Nintendo Presents the Switch

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Nintendo officially reveals its next piece of gaming hardware-- previously known as the "NX," the Switch is revealed to be a tablet-console hybrid with detachable controllers.

Nintendo SwitchA slick announcement video has fashionable youths playing with the Switch in a variety of ways. For instance, a man first plays with the machine at home on an HDTV, before removing the tablet-style console from a base station, attaching a pair of controller accessories, and heading for a spot of outdoor gaming. Another scene has the two-part controller take the role of two separate gamepads, and players are also seen using regular wireless joypads.

The video also shows the machine used in a tournament setting (maybe a sign Nintendo wants to target the lucrative competitive e-sports scene?) between scenes of seamless transitions between home and portable gaming, as well as what looks like to be a built-in kickstand. As for games media, cartridges appear to be making a comeback.

Will the Switch manage to, well, switch Nintendo's fortunes? After all, the Japanese giant failed to capture the imagination of the gaming public with the successor to the best selling Wii, the confusingly named Wii U, even if it did critical reaction and a strong, if limited, game catalog. The console will surely require support from AAA publishers of the EA and Ubisoft variety, despite Nintendo's indisputable skill in making compelling titles.

Very few hardware details are available, other than that Nvidia provides the GPU powering the machine-- a Tegra variant tailored to Nintendo requirements. The video concludes with a launch window-- March 2017.

Watch First Look at Nintendo Switch

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