(Updated with more details) Nintendo Official: Switch will launch March 3rd - $299

[GoodBytes]

2 hours ago, Derangel said:

720p touchscreens are cheap these days. The dock has nothing special in it. Couple USB2 ports, a USB 3 port, HDMI port, and a USB-C port for the AC adapter. Thing probably costs Nintendo $10-$20 to make, if that. Yet something they believe they should cost $90. Besides the "HD" Rumble everything in the Switch is old tech.

 

Got no excuse for the bad math.

If you look at adapters taking USB Type-C port and giving out USB ports and HDMI out and charging they cost 60$.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018XF4KRC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A294P4X9EWVXLJ

So yea, you could buy this for your second TV instead of the dock.

 

So for 90$, you have it official, hold nice and well the system, solid plastic, looks nice, and cleans up cables.

 

Everything is always old tech. It is not the tech advancement, but it how you bring them in a unique way to the table, bringing new and/or improved experiences.

[Arri]

USB-C? DongleSwitch

[Derangel]

4 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

If you look at adapters taking USB Type-C port and giving out USB ports and HDMI out and charging they cost 60$.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018XF4KRC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A294P4X9EWVXLJ

So yea, you could buy this for your second TV instead of the dock.

 

So for 90$, you have it official, hold nice and well the system, solid plastic, looks nice, and cleans up cables.

 

Everything is always old tech. It is not the tech advancement, but it how you bring them in a unique way to the table, bringing new and/or improved experiences.

Correct me if I'm wrong but don't adapters like that generally have fairly high profit margins? Regardless, $90 is crazy for it. It looks nice, but nothing about the Switch feels like it's priced right. Everything feels like it's too expensive for what it offers. I mean they're going to sell out of everything regardless, heck even I pre-ordered the Switch and Zelda, but it just makes me think that Nintendo isn't quite sure exactly what they're doing right now. Either that or they have some time machine that showed them that pricing things like they are was the key to massive success.

[GoodBytes]

8 minutes ago, Derangel said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but don't adapters like that generally have fairly high profit margins? Regardless, $90 is crazy for it. It looks nice, but nothing about the Switch feels like it's priced right. Everything feels like it's too expensive for what it offers. I mean they're going to sell out of everything regardless, heck even I pre-ordered the Switch and Zelda, but it just makes me think that Nintendo isn't quite sure exactly what they're doing right now. Either that or they have some time machine that showed them that pricing things like they are was the key to massive success.

USB Type-C features circuitry (even on a simple cable), and it important that you get good cable.

A while back Anker went did a crap job, which lead them doing a mass recall with apology. Google did a whole investigation on USB Type C finding that most online were shit, to a point that it could damage the Chromebook connected to it when charging (and it isn't the charger itself)

 

This video shows how cutting corners can make a simple USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable damage your device (and this was the device that triggered Anker in doing the recall after validating his findings a few days after)

So, do your research before buying any USB Type C cable or charger. The few bucks saved, might cost you your laptop (if used with USB-Type C), phone, or Switch

[Derangel]

9 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

USB Type-C features circuitry (even on a simple cable), and it important that you get good cable.

A while back Anker went did a crap job, which lead them doing a mass recall with apology. Google did a whole investigation on USB Type C finding that most online were shit, to a point that it could damage the Chromebook connected to it when charging (and it isn't the charger itself)

 

This video shows how cutting corners can make a simple USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable damage your device (and this was the device that triggered Anker in doing the recall after validating his findings a few days after)

So, do your research before buying any USB Type C cable or charger. The few bucks saved, might cost you your laptop (if used with USB-Type C), phone, or Switch

Oh right, I completely forgot about that.

[GoodBytes]

11 hours ago, Sniperfox47 said:

SDHC... SDXC... Why must you do this Nintendo? SD is attrocious! Why doesn't your brand new system have a UFS slot? I mean it's backwards compatible with SD for goodness sakes! And considering the X1 supports UFS it's not like this custom Tegra couldn't...

 

I am seriously worried about the performance of the switch at this point, hearing that it has a Maxwell based Tegra with such a low clock rate, and such limited storage in terms of internal size and external speed? I... I just don't know...

During the TreeHouse event, they showed that they used a 256GB microSD card in the switch.

Exactly this one: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Select-Memory-MB-ME256DA-AM/dp/B01G7L03OS

 

UFS is not widely found.. in fact I can't even find one on Amazon (forget the price, which I am sure isn't cheap). Also you don't nee the extra speed. I mean already many games on PC don't really benefit from passing from an HDD to an SSD. I checked and the Nvidia Shield TV doesn't support UFS either. The Nvidia Shield TV limit is 128GB (from Nvidia own website).

 

[AresKrieger]

16 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

I think it has to do that Sony and Microsoft are open to limit the their profit, or even loose money on the console... but Nintendo is not.

I mean,  assuming you want the Switch.. you need the Switch (400$) + Pro controller (90$) + game (70$) = $560 to start with!

I hope you saved your Canadian Tire money...

 

It's like... you can get a nice PC upgrade with this kind of money... Or get the PS4 Pro with a game.

 

They've sold consoles for a loss before, but only the consoles nothing else goes cheaply

 

(also the switch is 299 oh nvm you mean canadia rupies)

[Master Disaster]

For anybody wondering about the size of the switch, here's a photo of it next to the Wii U gamepad

[dragosudeki]

23 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

I think it has to do that Sony and Microsoft are open to limit the their profit, or even loose money on the console... but Nintendo is not.

I mean,  assuming you want the Switch.. you need the Switch (400$) + Pro controller (90$) + game (70$) = $560 to start with!

I hope you saved your Canadian Tire money...

 

It's like... you can get a nice PC upgrade with this kind of money... Or get the PS4 Pro with a game.

 

What is even worse is the fact that they're going for an online subscription model, just like the other consoles. Huge turn off as someone just looking to upgrade their 3DS, especially when Nintendo's online services isn't that great.

Don't understand how they are willing to provide a monthly game download, yet not provide more storage space to start as well...

[CyanideInsanity]

11 minutes ago, dragosudeki said:

What is even worse is the fact that they're going for an online subscription model, just like the other consoles. Huge turn off as someone just looking to upgrade their 3DS, especially when Nintendo's online services isn't that great.

Don't understand how they are willing to provide a monthly game download, yet not provide more storage space to start as well...

Well its limited to NES and SNES games so the footprint isn't big, and apparently those free games are only "rented" for that month.

[GoodBytes]

30 minutes ago, dragosudeki said:

What is even worse is the fact that they're going for an online subscription model, just like the other consoles. Huge turn off as someone just looking to upgrade their 3DS, especially when Nintendo's online services isn't that great.

Don't understand how they are willing to provide a monthly game download, yet not provide more storage space to start as well...

You say this, but people are fine and accepting of paying a ludicrous price for online service as we can see from PlayStation and XBox.

"But GoodBytes, you get free games!!!", who cares, the games are either: (1) You already own it, or (2) you will probably not actually play the game, and when you fall on that (3) point which is the exception, you'll have so few in the year it doesn't even come close in buying them separately on PC on sale.

 

I just hope that Nintendo stops with this YouTube monetizing thing. I am just surprised that that no lawsuits are even in the works. But of course, they want to make money selling your the service, and the clips you'll take with the console and share.

 

Nintendo online experience wasn't great indeed, but it was free. Sadly, no one cared about the free. Very few went and said "Yea it's not great... but it is free". People just complaints. So now, the infrastructure is being made, and now you'll pay. Hopefully you'll get voice chat (which I think will be done via the smartphone/tablet app, and not from the console, and basically do like what everyone did before with Nintendo systems: Open up Skype on a laptop, phone, tablet, and voice chat that way.)

 

The 32GB internal storage is sufficient. Of course, more is better. But if it means more money spent in getting an extra GB of RAM, or more powerful CPU/GPU, bring it. Paying 350$ for 64GB for the console would be too much. At least they are not doing like Sony with some proprietary format with the Vita. It takes microSD cards. While they didn't mention the max size, they did show the console working with 256GB microSD card.

[imreloadin]

 I haven't owned a Nintendo console since the Gamecube/Gameboy Advance SP. I think it's more than time for me to float some money their way.

[Orangeator]

I am just not excited about this. I really dislike how it is just reboots of all their prior games. Nintendo really needs to come out with new content.

[imreloadin]

54 minutes ago, Orangeator said:

I am just not excited about this. I really dislike how it is just reboots of all their prior games. Nintendo really needs to come out with new content.

Where have you been for the past like 15 years lol?

[Orangeator]

11 hours ago, imreloadin said:

Where have you been for the past like 15 years lol?

So far I have seen Zelda, Mario, and Splatoon. All of which are reboots. They need new content, not sequels of prequels of sequels of prequels. 

[Linus Theft Tips]

50 minutes ago, Orangeator said:

So far I have seen Zelda, Mario, and Splatoon. All of which are reboots. They need new content, not sequels of prequels of sequels of prequels. 

I personally wouldn't even mind sequels of sequels of sequels at this point. The Switch seems a bit expensive but the big deterrent from buying it anytime within a year of launch is the lack of games. I think Super Mario Odyssey and Zelda are the only games most consumers would even consider buying.

[TroubleKlef]

51 minutes ago, Orangeator said:

So far I have seen Zelda, Mario, and Splatoon. All of which are reboots. They need new content, not sequels of prequels of sequels of prequels. 

You're not Nintendo's target audience. They've been rehashing the same franchises for decades and Nintendo fans don't mind.

[Sniperfox47]

On 13/01/2017 at 11:11 PM, GoodBytes said:

During the TreeHouse event, they showed that they used a 256GB microSD card in the switch.

Exactly this one: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Select-Memory-MB-ME256DA-AM/dp/B01G7L03OS

 

UFS is not widely found.. in fact I can't even find one on Amazon (forget the price, which I am sure isn't cheap). Also you don't nee the extra speed. I mean already many games on PC don't really benefit from passing from an HDD to an SSD. I checked and the Nvidia Shield TV doesn't support UFS either. The Nvidia Shield TV limit is 128GB (from Nvidia own website).

 

The Shield is also a year old for the TV, and two years old for the tablet. Considering there's no devices that support UFS cards, it's not super surprising you can't find any on Amazon. Last I heard, Samsung's plan was to launch their first wave of cards alongside their upcoming phone and camera that uses them.

 

As far as computer games go though, I'd much rather have a mechanical hard drive than an SD card. Their theoretical speeds can be as high as you want it doesn't change the fact that the SD interface has serious performance problems intrensic to it. And that's ignoring the fact that there's no performance consistency between cards from different manufacturers.

 

Your card may have a theoretical max speed of 480Mb/s sequential write but when it's only garunteed to get 30Mb/s sequential with any given workload, you need to stop and question things...

 

Reads on SD are slightly better but they're still all over the place...

 

P.S. feel I should clarify, I'm talking specifically UFS cards and SD cards here. The shield tablet, shield TV and most likely switch too use internal UFS memory as their main NV storage. I'm specifically refering to the UFS card standard.

[Commodus]

I've pre-ordered a Switch and am looking forward to it, but I can't help but feel that Nintendo is launching in March to say it has a new system available before the end of its fiscal year (which wraps up that month).  I'd rather have it launch later in spring so that it could have MK8 and other games ready to go, and to make big titles like Splatoon 2 and Super Mario Odyssey seem that much closer.

[GoodBytes]

34 minutes ago, Commodus said:

I've pre-ordered a Switch and am looking forward to it, but I can't help but feel that Nintendo is launching in March to say it has a new system available before the end of its fiscal year (which wraps up that month).  I'd rather have it launch later in spring so that it could have MK8 and other games ready to go, and to make big titles like Splatoon 2 and Super Mario Odyssey seem that much closer.

But that means that it will be after E3, and Microsoft would be in people mind and not the Switch. (Project Scorpio is expected to be released by the end of the year)

[GoodBytes]

49 minutes ago, Sniperfox47 said:

As far as computer games go though, I'd much rather have a mechanical hard drive than an SD card. Their theoretical speeds can be as high as you want it doesn't change the fact that the SD interface has serious performance problems intrensic to it. And that's ignoring the fact that there's no performance consistency between cards from different manufacturers.

 

Your card may have a theoretical max speed of 480Mb/s sequential write but when it's only garunteed to get 30Mb/s sequential with any given workload, you need to stop and question things...

You know what you just describe for the SD card is exactly the same for HDDs (not to mention to deal with fragmentation, consume way more power, and a drop of the device would result in a device failure (HDD needs to be replaced)).

 

For SD card performance, you can check reviews and benchmarks.

 

Large files has always faster read/write times than small files due to overhead in file creation/closing when reading and writing

 

49 minutes ago, Sniperfox47 said:

Reads on SD are slightly better but they're still all over the place...

Like HDDs.

 

49 minutes ago, Sniperfox47 said:

P.S. feel I should clarify, I'm talking specifically UFS cards and SD cards here. The shield tablet, shield TV and most likely switch too use internal UFS memory as their main NV storage. I'm specifically refering to the UFS card standard.

I know. That is why I said I can't find any on Amazon.

[Mr.Meerkat]

On 13/01/2017 at 4:40 PM, shermantanker said:

Meanwhile I'm sitting here trying to save up for my first apartment, and housing is a bitch in southern California.

Meanwhile Vega and switch is really fucking with my saving up plan...how am I supposed to save up for my first car and PPL costs  

 

I feel as I may have to force myself to only choosing one thing, the switch or a Vega GPU...

[VerticalDiscussions]

"witch will switch from a free to a paid online service... no pricing as of yet"

 

Thats completely and utterly bullshyt.... pulling a Microsoft carpet over there uh?

[VerticalDiscussions]

On 14/01/2017 at 11:07 AM, Master Disaster said:

-snip-

O-o?

[GoodBytes]

32 minutes ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

Meanwhile Vega and switch is really fucking with my saving up plan...how am I supposed to save up for my first car and PPL costs  

 

I feel as I may have to force myself to only choosing one thing, the switch or a Vega GPU...

Well.. it will be very hard to find a Switch for the first couple of months... especially at MSRP price. So you'll wait several months. And at the end of the year, with Microsoft updated console taking the show, Nintendo will either drop the console price by 50$ (which will probably be the initial target price that they had), OR include Zelda or Mario, at worst 1-2-Switch (which isn't worth a full AAA price tag, let's be honest here)