This past Thursday, roughly a year and a half since its announcement in early 2015, Nintendo finally unveiled a trailer (and first look) of their brand-new console, the Nintendo Switch (previously known by its codename, the Nintendo NX). Speculation and leaks pointing to the device being a hybrid between portable consoles and living room consoles appear to have been correct, as the new console can be removed from its TV dock, attach to two modular controllers, and be carried around and used on the go, complete with a touchscreen in the center. This is SUPER exciting and ground-breaking news, and from seeing games like Skyrim featured in the trailer, this new console can truly be a game changer (pun intended).
In terms of hardware, the Switch is packing a "custom" Nvidia Tegra CPU and GPU-- in layman's terms, this system won't have any problem playing games shown in the trailer like Skyrim's new remastered edition and NBA 2k17. The trailer also revealed two new controllers-- called Joy-Cons-- which have been shown in several different configurations:
On the body of a standard controller accessory:
On the side of the Switch body:
Separately as half-controllers:
Wirelessly, with the Switch in kickstand mode:
There's also the option to abandon the Joy-Con entirely and use a pro controller:
The Switch is also confirmed to use cartridges, similar to the DS family, rather than disks. While this was inevitable, as using a disk the size of a Wii U in a portable device would undoubtedly do damage to the disk. Unfortunately, this means no cross-platform support-- any Wii U games you have will not be compatible with the Switch (and, sadly, 3DS games as well). However, a number of third-party software companies have pledged their support to the Switch, meaning third-party games that usually aren't seen on Nintendo consoles (Dark Souls, Skyrim, Assassin's Creed). The new Legend of Zelda game, Breath of the Wild, is set to release early next year and will also be available on the Switch.
The Nintendo Switch will be available in stores March 2017.
