With a $299 MSRP, however, we have to question how well the system will fair against the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Although these other consoles are older, both can often be purchased for around $250, and they have a much larger library of games. This could be an early sign that the Switch will struggle, much like its predecessor, the Wii U.
The price seems fine, especially when you consider that it can play the role of both a console and a portable gaming device. It's not exactly convenient to take an Xbox One or PS4 on a car ride, or even just play it in another room for that matter. The Wii U largely failed to take hold for a number of reasons, and price was only a small part of it. The Switch seems to be addressing a lot of those issues, resulting in something that appears to be a much more capable device.
CaedenV :
1) Too many parts. I mean seriously, you have the console, a dock, 2 'joy-cons', 2 joy-con bumpers, cartridges (seriously?), and a power adapter (shared between the dock and the console, so it is going to get moved). Too many moving parts to get lost or damaged... it just screams poor design.
Really, how did you ever cope with the Wii, which you likely had multiple Wii remotes and nunchucks for, along with their removable jackets, and AA batteries that you had to manually recharge or replace? The Joy-Cons have their batteries built-in, and charge automatically when docked to the screen unit, which itself charges in the base. There's no real need to unplug the cable from the base either, since the main unit can charge from a standard USB Type-C cable while in use. The bumpers and such are just there to make holding the individual Joy-Cons more comfortable, much like the Mario Kart wheel accessory. And in what way could cartridges possibly be considered a problem compared to bulkier and much more easily-damaged optical media? I'm sure they'll give you the option to download games through their shop as well.
CaedenV :
2) No games. I mean, this is nothing new. I still play soooo many old NES, SNES, and GC games on my PC. And no, it is not some odd sense of nostalgia because I didn't have these consoles growing up (It was all about PS and PS2!). I discovered them as an adult, and they are genuinely fun to play, so I play them. With so many great games I decided to try the Wii... and Zelda was OK, but not fantastic, and I got lots of mileage out of Mario Cart racing... and that was about it. But at least at $20-40 a pop we tried several titles out and I feel like we got our money out of the system.
Now we look at this new console, and... there is a fantastic looking Zelda game... and that's about it. Seriously? This is the company that made Punch Out, Paper Mario, MarioRPG, Metroid, and so many other fantastic games, and we get one now, and a horrible looking Mario game in the fall?
New console launches are almost always like this. They're obviously not going to tease all games planned for the console at an event months before the console is even released. And Nintendo showed off a decent number of upcoming games for this event. I doubt you actually watched the trailers for them though, since if you did, you would have seen that they actually have a game that looks a lot like a more-interesting version of Punch Out, and makes use of the Joy-Con motion control capability to throw punches. Undoubtedly there will be a new Metroid for the system eventually, and most likely games from all the popular Nintendo series. Plus, don't forget that unlike in previous generations, they'll likely be developing all their games for a single device. Rather than releasing some of their first-party games on a console, and others on a handheld, they'll now all be coming to the same system. Also, since the device's specs are closer to the other current-generation hardware, it's likely that they'll see better third-party support than was on the Wii U.
Decends :
And if you try to make any pokemon (trainer, mystery dungeon, ranger) games exclusive to the Switch and not available on 3DS. That is where you will get the middle finger to your entire company from me and i'm sure A LOT of other people as well.
How long do you expect them to keep releasing these games for the 3DS? In case you didn't notice, the 3DS came out 6 years ago, and Nintendo typically comes out with a new generation of portable gaming hardware within that time frame, at least following the original Game Boy / Color series. As a refresher, the Game Boy Advance came out in early 2001, DS was out worldwide by early 2005, 3DS in early 2011, and the Switch will be coming in early 2017. The 3DS has been out about as long as DS had been when the 3DS was released. It seems likely that there will continue to be 3DS games coming out for some time still, as the device has a good install base, is more portable than the Switch, and is priced lower, but you can't expect Nintendo not to release installments of their popular game series designed to take advantage of their new generation of hardware.
There seems to be a lot of negative sentiment in the comments section here, but most of it is seems unfounded, and unlike with the Wii-U prior to its launch, I see a much more interesting system here.
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