Nintendo is making their comeback with a new console, the Nintendo Switch. Basically is a hybrid of home-console and portable-console, with an embedded 2 joystick-the joycon-, and a multiplayer feature (online or through linking with nearby Switch console).
The marketing is a huge success, lot of exposure here and there from youtube channels and gaming medias. The innovation of the console collaborating with a good presentation really tempts you to buy and try it right away. Even the simple snapping sound they made for the Switch’s trademark immediately stuck in your brain.
And it really is, earlier on February Nintendo Switch Pre-Order had been cancelled at several US retailers. This included Target and GameStop reporting that they had ran out of their allocated Switch units and had to shut down pre-orders, which they resume a week later after got a new stock and apparently… still wasn’t enough.
Switch offer many new things to try and explore, one of them is “sliding”. You can see from many videos or ads is that you mostly interact with the hardware by sliding it, slide your Switch screen to the dock that tethered to your TV so you can play it through TV Screen or Slide the Joycon to the Switch Screen so you can play it mobile. It really is tempting cause it is quite innovative for a game console.
Of course it’s still short on games, apart from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Switch still has a little to offer, but I guess not long enough more great video games will make a debut to this console. You know when it can support video games like Skyrim.
But my point is how innovative this console is, it’s what a gamer wants. You still have that traditional feel in gaming (where you sit and play through your TV) and then you can continue your game in a snap shifting to mobile version. Not just that, but the way the console already packaged with two joysticks (Joycon), you can socialise with your friend by playing the Switch outside your home. Other friends that have a Switch can also play together with you by linking, how fun is that when you can play video games anywhere with lots of your friends.
That’s a pack of unique new behaviour in gaming. Considering the pre-order occurrence in the US, and if the success continues to other countries, it will give a big impact in society’s behaviour of gaming and set out a new bar for what a good console might be like. It just need great video games to make it a real game console that a hard-core gamers like. And it’s more perfect if it can reach a wide range of market.
Oddden 