The Nintendo Switch Thread

[Candescence]

Really, 3-5 hours is actually fairly standard for any handheld device running 3D games these days, so it's really not a surprise. It's not great, but that's because battery tech is behind the curve compared to other tech.

[Salamander]

But will it have a sleep mode?

[Menace2Society]

Eh, 3 hours is better than the a hour and a half the Wii U battery lasted for. I'll accept that battery life, especially since I don't plan on using it as an handheld much.

[Klinsy]

http://gonintendo.com/stories/267205-shin-en-confirmed-as-switch-developer

Shin-En confirmed for dev, guess we might get another Fast Racing Game.

Surprised WayForward hasn't come out as one yet.

[Graystripe2000]

Another dev has confirmed support. 

http://gonintendo.com/stories/267208-zoink-confirms-switch-development

[Klinsy]

http://gonintendo.com/stories/267222-you-can-t-use-the-switch-s-screen-for-a-second-screen-experience

So, you can't use the Switch screen and the TV screen at the same time, that's kinda disappointing, since I got a lot of use from Wii U's off screen gameplay.

[Tails spin]

16 minutes ago, Sunlit Bastet said:

http://gonintendo.com/stories/267222-you-can-t-use-the-switch-s-screen-for-a-second-screen-experience

So, you can't use the Switch screen and the TV screen at the same time, that's kinda disappointing, since I got a lot of use from Wii U's off screen gameplay.

Well I mean the tablet is the console so there has to be a compromise. 

 

[Menace2Society]

That is little underwhelming for some, but not really too big of an deal, as well as understandable. After all, like Tails spin said, the tablet is basically the console.

[Conando]

It also lets it do the off tv experience better. There's no compromise when the hardware is either completely focused on tv output or completely focused on the tablet display. Depending on the tegra chip used we could actually get something with a lot of punch that isn't gimped by having to render the game twice.

[Zaysho]

36 minutes ago, Sunlit Bastet said:

http://gonintendo.com/stories/267222-you-can-t-use-the-switch-s-screen-for-a-second-screen-experience

So, you can't use the Switch screen and the TV screen at the same time, that's kinda disappointing, since I got a lot of use from Wii U's off screen gameplay.

Darn. Guess that means I can't plug in headphones to the Switch and play on my TV at night. I suppose if the tablet's screen is considerably better resolution than the Gamepad's, it might not be a big deal.

[Conando]

The resolution of the screen is rumored to be at least 720p. So it would be the handheld that's truly HD.

[Diogenes]

That's a bit disappointing, though certainly not a dealbreaker. It does make me wonder how they're handling Splatoon, considering how important having the map in your hands was.

[WhoWhatMan]

Not sure if this was mentioned before but

http://www.perfectly-nintendo.com/nintendo-switch-nintendo-confirms-lack-retro-compatiblity-note-battery-life/

 

There won't be any compatibility to the Wii U (I don't think anyone is surprised about this) and Nintendo is apparently trying to make the Battery Life last long as possible and "comfortably".

[Conando]

It probably means there will be a difference in performance between when it's connected to the dock, or plugged in, and when it's being used as a portable. By "comfortably", it most likely means they're only going to drop performance to a point where it doesn't make it a worse overall experience. So probably lower resolution and maybe 30 or 45 FPS when it's a 60 fps game, but we're not talking dropping it down to N64 fps levels.

[Blacklightning]

I've been thinking about those detachable controllers a little, and I kinda wonder if it'll ever become practical to regularly swap out the launch modules for completely new or third party ones. Whether it's to offer different shapes or aesthetic touches, different button arrangements like southpaw support or even entirely new control methods for specific games, you know? I guess it'd depend on exactly how cheap the little modules are to make.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

The wait to reveal makes sense now, that was the perfect way to communicate the idea of the Switch, and give us enough of a taste to make us excited for the blowout after the holidays

 

Edit: Also Full NVIDIA Press release

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

Quote

 

NVIDIA Technology Powers New Home Gaming System, Nintendo Switch

The first thing to know about the new Nintendo Switch home gaming system: it’s really fun to play. With great graphics, loads of game titles and incredible performance, the Nintendo Switch will provide people with many hours of engaging and interactive gaming entertainment.

But creating a device so fun required some serious engineering. The development encompassed 500 man-years of effort across every facet of creating a new gaming platform: algorithms, computer architecture, system design, system software, APIs, game engines and peripherals. They all had to be rethought and redesigned for Nintendo to deliver the best experience for gamers, whether they’re in the living room or on the move.

A Console Architecture for the Living Room and Beyond

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.

The Nintendo Switch’s gaming experience is also supported by fully custom software, including a revamped physics engine, new libraries, advanced game tools and libraries. NVIDIA additionally created new gaming APIs to fully harness this performance. The newest API, NVN, was built specifically to bring lightweight, fast gaming to the masses.

Gameplay is further enhanced by hardware-accelerated video playback and custom software for audio effects and rendering.

We’ve optimized the full suite of hardware and software for gaming and mobile use cases. This includes custom operating system integration with the GPU to increase both performance and efficiency.

NVIDIA gaming technology is integrated into all aspects of the new Nintendo Switch home gaming system, which promises to deliver a great experience to gamers.

The Nintendo Switch will be available in March 2017. More information is available at https://www.nintendo.com/switch.

 

[Milo]

Since it would be outright running games designed for consoles, I was pretty weary about the battery life being short; that said, I was expecting something a little better than 3 hours maximum. Irregardless of the potential factors that haven't been specified (Wi-Fi, brightness, gaming-specific battery power or general use), I think it kinda begs the question of why they designed it with hardware intended to run full-blown console games if the battery life would be that low. I imagine the battery life would be considerably better if the types of games ran were graphically / technologically some sort of midpoint between their handheld and console games.

Speaking as someone who prefers console gaming over handheld gaming as it is, I can't help but feel that the low battery life largely makes the purpose of making it a portable not very worthwhile. Which I would be okay with if the hardware (despite being a leap over Wii U) wasn't still seemingly behind a vanilla XBO/PS4.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

35 minutes ago, Gabe said:

Since it would be outright running games designed for consoles, I was pretty weary about the battery life being short; that said, I was expecting something a little better than 3 hours maximum. Irregardless of the potential factors that haven't been specified (Wi-Fi, brightness, gaming-specific battery power or general use), I think it kinda begs the question of why they designed it with hardware intended to run full-blown console games if the battery life would be that low. I imagine the battery life would be considerably better if the types of games ran were graphically / technologically some sort of midpoint between their handheld and console games.

Speaking as someone who prefers console gaming over handheld gaming as it is, I can't help but feel that the low battery life largely makes the purpose of making it a portable not very worthwhile. Which I would be okay with if the hardware (despite being a leap over Wii U) wasn't still seemingly behind a vanilla XBO/PS4.

Ok, I got a question for you, every heard of a Neo-Geo? it was a 1992 Home Console version of a 1991 adaptive multi-game arcade system. It was 100 times more powerful than a Genesis or SNES. Know why the home version despite all that power never stuck? because it cost $1200 in the currency of that time. SNK knew this which is why it was a specialty item rather than a main-stream product. Now the arcade version was one of the most popular, and long lived arcade machines of all time, because they had this novel concept: Why don't we make our arcade machine a platform, and the games a product. the Neo-geo MVS was one of the first arcade machines to allow for multiple games at once(1,2,4, or 6) and allow for them to be replaced with relative ease, and even included an internal Book-keeper. It's game release period was from 1991 to 2003 ending with SNK Vs Capcom(the last of nearly 200 games), and is still found in any arcade worth it's snuff today not to mention many pizza parlors.

Point is, adding more power doesn't make you competitive, it takes a clever idea and a solid library to truly sell any video game machine, and power can be a llimitation rather than an improvement. Tell me, from a system standpoint, what makes the Xbone and PS4 different from each other? Because I see very little other than a pair of custom PC boxes in a shouting match with each other with very little that makes them unique. Whereas Nintendo has brought something completely different to the table that's designed around a focus on one thing: ACTUAL GAMES, and improving your ability to play them. The other thing is they've  partnered with the guys who make some of the best portable PC processors to make a game system, and added their own improvements, which means this is going to be something special since Nintendo is the master of refinement.

 

Also on the rumored 3 hour battery time, that's supposedly on Dev Kits, and the same was true of the 3DS. Devkits can also tend to have extra battery drains. 5 hours is expected at least, and most planes have outlets now(same with cars). You can't really blame that one on Nintendo, the Battery is kinda behind the curve

[Milo]

Just now, Mando-Whirl-Wind said:

Ok, I got a question for you, every heard of a Neo-Geo? it was a 1992 Home Console version of a 1991 adaptive multi-game arcade system. It was 100 times more powerful than a Genesis or SNES. Know why the home version despite all that power never stuck? because it cost $1200 in the currency of that time. SNK knew this which is why it was a specialty item rather than a main-stream product. Now the arcade version was one of the most popular, and long lived arcade machines of all time, because they had this novel concept: Why don't we make our arcade machine a platform, and the games a product. the Neo-geo MVS was one of the first arcade machines to allow for multiple games at once(1,2,4, or 6) and allow for them to be replaced with relative ease, and even included an internal Book-keeper. It's game release period was from 1991 to 2003 ending with SNK Vs Capcom(the last of nearly 200 games), and is still found in any arcade worth it's snuff today not to mention many pizza parlors.

Point is, adding more power doesn't make you competitive, it takes a clever idea and a solid library to truly sell any video game machine, and power can be a llimitation rather than an improvement. Tell me, from a system standpoint, what makes the Xbone and PS4 different from each other? Because I see very little other than a pair of custom PC boxes in a shouting match with each other with very little that makes them unique. Whereas Nintendo has brought something completely different to the table that's designed around a focus on one thing: ACTUAL GAMES, and improving your ability to play them. The other thing is they've  partnered with the guys who make some of the best portable PC processors to make a game system, and added their own improvements, which means this is going to be something special since Nintendo is the master of refinement.

Assuming it was my comment about it being possibly less powerful than the Xbone and PS4 that triggered this response, I'm going to clarify that no, I wasn't saying that that to imply Nintendo should chase after high power on the levels of the PS4 Pro / Scorpio  or higher than those two. Neither am I saying Nintendo shouldn't try to differentiate itself from the other two consoles Switch to not try its own thing to differentiate itself. I'm just voicing some concerns I have on both sides of the equation of what the Switch offers. I'm admittedly more interested in the Switch as a home console rather than the portability aspect, I just don't it to end up coming short on both sides of the coin its positioned to share.

Just now, Mando-Whirl-Wind said:

Also on the rumored 3 hour battery time, that's supposedly on Dev Kits, and the same was true of the 3DS. Devkits can also tend to have extra battery drains. 5 hours is expected at least, and most planes have outlets now(same with cars). You can't really blame that one on Nintendo, the Battery is kinda behind the curve

That's absolutely fair, though it's still a bit disappointing. For what it's worth, I heard the Wii U GamePad has roughly a similar length of use (three hours or so), but a extended battery pack exists for the device that extends its lifetime substantially. Hopefully the Switch can get a similar product, even if the GamePad and Switch aren't designed for the same purpose.

[Muscles Maximum]

Even if the switch does end up having a relatively short battery life, I certainly wouldn't put it past them to release a 2nd model somewhere down the line with more storage and longer battery life.

That said I'm definitely thinking the battery life will be around 3-5 hours. My biggest concern is the framerate, I didn't really notice my first time watching the reveal video due to hype, but now it sticks out like a sore thumb =(

I really hope they can get that sorted by the time this console drops.

[Betz]

1 hour ago, Strong Guy said:

I really hope they can get that sorted by the time this console drops.

With the framerate thing, I read somewhere (I'll go find the link somewhere. I can't remember it at the moment) that the console itself runs at 1080p and 60fps, and the handheld runs at 980p and somewhere around 40fps. It's a noticable difference sure, but when you're playing things like BOtW and Skyrim on a handheld console that is meant to rival the PS4 and Xbone (when they first came out. Not the S and the Pro) you kinda can understand why. They're giving you games like these in exchange for a bit of a framerate and visual quality drop. I think that's worth it.

[JaidynReiman]

33 minutes ago, Terriful said:

With the framerate thing, I read somewhere (I'll go find the link somewhere. I can't remember it at the moment) that the console itself runs at 1080p and 60fps, and the handheld runs at 980p and somewhere around 40fps. It's a noticable difference sure, but when you're playing things like BOtW and Skyrim on a handheld console that is meant to rival the PS4 and Xbone (when they first came out. Not the S and the Pro) you kinda can understand why. They're giving you games like these in exchange for a bit of a framerate and visual quality drop. I think that's worth it.

The problem is that people actually noticed frame drops during the teaser trailer. It may be intended to run at 900p and 30fps but that doesn't mean it always works well in practice.

[Salamander]

I'd hope the framerate issues are a matter of it still being in-development footage (I think there's a rumour that the reveal was delayed from September so they could get Mario NX running better, too).  The possibility exists that both game and console will be a bit more polished by launch.

[The Deleter]

I don't think we have to worry about the framerate problem in the video, at the very least...

[WhoWhatMan]

6 hours ago, Terriful said:

With the framerate thing, I read somewhere (I'll go find the link somewhere. I can't remember it at the moment) that the console itself runs at 1080p and 60fps, and the handheld runs at 980p and somewhere around 40fps. It's a noticable difference sure, but when you're playing things like BOtW and Skyrim on a handheld console that is meant to rival the PS4 and Xbone (when they first came out. Not the S and the Pro) you kinda can understand why. They're giving you games like these in exchange for a bit of a framerate and visual quality drop. I think that's worth it.

Actually a thing I notice on the Zelda BOTW footage, it have fps drops on both on the dock and without it.

Pay attention to the grass and the horse's tail when the guy undock the system, they're going at the same fps.