Live data from Hacker News

Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

nintendo.com

121–130 of 551 posts

Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the two people playing Mario Kart split screen on that thing was laughable.

with half a controller each, too.

I can't imagine how complicated it must be to develop a decent game that works with a full controller, half a controller, 2 full controllers, 4x1/2 controllers, etc

Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#122
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm very intrigued by this console. I switched to Steam after the PS3 and thought I'd never get a TV based console again. I really love the slide-in controllers. A few things I hope for would be: * Open specs for the slide-in controllers so that third parties can satisfy various niches (like the fighting game community) * A standard USB-C or micro-USB charging port so that people can use their existing power banks/ch…

What would be the business decision for them allowing cross device purchases? They might be selling the console at a loss for game revenue.

Nintendo hasn't sold devices at a loss unlike some other game console makers. At one point they were the only major console provider to make a profit on the device.

Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#123

Am I the only one who found it funny that people, all dressed up, playing a basketball game on the device right in front of a basketball field?

The video sports games and live sports games have a certain potential for synergy, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/sports/soccer/the-scouting...

Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#124
post #101

If there's a "switch" here, it's Nintendo finally taking feedback from customers and third parties seriously. Console with graphical power that rivals Xbox One and PS4. Check. Industry-standard architecture and tooling (Unity), allowing third parties to flood in. Check. Blends their successful portable division with their console division (this has been a common refrain for awhile now). Check. They already addressed…

> Console with graphical power that rivals Xbox One and PS4. Check. Where do you get this from? The specs haven't been released and they're showcasing some previous-gen games. I doubt this will have the processing power of the original Xbox One or PS4, let alone the souped-up versions of those consoles that are coming soon.

yet to be fair, the very modest gamecube had some of the best franchises around (Metroid Prime a total classic), and even the PS2 did wonders on Shadow of the Colossus. It's almost as if, when the hardware is not supreme, creativity becomes more important?

Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#125
post #6

This looks amazing - nice form factor for easy use on the go (demonstrated in many ways in the video, including on airplanes), but still letting you have a classic game experience. It shows smart usage of now standard wireless tech and highly portable & fast storage. It's amazing how slow game consoles change minus beefed up computing capabilities, and while Nintendo has had some hit or misses, this shift looks like…

Agree, my first reaction is, "I want one."

Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#126

I just don't have faith in Nintendo anymore, they have a track record now of so many failed consoles and disappointments, lack of third party support, even the new Zelda doesn't get me that excited (and I've been a die hard fan for years, playing Ocarina of Time as a kid made me want to learn how to make games). We'll see how this one turns out.

Really? 3DS has been a huge success and while the WiiU didn't sell well, it's a pretty fun console.

Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#127

I just don't have faith in Nintendo anymore, they have a track record now of so many failed consoles and disappointments, lack of third party support, even the new Zelda doesn't get me that excited (and I've been a die hard fan for years, playing Ocarina of Time as a kid made me want to learn how to make games). We'll see how this one turns out.

So, the Wii U is so many failed consoles now? The Wii was a raging success. The 3DS is a wonderful mobile gaming platform that I have poured hundreds of hours into. The Wii U wasn't great and was more of a half iteration than a full one. Yes, Nintendo made a mis-step there. But the Wii, DS, and 3DS were far from failures.

Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it's coming 1.5 years late to the game, I hope the graphic power is at least on par with the original PS4.

In that form factor? Unlikely. My guess would be somewhere around PS3/360 performance, perhaps with better graphics.

They already have 360 parity. Tri-core PPC processors (Wii U is clocked to half of 360 speed but CPU was never really the problem with those games) with AMD GPUs bound directly to the southbridge (Xbox 360 has an R500 equivalent, Wii U has a Radeon HD 4000/R700 equivalent). Also, the Xbox 360 had 512MB of VRAM and no other RAM; Wii U uses 2GB DDR3 with 32MB transparent rendering cache.

The Wii U does more than the 360 with less, already. It's actually a pretty great piece of engineering. And there are already tablets that can kick butt in that form factor (https://docs.sony.com/release//specs/SVF15N17CXB_mksp.pdf) so it's not unreasonable to think that with the new AMD Polaris tech that they're going to make something awesome.

Having learned from the Wii U, I think Nintendo is going to knock this next one out of the park. My biggest questions are, will there be 4K support, and what's the battery life on the tablet mode?

Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#129
post #24

Is this an upgrade for the 3DS, the Wii U or both? I was looking at picking up a couple of the new 3DS, doesn't seem worthwhile now.

Both. If you don't own a 3DS yet, you should buy one anyway; it's an incredible system with a huge catalog of great games.

There's also a healthy market for second hand 3DS game cartridges. It helps that it is backward compatible and can play a bunch of games from older handhelds (for which the games are cheaper).

Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#130
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying the games exist on the iPad platform. I'm saying that the hardware is certainly competitive with this and so it's not some super-impressive thing that this is coming out with Skyrim. Like, we have this hardware already.

How do you know? Do you have some kind of inside information? All we know is that it's running on a Nvidia SoC.

No inside information, but I can make some educated guesses? It's an nVidia Tegra-platform SoC in a mobile form factor, which limits its TDP. That it has a fan grille suggests that it can run a little hotter than a no-fan device like an iPad, but you're still fighting with battery life. Like, there's only so much you can do with that, plus the needs to keep costs down in order to be price-competitive with the PS4 and Xbox One. By "we have this hardware already", I was referring to how preposterously tight Apple has gotten with their A9x/A10 hardware in terms of CPU and GPU performance. It's still not as competitive versus Intel in general use cases as Apple wants you to think it is, but it is very, very good and is definitely no worse than "competitive" against nVidia's current Tegra line.

I don't think I'm saying anything particularly shocking. And none of that's to say it can't be a good, satisfying device. I mean, Christ, I was playing my Vita this morning, and the chip at the heart of that is Frito-Lay. Just that the gamer conception of "power" really isn't...real? And that there are a lot of things that have to be considered in terms of that.

Post reply on HN