The Nintendo Switch Thread

[Shiny Gems]

9 minutes ago, God Eater Lenka said:

So is a Nintendo Direct not likely now? Or could they announce it tomorrow and then it could happen on Friday? I want some more info from SwitchDonald's in the form of a Switch Mac (though a Quarter Switcher would be nice too).

I am starting to wonder if there will be a Direct this week as well. Maybe next week if not this week? Either way, I hope we will get something this month.

[DarkRula]

I wouldn't be surprised if one showed up next week, or even just an info drop. A week and a half is better to showcase launch news than over two.

[Cyalume]

I'm banking on no direct, to be honest.

[Mark1]

I could actually see Nintendo reveal it a few days before launch, wouldn't surprise if they were doing something similar to the reveal of the console last October, where they kept everyone quiet on the reveal date until the day before. 

It feels similar, given how close it is to March and Nintendo themselves said they would reveal more on the online system before launch.

Don't think they have a choice either, if Nintendo are wanting to give gamers a free trial of the new subscription based service they need to convince them why they should join. Since the voice chat app has not received the best reaction yet.

[Cyalume]

The only thing I care about right now is that they get more of the system onto store shelves at launch; I'm actually worried about bringing the thing in public due to the scarcity of it. Would that make it a more attractive target for theft? What if it breaks? I already get hassled enough on campus when I bring other expensive gadgetry with me from people who don't have whatever it is or can't afford it. Personal paranoia on my end, but I tend to be a paranoid person.

 

According to a video recently uploaded by the Youtuber "Blunty", Austrialia won't be seeing anymore of the things until some point in August. Nintendo 3DS stock is also completely exhausted across the US right now, from what I've heard: my local Walmart doesn't have any, either.

 

Nintendo really needs to get their supply issue under control, otherwise they're going to be convincing a lot of people who would've purchased Nintendo to purchase something else instead. I wouldn't blame people for not wanting to deal with artificial scarcity.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

9 hours ago, Cyalume said:

The only thing I care about right now is that they get more of the system onto store shelves at launch; I'm actually worried about bringing the thing in public due to the scarcity of it. Would that make it a more attractive target for theft? What if it breaks? I already get hassled enough on campus when I bring other expensive gadgetry with me from people who don't have whatever it is or can't afford it. Personal paranoia on my end, but I tend to be a paranoid person.

 

According to a video recently uploaded by the Youtuber "Blunty", Austrialia won't be seeing anymore of the things until some point in August. Nintendo 3DS stock is also completely exhausted across the US right now, from what I've heard: my local Walmart doesn't have any, either.

 

Nintendo really needs to get their supply issue under control, otherwise they're going to be convincing a lot of people who would've purchased Nintendo to purchase something else instead. I wouldn't blame people for not wanting to deal with artificial scarcity.

Redagrding the 3DS, Nintendo's been intentionally limiting stock since last August, primarily to small themed refreshes for enthusiasts, but just like the wii-u, they are clearing the shelves for the Switch. Also really trusting a youtuber for Switch restock info? wait for actual retailer announcements

[Cyalume]

24 minutes ago, Mando-Whirl-Wind said:

Redagrding the 3DS, Nintendo's been intentionally limiting stock since last August, primarily to small themed refreshes for enthusiasts, but just like the wii-u, they are clearing the shelves for the Switch. Also really trusting a youtuber for Switch restock info? wait for actual retailer announcements

The Youtuber in question cited a retailer, which is why I felt it worth mentioning. I don't feel that they'd be clearing 3DS stock for Switch stock at the moment given the recent comments regarding their devotion to the platform.

Regardless of why they're doing it, it's really stupid.

[Meta77]

well my local gamestop said besides pre-orders they may word may get 4 extra but that's it don't expect like 30 extra sitting around

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Ultimate Chicken Horse is coming to Switch

 

Looks like fun

[Junko]

https://vid.me/oQkO

This is not a drill.

Switch OS leak, spoilers, etc, etc.

[Marcello]

4 minutes ago, Athena Cykes said:

https://vid.me/oQkO

This is not a drill.

 

This is a leak of the OS, for those who want to know before clicking.

Looks good. Nice to see a dark theme day one. Not a huge fan of the boot up music.

[Zippo]

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/IGN/status/832337950541111296/photo/1

Reviewers and journalists are starting to receive Switches and review copies of Zelda and 1-2 Switch. It's gonna be a crazy weekend.

[Cyalume]

Correction to my previous post (which has already been quoted), the Youtuber in question said April, not August. My bad.

 

EDIT: Here's an unboxing video.

http://secure-cf-c.ooyala.com/94dndyOTE61lt0Ye7RbFTMmZFEl4ztI8/DOcJ-FxaFrRg4gtDEwOm84OjBrOz0bxa

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

So here's some great news on the capcom/third party front

http://nintendoeverything.com/switch-dev-talk-50000-yen-for-a-kit-capcom-wants-to-make-aaa-games-much-more/

Quote

Earlier today, the Game Creators Conference was held in Japan. At the event, Nintendo’s Masaru Mitsuyoshi held a joint session with Capcom’s Masaru Ijuin about Switch.

One big thing to get out of the way: Switch development kits. These are planned for a cost of roughly 50,000 yen. If you’re doing a direct conversion, that’d be about $450 / $500.

Originally, the Joy-Con controllers were still in the research phase and weren’t included in explanation document.
Ijuin from Capcom said that there was only a touch panel form factor and nothing like the Joy-Con. Because of that, he wasn’t sure in what way the device would be portable. Then after the Joy-Con appeared, he though “I got it!”.

 

Hardware specs for Switch focus on high performance and low power. It means you can achieve nVidia GeForce’s high performance capability in TV mode, and you also can use the same device running with battery in tabletop mode and portable mode.

There was also some talk about how Nintendo achieved high performance and low power in portable mode and how it differs from smart devices. Nintendo is adopting an original operating system. You can use plenty of hardware resources for gaming apps and it can secure enough memory space for these apps as well.

Nintendo is putting high priority on wireless. Even if you go from TV mode to portable mode with Switch, it transits without a disconnection.

Next, the talk shifted to developing games while hardware is also in development. Capcom had been working on Ultra Street Fighter II for the new system. They are using their original engine MT Framework for the time being. The engine has plenty of actual results already and it had previously run on Nintendo hardware, so it made sense to use the technology. Lots of staff at Capcom are used to the engine as well.

To implement Switch compatibility with the MT Framework, Capcom begin to develop an environment to quickly examine the hardware right away. They initially excluded support of hardware-specific features and also excluded sound and network support. After this, Capcom began to develop a PC emulation environment in parallel.

One month was used to understand tools, development environment, and the SDK. Since they had been busy working on other titles, they only could secure two programmers. But with only one month with two people, they could port basic engine features.

The reason why it only took a couple of months was because the staff were accustomed to porting. Previously, they developed a Wii U version MT Framework. Also helping the situation was how the hardware structure was easy to understand, and they could use experience of creating convert process from HLSL to GLSL.

The port process was overwhelmingly faster than 3DS or Wii U. On 3DS, it took four months with four people. On Wii U, it took three months with five people. Hardware structure was very easy to understand and it also had similarity to Wii U, so that they could achieve it in a month with two people.

About main memory space, Capcom had told Nintendo that the initially planned space wasn’t enough. If you comparing to what’s inside other current-gen systems, it would definitely be short. In the end, Capcom’s request was accepted and the memory capacity became as per to their expectation.

One issue to examine for the future is how Switch’s SOC power consumption takes a bigger toll on the GPU than the CPU. Capcom asked Nintendo about implementing a feature to adjust the GPU clock depending on the situation, but Nintendo said that even if you lower the clock, the overall processing time will be longer and it won’t give much of an advantage in the end.

Finally, Capcom is looking into having the Resident Evil engine be comptaible with Switch. The company also wants to develop AAA titles for the platform.

So Capcom's all in on the switch, now that's a good sign!

[Salamander]

I really enjoyed Resident Evil: Revelations back in the early days of the 3DS; I'd be more than happy to play something like that on the Switch (and am still rather bitter that the platform with the highest Revelations sales never got the sequel).

[Meta77]

Did not capcom come out 2 weeks ago saying they have no interesting in putting Resident evil on the switch atm. I see no reason they would change that tune in 2 weeks.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

15 minutes ago, Meta77 said:

Did not capcom come out 2 weeks ago saying they have no interesting in putting Resident evil on the switch atm. I see no reason they would change that tune in 2 weeks.

You mean a producer who said they hadn't tried, isn't a major figure at capcom, and was asked by a random news journalist? That was blown out of proportion, and didn't really mean much

[Wraith]

None of this PR fluff matters until they come forward with some AAA games. 

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Just now, Josh said:

None of this PR fluff matters until they come forward with some AAA games. 

I wouldn't call stuff said at a Japanese developer event as fluff, we may not know the full extent, but it should give us a decent picture. What point would they have in lying in front of other developers? This wasn't being said to the press

[Dejimon11]

Just now, Josh said:

None of this PR fluff matters until they come forward with some AAA games. 

Yeah that's how I feel. Remember when the Wii U was first announced and all the 3rd parties were talking about how amazing it was and how innovative? And when EA said that Battlefield would come to the system? I mean things sound a lot more positive than they did with the Wii U but still you never know. 

[Wraith]

2 minutes ago, Mando-Whirl-Wind said:

I wouldn't call stuff said at a Japanese developer event as fluff, we may not know the full extent, but it should give us a decent picture. What point would they have in lying in front of other developers? This wasn't being said to the press

I'm just saying I wouldn't get excited until they show something concrete. The only game Capcom could come forward with so far is a port of Street Fighter 2. Not even IV or V, lol.

[Cyrus]

With huge HD games being put into cartridges, should we or should we not expect them to have their own save batteries? Speaking of which, I really hope the games don't require installation like everyone else's.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

17 minutes ago, Josh said:

I'm just saying I wouldn't get excited until they show something concrete. The only game Capcom could come forward with so far is a port of Street Fighter 2. Not even IV or V, lol.

V is a sony exclusive, and IV wouldn't be a good option, least SF2 is iconic, and it's pretty obvious how smoothly its going is making a good impression on Capcom

13 minutes ago, Cyrus said:

With huge HD games being put into cartridges, should we or should we not expect them to have their own save batteries? Speaking of which, I really hope the games don't require installation like everyone else's.

Carts are read only, and no installation, that's part of the reason they use carts

 

[Junko]

3 hours ago, Mando-Whirl-Wind said:

V is a sony exclusive, and IV wouldn't be a good option, least SF2 is iconic, and it's pretty obvious how smoothly its going is making a good impression on Capcom

1

IV has no reason to NOT be a good option, The first person mode already uses loads of IV assets, just do it.

Quote

Carts are read only, and no installation, that's part of the reason they use cart

1

They don't have to have no installation, the Vita installs data form carts.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

16 minutes ago, Athena Cykes said:

IV has no reason to NOT be a good option, The first person mode already uses loads of IV assets, just do it.

They don't have to have no installation, the Vita installs data form carts.

pretty sure that was just save data, options, and DLC, not something on the level of modern consoles. DLC and Saves will be on console, but not the primary game data, since read rates from the Cartidges will be as fast, if not faster than reading from the internal system memory