Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/10/20/nintendo-announces-new-tablet.html
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The video looks neat. I’ve been a Nintendo fan since the NES and have owned every console theyve released. Consider me bias. I love their solid builds that don’t overheat or have odd bugs like other consoles. The games are well made and the focus on gaming with someone has been a core part of Nintendo for a long time. I’m looking forward to it.
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Reading message boards these days for the last five years, I am left with the impression that the road to tremendous financial success for Nintendo lies in finding a means to monetize all the opinions people have about what Nintendo should actually be doing.
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It’s out in March
Just in time for Christmas.
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Oh, Nintendo, you Zooey Deschanel of console makers you.
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From what I’ve learned from the video…Nintendo Switch is apparently the perfect way to ignore your shitty dog when you have to take them to the dog park. In all seriousness though, it does look pretty neat, depending on how flimsy those side controllers are and whether or not the battery life will exceed a standard gaming session.
I’m actually really interested to know what this portends for the 3DS. Are they really going to prop up two portable systems at the same time? How’s that going to work? If they’re offering two versions of Smash Bros., and what have you, for both portable systems…well that just feels a bit off.
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yeah, delivery in March? mmmmmmm…
It looks cool, but if the smarts are all in the screen, then it may run a bit warm? I didn’t see anyone poke the screen with their finger, so it must be controlled only by the slide on bits? I like the social aspect, but aren’t kids these days just carting around their phone already?
Bet that dude was too engrossed in his game to pick up the dog’s doody.
Christ, what an… ohhh shiny!
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an Nvidia GPU on a Nintendo console. Never thought i’d see the day.
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My understanding is that it’ll replace the 3DS and the Wii U - this is Nintendo’s new handheld, AND it’s new console.
As long as I can buy Xenoblade Chronicles X on it, I’m sold. 
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Hopefully that wasn’t a proprietary memory card being shown. Kudos for the honest-to-goodness headphone jack.
I very rarely bother playing mobile games anymore, but this was enticing.
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Looks like the Nintendo execs saw the NVidia Shield line of products, went to their headquarters, kicked down the door and said, “You wanna print some money!?”
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I suspect it’s a touchscreen tablet but they purposely avoided showing that functionality to help distance it from both casual games and the Wii U tablet.
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Huh, interesting. They gave up on the ungainly hybrid of tablet and console approach of the Wii U and just went full tablet. It does have some features that other tablets and phones lack - the controllers, two player games, the potential to run last-gen console games on it. That last bit may be a real seller for a portable device.
I’m wondering about that dock - it looks pretty beefy for something that I can’t imagine has much of a function beyond being a recharger/usb hub.
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Let’s get tomato soup delivered!
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There’s a chance the dock serves as an upscaler for display on the TV.
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If the dock has it’s own GPU it’s going to get interesting.
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The big thing will be the software. I know Nintendo has some hot proprietary titles (though an MMORPG Pokemon title - no Pokemon Go - would be a welcome addition), but it sounds like the things that made the Wii U unique combined with the rendering power of the system is what kept software shops from making Wii U versions of the game. I hope this console takes care of that issue.
As for the cartridges - it is nice I don’t have to swap out optical discs, but I still like to have all my titles on the hard drive (yeah, doesn’t work well for portability)… especially with kids. Not sure even my kids know where all their DS cartridges are…
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From what I understand it goes a little further than that, though those are added complications. The Wii and game cube, and even to a certain extent n64 had similar issues. Though things didn’t get really extreme till the Wii. Since Nintendo is always primarily 1st party they aren’t exactly gung ho about others developing for their hardware in the first place. And supposedly their platforms are always a but difficult for outsiders to work with. That’s been increasing as each new console gets more distant from their competition in terms of power, online capabilities, and control scheme. And the difference is even more pronounced now that PC is a major thing again and their current consoles are basically built on the same PC tech.
It boils down to it not being cost effective to develop for the platform. Particularly when developing for any of its competitors gives you easy opportunity to go cross platform in a way you can afford. And Nintendo isn’t know for trying to make this shit easier or cheaper for outsiders.
I think it depends on what’s in that tablet. If it’s of the full tablet PC sort, same sorts of components and software system as PCs and the other consoles it’ll be easier for 3rd party developers than past Nintendo consoles. If it’s more like your standard mobile OS tablet or phone? Or traditional proprietary consoles? Not so much.
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Wait a minute, this thread has gone this far without someone making a silly “the Switch is a turn-on/turn-off” pun?
Oh well, there will be plenty of time for that in the years to come.
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The impression I’ve gotten is that it’s not actually a touchscreen device, because the games all need to be equally playable when the tablet part is docked and outputting to the TV.
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