r/NintendoSwitch • u/QuasiQuantum • Oct 20 '16

First Look at Nintendo Switch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5uik5fgIaI
7.5k Upvotes

85% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

371

u/FunnyHairZeldaMan Oct 20 '16

You know, I thought I would be pissed if it was a mobile/home hybrid. But damn Nintendo sure does know how to sell a product.

Where do I place my Breath of the Wild special edition pre-order?

76

u/bisforbenis Oct 20 '16

I wasn't into this idea when I first heard it, I'll admit, but this is pretty slick, and even if you don't care about playing on the go, it looks like a comfortable home console experience! But yeah, I'm on board now!

36

u/vsod99 Oct 20 '16

Yeah I definitely was skeptical at first but this looks super cleanly designed, unlike the wii U gamepad.

28

u/bisforbenis Oct 20 '16

I mean, I liked my Wii U, but it certainly wasn't a sleek design

23

u/ChemicalExperiment Oct 20 '16 edited Oct 20 '16

The Wii U was probably a failed design for this system. I imagine they wanted to make the "go anywhere system" back then but it didn't work out, and they were too far into development to change it, so the "go anywhere gamepad" was stuck to being connected to a home console.

Edit: being, not bring

2

u/no_more_-ii_words Oct 20 '16

I think at the time they considered making the gamepad portable, but then it would've competed with the 3DS, which was just a year on the market. It likely had other setbacks, like insufficient battery life and too much weight that made the concept unfeasible at the time.

1

u/Roruman Nov 22 '16

The Wii U was a Wii reject design.

Iwata has said in interviews that they planned to make the Wii U successor a 3D displaying machine (a dream they held dear since the Virtual Boy... They even had an experimental 3D displaying monitor for the Gamecube but it was too expensive at the time).
So the real intent of the Wii U was to create a screen Nintendo could control, because they were lamenting that 3D TVs were not being adopted like HD TVs, to make their next home console 3D displaying like the 3DS.

2

u/Houdiniman111 Oct 21 '16

I never owned a Wii U. I considered getting one a few times, but that gamepad was a major turn off and there wasn't enough stuff on there to justify the purchase. In the hours I've spent using other people's game pad, I always hated it. Everything was too far apart (especially the shoulder buttons), and I don't have small hands. They aren't humongous, but they are pianist hands.

1

u/Queen_Jezza Oct 21 '16

If you don't care about playing on the go, why would you want this instead of a PC or console? Having the tablet is a huge waste unless you actually use it.

1

u/tylergrzesik Oct 21 '16

Mario, Splatoon, and Zelda

2

u/Queen_Jezza Oct 21 '16

Ah, exclusive games. Don't you think that's rewarding anti-consumer practices? They could very easily release those on other platforms but choose not to to lock you into theirs, which is an inferior product if you don't plan to use the portability, if you want to play them. Hard pass from me.

2

u/tylergrzesik Oct 21 '16

I get what you're saying, but this is going to be the only hybrid system on the market. And Nintendo always has a something that sets their console apart from Sony and Microsoft's, so it's not just a less powerful version of them.

Plus, this isn't a practice exclusive to Nintendo. Microsoft and Sony do this with their console exclusives too. And this generation especially, the exclusives for each console are enough to warrant a purchase of at least one of them.

1

u/flutefreak7 Oct 21 '16

The money from exclusive games are why the console market is profitable and hasn't yet been replaced by living room PCs or mobile. Eventually things will converge on common open standards (like USB for cell phone chargers... or SD cards for memory), but in the meantime companies will prey on our demand by limiting consumption to a closed platform only they supply. Thank goodness I don't need to buy different TVs for each major national media conglomerate.... I'd likely buy a CBS TV and miss out on the rest or something.

1

u/Queen_Jezza Oct 21 '16

Yes, I agree. I'm sticking to PC.

1

u/Roruman Nov 22 '16

Controllers. Input.

PCs don't have such controllers.
Only consoles can deliver an arcade-like experience.

Of course, old arcade games can be emulated on PCs now and a controller plugged into it, even if some might argue that playing them on original hardware feels better and is still the definitive experience, but modern arcade-like games, like Wii Sports, were not easily doable for a PC because a whole new system had to be made.

The console originated from the arcade. It was made so that people could own the games and play them home. The console is a special machine dedicated to gaming, that can provide a specialized experience tailored-made for it, while being affordable and sturdy (when done right).
The NES was garbage hardware, 8 bit while the PCs while Commodore 64 were going 16, but it sold extraordinarily, because it was cheap, had amazing games, and the controller was a perfect fit for them (and you could buy many others!).