satoru Iwata. Quarterly results released this week underscore how Nintendo’s core business is getting weaker due to a stronger yen that reduced the income earned abroad, as well as sharp declines in hardware and software sales. Even the success of Pokemon Go wasn’t enough to make up for sluggish sales, which have declined every fiscal year since 2009, when the Wii console was at the peak of its success.

 

Kimishima suggested that the Switch is part of a bigger ecosystem. "It may be appropriate to call them accessories. Or it might be better to call them add-on hardware. It’s probably more correct to call them accessories. You can assume that there will be a wider array."

 

The new device features a tablet-like display unit that can dock at home and connect with a TV, or be taken out and about with two detachable controllers. Nintendo is betting the hybrid approach will help the Switch become a hit like the Wii, its most-successful console ever thanks to its motion-tracking controllers.

 

As for Switch’s software, he said Nintendo made a deliberate decision not to disclose specific titles: "One thing we still can’t show is the software lineup. We want people to touch the device in January and experience the software for themselves."

 

A dearth of software releases for the Wii U has been cited as one of the reasons the console was never able to match the earlier Wii in sales.

Nintendo envisions many different scenarios where Switch can be used, such as a family, one person alone -- or even by someone who doesn’t have a TV, Kimishima said. "What you see in the video, however, is the core product," he said.

 

Asked whether Switch would work with hardware from other companies, Kimishima ruled out the possibility for now, but said "we are interested in VR," referring to virtual-reality technology.

 

"VR offers new ways of playing, but that depends on what kind of software can be played," he said. "If you ask us whether there are any possibilities, we can’t say no. It may be that we will build VR software titles, I think that opportunity is available to us."

 

Iwata, Kimishima’s predecessor, had frequently mentioned that Nintendo should be able to post annual operating profit of at least 100 billion yen. The last time Nintendo exceeded that threshold was in the fiscal year ending March 2011. On Wednesday, Nintendo cut its operating profit outlook for the current year to 30 billion yen, down from the previous 45 billion yen, citing a stronger yen that weighed on 3DS and Wii U revenue. Asked whether that 100 billion yen threshold was achievable, Kimishima said it was.

 

“As our previous president has said before, an appropriate level of operating income for Nintendo is that level, and that is what everyone understands,” Kimishima said. “That’s what we want to achieve. Based on various projects and new projects that we have, achieving that result is the premise.”

He declined to give more specific forecasts for the Switch beyond the one disclosed this week, which is that Nintendo will sell 2 million units in its first month after it goes on sale in March. The company sold 5.84 million Wii machines in its first fiscal year. The device that followed it, the Wii U, was less successful, with 3.45 million units shipped.

 

"In terms of how many units will sell, we’re looking at past examples where competitors, and our own Wii, had a lot of momentum, and that means the first year after it goes on sale will be extremely important."

 

I guess we can expect a bunch of Joy-Con variations then.

[Fierce_LiNk]

An interview with Kimishima has been posted over on Bloomberg.

 

 

 

I guess we can expect a bunch of Joy-Con variations then.

 

It's expected, but I can't say I'm looking forward to it. Things are a bit ridiculous with additional controllers needed, shells, classic controllers, pro controllers, etc. I was hoping Nintendo would leave all that behind, but I guess there's money to be made there.