Can Nintendo's $299 Switch Stand Against The PS4 And XB1?

[Gilles_2]

GILLES_2, what I meant was that Nintendo just needs to give up on making consoles, not go away entirely. It's become clear that their hardware will always be a step behind Sony or Microsoft now.

Nintendo, for years since the Wii, has gone on to say that graphics alone don't necessarily make for a great gameplay experience, and they're right. But, instead of continuing to sink money into inferior consoles, they could opt to do what Sega did, lease their legendary IPs to the other console makers and focus on delivering a stellar product made on cutting edge hardware. They'll make a lot more money that way, they'll stop hemorrhaging money on consoles and be able to deliver a better overall product.

The Wii U should have been the ultimate lesson in that by now. I realize the Switch brings a whole new element to the party now with hybrid console / mobile gaming, but with that price, those specs and poor battery life, it will fail quickly if Nintendo doesn't bring the price down. At current prices for the PS4 and XBox One S, the Switch isn't even nearly competitively priced.

I understand very well what you're saying, but I still think Nintendo is not forced to out of console market, but they need to listen
Yes it is not all about graphics, but they could easily have a console as powerfull as Sony and Microsoft, while adding new unique features, and there I guess people would not complain about paying more, because they would get more
Right now Nintendo want us to pay more, for having something a tad different, but the difference is not enough, it doesn't really add something that you can't live without and that for a huge cost in not getting as good graphics and so as you get with the consoles already there
And on top of that, we have no guaratee that we could get many great exclusivities over the years, so it is paying a lot for ONE game, that is not a good marking strategy

 

[Gilles_2]

NOLONAR, since it seems you're a Nintendo fanboy downvoting everyone not saying Nintendo is great

please at least have the courage of saying something

 

[IInuyasha74]

Just to be clear, Nintendo declared the Switch is a home console, which makes it a direct competitor to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Personally, I think it would have been better to label it a handheld because that is what it most closely resembles, but Nintendo didn't.

 

[Gilles_2]

Just to be clear, Nintendo declared the Switch is a home console, which makes it a direct competitor to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Personally, I think it would have been better to label it a handheld because that is what it most closely resembles, but Nintendo didn't.

an handled of like 30 cm width with a 2h battery, please, if they wanted the stocks to fall even more this would have been the perfect statement

 

[Deleted member 1353997]

Yes it is not all about graphics, but they could easily have a console as powerfull as Sony and Microsoft, while adding new unique features, and there I guess people would not complain about paying more, because they would get more
Right now Nintendo want us to pay more, for having something a tad different, but the difference is not enough, it doesn't really add something that you can't live without and that for a huge cost in not getting as good graphics and so as you get with the consoles already there
And on top of that, we have no guaratee that we could get many great exclusivities over the years, so it is paying a lot for ONE game, that is not a good marking strategy

1. The Switch is a mobile console. If Nintendo could make it as powerful as a PS4 or XBO, Sony and MS would've done it already. Your first mistake is that you think of the Switch as a stationary device. The stationary device is the dock that is bundled with it. Who knows, maybe Nintendo will eventually release a Dock Pro that can allow the Switch to render games in 4k?

2. Mobile devices have always been more expensive than stationary ones. Look at the PC: You pay at least $2000 for a decent mobile gaming PC that performs about as well as a $500 gaming desktop.
Why do people buy gaming laptops? Because the added value is mobility. Your second mistake is that you're ignoring this fact. As for the size: The Switch is slightly larger than a 3DS XL. There are plenty of people who bought one and carry it around. Why would the Switch be different?

3. Your third mistake is that you assume the price will always be $300. Remember the PS3? Wasn't it like $800 at launch? How much does it cost now? It also didn't get much success until its price dropped to $400. And the 3DS was only $50 less than a Switch, but had its price almost halved, just 3 months after release.

4. There is no guarantee that any of the competing consoles will get many great exclusives either. The only guarantee is that they'll get many great games that are also available on other platforms. We do have a guarantee that Nintendo will release (relatively) many great exclusives for the Switch, like with every other Nintendo console before.
Plus, MS is currently trying to push Windows 10. I expect most (if not all) future XBO exclusives to also appear on PC; see GoW4, ReCore, Quantum Break, Forza, etc.

 

[Deleted member 1353997]

NOLONAR, since it seems you're a Nintendo fanboy downvoting everyone not saying Nintendo is great

Oh, really? I only downvoted your posts, though. And only 3 of them, out of what, 10?
Can't really keep track, when you keep spamming like that.

please at least have the courage of saying something

You're welcome.

 

[Gilles_2]

Yes it is not all about graphics, but they could easily have a console as powerfull as Sony and Microsoft, while adding new unique features, and there I guess people would not complain about paying more, because they would get more
Right now Nintendo want us to pay more, for having something a tad different, but the difference is not enough, it doesn't really add something that you can't live without and that for a huge cost in not getting as good graphics and so as you get with the consoles already there
And on top of that, we have no guaratee that we could get many great exclusivities over the years, so it is paying a lot for ONE game, that is not a good marking strategy

1. The Switch is a mobile console. If Nintendo could make it as powerful as a PS4 or XBO, Sony and MS would've done it already. Your first mistake is that you think of the Switch as a stationary device. The stationary device is the dock that is bundled with it. Who knows, maybe Nintendo will eventually release a Dock Pro that can allow the Switch to render games in 4k?

2. Mobile devices have always been more expensive than stationary ones. Look at the PC: You pay at least $2000 for a decent mobile gaming PC that performs about as well as a $500 gaming desktop.
Why do people buy gaming laptops? Because the added value is mobility. Your second mistake is that you're ignoring this fact. As for the size: The Switch is slightly larger than a 3DS XL. There are plenty of people who bought one and carry it around. Why would the Switch be different?

3. Your third mistake is that you assume the price will always be $300. Remember the PS3? Wasn't it like $800 at launch? How much does it cost now? It also didn't get much success until its price dropped to $400. And the 3DS was only $50 less than a Switch, but had its price almost halved, just 3 months after release.

4. There is no guarantee that any of the competing consoles will get many great exclusives either. The only guarantee is that they'll get many great games that are also available on other platforms. We do have a guarantee that Nintendo will release (relatively) many great exclusives for the Switch, like with every other Nintendo console before.
Plus, MS is currently trying to push Windows 10. I expect most (if not all) future XBO exclusives to also appear on PC; see GoW4, ReCore, Quantum Break, Forza, etc.

First this is NOT a portable console, it is a home console with a portable feature, it is advertise that way by Nintendo.

Second the hardware in it is a tegra which is a cheap portable APU so it has nothing in common with expensive portable hardware that you can find in gaming laptops

Third, none cares about how much the price can drop (by the way it doesn't drop that much for Nintendo consoles in the past), the console has to be competitive with what is on the market when it launch

Finally, looking at the past exclusivities is clearly not giving much hope for the Switch on the other hand you can already buy few great ones on the consoles already there and even adapting them for the Switch would give a result worst on it than on actual hardware

So you can draw the conclusions yourself

 

[Gilles_2]

NOLONAR, since it seems you're a Nintendo fanboy downvoting everyone not saying Nintendo is great

Oh, really? I only downvoted your posts, though. And only 3 of them, out of what, 10?
Can't really keep track, when you keep spamming like that.

please at least have the courage of saying something

You're welcome.

Well I just contradicted everything you said, so you can have some fun, by the way I m still waiting for the list of the great exclusivities that Nintendo released on the home consoles these past 15 years

 

[techy1966]

in 1 word...Nope

The price alone for the little bit of horse power you are getting is to steep. They are charging close or slightly more for less hardware spec but hey you get some nifty controllers and can go mobile on it oh wait I can do that on my phone too and play games and if that is not enough I can go bigger and better on my Surface Pro and also run my spread sheets.

This is just my opinion of coarse. I think they missed the mark with this. I thijnk the unit should have added hardware in the base that allows it to play bigger and better games that rival the other 2 consoles on the market and when you want to go mobile the unit either has it's mobile games ready to go or it scales down the games so they work in mobile mode but at lower details etc etc.

As it sits you got a device that may give some fun for a couple weeks then it will sit and collect dust kinda like the WII & WII-U hardware did in the past. Nintendo seems to very out of touch with the consumer market they have been for a long time or they are just so stubborn and have to much money that they do not care about making a product that fully competes with the rest but they just say hey this design is cool buy it the others are crap kind of thinking.

Like I said my opinion only on this. Would I buy this nope would my kids get it under the xmas tree nope they already have PS4 and Xbone those get played pretty much every day and it has been that way since day 1 a few years ago. COuld I see them playing this for years to come most likely not because they would tire of it fast and go back to the others.

This Switch will be the most wanted hardware for the 2017 xmas season by the kids and will be played by most of them probably until xmas break is over then they will go back to their PC's or other consoles once they bore of Mario cart or Super Mario. If this was cheaper then maybe it would be a good buy about half the cost of a PS4 Pro sounds about right or less. If it had the extra hardware in the base to play bigger games and they added a few bucks to the price then it would be a great buy and most likely under my 2017 xmas tree for the kid's.

 

[drip50291]

Nintendo keeps distancing itself from the mainstream gamer market. Less motion controls and more high end specs please! Also, a battery I can't remove is such a huge turn off. The experience of gaming on the go is not going to be what everyone has in mind. You're going to have to charge this thing like crazy. I bet they don't even have a Skylake chip in there! XD

 

[TEAMSWITCHER]

Two years from now, Microsoft and Sony will be kicking themselves for not coming up with something similar. They they will announce "Me Too" products available in 2020. Mark My Words! Nintendo is back in MEGA-HIT territory.

 

[Giroro]

The switchable controllers seems like a novel idea that is totally half-baked. It seems like their engineers tried to shove every gimmick they can into the thing, without actually thinking about how anything is actually going to be used in the real world.

The asymmetric sensors mean no developer will use the 2 halves of the controller for multiplayer. Also, the L&R buttons should be built in. Nobody is going to carry around 2 weird wrist straps on the offchance you suddenly want to invite a friend to play rooftop mario basketball - those L&R buttons definitely need to be built-in for their local multiplayer use case to have the slightest chance of working. The wrist straps are going to be lost or permanently shoved into a drawer about 5 seconds after opening the console.

Also, the IR sensor is facing the user, I assume that it's for wiimote style pointing at stuff, but why force the user to remove the controller every single time? Are the sensors for that built into the screen or something? Does anybody actually want to use motion controls with a tablet on a kickstand instead of the TV? Or if you are using the TV, do you really want to remove the stick every time instead of just pointing the whole dreamcast-esque pro controller at the TV?

Or what about the rear facing speakers and exposed vents? Couldn't they have hidden the vents behind the controllers and simply not use the fans whilst in tablet mode? I have a bad feeling that they do run the fans in tablet mode, and that's why their battery life estimate is basically " 2 hours or maybe 3x that, we don't know."
If they were doing it right, all the fans would be located in the base and only blow air through while the switch was hooked into the TV.

 

[RomeoReject]

"No region lock-"

Shut up, nothing else needed. Day one purchase.

 

[cryoburner]

an handled of like 30 cm width with a 2h battery, please, if they wanted the stocks to fall even more this would have been the perfect statement

They officially list the typical battery life as "2 to 6 hours", which should make it about the same as the 3DS, which was officially "3 to 5 hours", both averaging around 4 hours. Plus, it can charge off a USB Type-C cable, forgoing the proprietary connectors many of their prior portables have had. Also, doing a quick measurement of product photos would tell you that the device should be somewhere around 23 to 24cm wide, not 30.

BUT to play well on a PC you need to put in at least twice the price of a console, this means you already need to buy many games to get an advantage on the PC, but ok yes you can have a so much better experience on PC with great framerate and image quality (for up to 10 times the price of the consoles), but then these people with certainly not by a Switch with low end hardware, so this is clearly a console for consoles players not PC, and with that in mind, there is no really value to buy this over a ps4/xone except if you want the new zelda that nintendo gamers are waiting for more than 10 years (and were promised to get on the previous consoles but still waiting)

A couple people already posted in this thread that they were PC gamers who were interested in the Switch, and I fall into that category as well. As someone who primarily games on the PC, I have relatively little interest in the consoles from Sony and Microsoft. They do a subset of the things that a PC can do, and not much more. For the most part, they are pretty much just locked-down PC hardware that dictates what software you can and can't run. Maybe they have a worthwhile exclusive here and there, but the majority of their games get released on the PC as well. Nintendo's devices, however, try to offer something really new and interesting with each generation, and their first-party games tend to be well made and different from what you find in most multiplatform titles.

Also, if Nintendo gamers were promised a new Zelda game "10 years ago", that would be Skyward Sword, which was released 5 years ago. >_>

NOLONAR, since it seems you're a Nintendo fanboy downvoting everyone not saying Nintendo is great please at least have the courage of saying something

Perhaps he downvoted your posts because they were filled with misinformation. The bigger question should be why are you downvoting those who have anything positive to say about the device?

 

[sillynilly]

Two years from now, Microsoft and Sony will be kicking themselves for not coming up with something similar. They they will announce "Me Too" products available in 2020. Mark My Words! Nintendo is back in MEGA-HIT territory.

Please read this:

"Just to be clear, Nintendo declared the Switch is a home console, which makes it a direct competitor to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Personally, I think it would have been better to label it a handheld because that is what it most closely resembles, but Nintendo didn't."

This is not going to be a MEGA-HIT. It just won't not when its direct competition kill it in every metric that matters for home console gamers.

 

[futureyes]

If Nintendo/Nvidia had gone with Pascal/14nm, they would've had a major competitor in their hands and something I would have spent $400 on. Seeing the Nintendo/Nvidia/Shield/Android potential got me pretty excited about this. Sadly, Nintendo has again, went with last generation Maxwell/28nm hardware. Which makes this non competitively slow and 28nm kills what could have been amazing battery life off the base. Plus 720p on the handheld? Come on! This should be at least 1080p. We've had that on our phones for half a decade! Have such fond memories of my original NES. Haven't bought a Nintendo product since. :-(

 

[Decends]

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.

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.

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.

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.

You forget about the launch of the 2DS and the New 3DS and New 3DS XL (Those last 2 have newer hardware)?

 

[Decends]

considering that americans think iphone price is ok,

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa there. That's just plain stereotyping/racist. (not sure which term applies here). I know alot of people that think the price of Iphone here in the US is stupid and would never buy those over priced apple pieces of crap.

 

[bloodroses]

considering that americans think iphone price is ok,

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa there. That's just plain stereotyping/racist. (not sure which term applies here). I know alot of people that think the price of Iphone here in the US is stupid and would never buy those over priced apple pieces of crap.

I am one of those myself. Apple devices are completely overpriced and they have their fan base completely brainwashed into thinking they're superior to everything else. When Apple 'cultists' compare their iPhones to the competition, it only seems to be against Samsung; who are just as bad. Same with Apple desktops/laptops vs. HP/Dell only. I've never been a fan of Apple, even back during the Commodore 64 days.

 

[Deleted member 1353997]

First this is NOT a portable console, it is a home console with a portable feature, it is advertise that way by Nintendo.

It doesn't matter what way Nintendo advertises it. A portable console is a portable console, because it is portable.
Do you need a dictionary?

Second the hardware in it is a tegra which is a cheap portable APU so it has nothing in common with expensive portable hardware that you can find in gaming laptops

I compared gaming laptops with gaming desktops, not with the Switch.
Can you not read?

Fact is: a gaming laptop is inevitably much more expensive than a gaming desktop, without even matching its performance.

Fact is: The Switch is much smaller than a PS4 or XBO. It's a handheld (because you hold it in your hands) so it can't have fans or get too hot. Both these restrictions mean the Switch can't be as powerful as a PS4 or XBO, no matter how expensive the hardware gets, unless Nintendo can develop hardware 10 - 15 years ahead of the competition.

You are clearly expecting the impossible from a hardware that's designed to be portable, making me wonder if you're not just a Nintendo hater trolling around.

Third, none cares about how much the price can drop (by the way it doesn't drop that much for Nintendo consoles in the past), the console has to be competitive with what is on the market when it launch

Speak for yourself. The PS3 was overpriced and still sold well after its price dropped to half.
The 3DS was also overpriced and also did well after its price dropped. Obviously, a lot of people do care.

And finally, the 3DS did drop sharply shortly after its launch.
I should know, since I bought the 3DS just a week before its price dropped. Nintendo apologized to all existing 3DS owners by giving away 20 VC games for free, half of which still can't be bought on 3DS even now.

Finally, looking at the past exclusivities is clearly not giving much hope for the Switch on the other hand you can already buy few great ones on the consoles already there and even adapting them for the Switch would give a result worst on it than on actual hardware

The 3DS got plenty of quality exclusives in the past.

Well I just contradicted everything you said, so you can have some fun

And so did I. By the way, "contradict" doesn't mean what you think it means.

by the way I m still waiting for the list of the great exclusivities that Nintendo released on the home consoles these past 15 years

Good for you.

Wait, you expect me to whip up that list for you? What for? So you can say "Mario is not great, Zelda is not great, Metroid is not great, Pikmin is not great, Smash Bros. is not great, Mario Kart is not great, Pokémon is for babies therefore not great, same with Animal Crossing, Bayonetta 2 didn't sell so obviously not great, Wonderful 101 is not great, Xenoblade is not great, Captain Toad's just a Mario spinoff so it doesn't count and it's still not great, Splatoon is not great, etc."?
I'd have to be really dumb to do that, so why should I?

What about a list of all the great exclusives that MS and Sony released these past 15 years? And no, Fable Legends doesn't count because it got cancelled. As for all those PSVR titles... Ah, what the heck! why not throw in the Kinect as well?
It's okay, you really don't have to waste your time like that.

 

[bloodroses]

I think the time has come for Nintendo to throw in the towel on the console wars and just focus on being a developer and start leasing out their IPs to third parties. Their market share has taken a beating since the Wii and they clearly can't compete with Sony and Microsoft anymore in the console space.

Sega at least got smart and knew to quit while they were ahead. Time for Nintendo to follow suit.

it seems everyone but Nintendo understand how to make a good enough console, Nintendo is just keeping playing deaf to the world, so they are not forec to throw in the towel, they could just start to listen, but it seems they prefer failing than doing what they are asked to, I guess it is japanese mentality

You do realize Sony is a Japanese company, right?

 

[koga73]

I understand the comparison of the Switch to Xbox and PS4, but Nintendo is targeting a different market. Sure Nintendo could beef up its hardware, but why should they? So they can be like the Xbox, PS4, PCs? Nintendo wants to be different and frankly they don't want their console running the same games as their competitors because that would make them the same. If you want an awesome top of the line gaming machine get a PC.

As for the other main argument against Nintendo... that they should license their IP on other platforms. They are. Pokemon go was a license deal with Niantic. I don't know enough about Mario Run but they are clearly testing the waters. Despite this I'm not sure I agree that Nintendo should stop producing hardware. I love my 3DS and I love Nintendo games. I have no desire to buy an Xbox or PS4 and would be disappointed if I had to in order to play Nintendo games.

 

[gopher1369]

cartridges (seriously?)

You were expecting a 6" tablet to come with a Blu Ray player? How would that even work?

 

[wifiburger]

haha I already predicted this junk from Nintendo, already knew they were to use old tech and already knew the battery was bad with nvidia gpus ! but you know it's Nintendo so they are still going at it, by the time it drops to 150$ there will be plenty of used cheap games for it, pass !

 

[BadBoyGreek]

cartridges (seriously?)

You were expecting a 6" tablet to come with a Blu Ray player? How would that even work?

It couldn't, not in a practical gaming sense anyway. The Blu-Ray player constantly churning away would just destroy the battery life in no time. I also doubt that the vibration generated by a spinning disc in a thin tablet, however minimal, would still not be pleasing to hold in your hands after a while, either.