Nvidia CEO: Nintendo Switch is 'very Nintendo,' shows the company's 'dedication to its craft'
Jen-Hsun Huang says Nintendo is focused on delivering a gaming machine first and foremost.
At a Q&A session following his CES 2017 keynote, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang answered questions about the company's many areas of interest such as Nintendo Switch.
"Nintendo Switch is a game console. It’s very Nintendo. That entire experience is going to be very Nintendo," said Huang (via Venture Beat).
"The beauty of that company, the craft of that company, the philosophy of that company—they’re myopically, singularly focused on making sure that the gaming experience is amazing, surprising, and safe for young people, for children," Nvidia's CEO continued.
Huang's words might serve as repellent to older players who have their fingers crossed for more mature experiences on Switch. What Huang seems to mean, however, is that Nintendo aims to deliver a gaming machine first and foremost.
"Their dedication to their craft, that singular dedication, is quite admirable," Huang said at the press event. "When you guys all see Switch, I believe people are going to be blown away, quite frankly. It’s really delightful. But it has nothing to do with AI."
Nvidia manufactured the Switch's hardware, a custom Tegra processor. Nintendo next Switch event is scheduled for this Thursday, January 12, at 11pm ET / 8pm PT. The company is expected to disclose a price—rumored to clock in at around $250—and exact launch date for the console/handheld hybrid, due out in March.
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replyDavid Craddock posted a new article, Nvidia CEO: Nintendo Switch is 'very Nintendo,' shows the company's 'dedication to its craft'
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I really don't get the internet's insistence this has be such a powerful machine or it's going to fail. Why does it have to be more powerful than a PS4 Pro? And portable? And cost less? The internet and its haters are just noisy mouth pieces that need to be ignored.
That said, sure he's spinning this to a degree. But, I'm liking what I'm reading about the newer dev kits being faster, pointing to a possible Pascal chip instead. That's not going to win any power wars, but it'll give it a great leg up in the long run.
Eager for Thursday, and especially Friday to get my preorder in.-
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They made a few specific design choices, and the public just didn't appreciate them - the oversized controller for starters.
Wii gave Nintendo a really odd problem. They sold millions of units to new players: your aunts and uncles who never played games before. So, they had a HUGE install base, but they also never bought anything after the initial purchase. So, it was the core-gamer crowd that bought follow-on titles. But, they weren't enough to give the Wii U enough of an install base to win support from 3rd party devs. The masses didn't buy it because they didn't understand it. I don't expect they'll have quite the same problem this time. But, I don't see them being able to sell this to the same aunt & uncle demographic. However, there is the newer millennial demographic to target; which is what the teaser did.
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No one is saying it needs to be super powerful, just being on par with previous gen machines (the OG XB1 or PS4) would be enough. The rumors that it's less powerful than hardware that was released nearly 4 years has some people concerned.
I'll end up buying one for Mario Kart and the new Zelda, but I'm not holding my breath for any good 3rd party titles./-
its definitely less powerful than those 2 because it doesnt have the luxury of a plug and tons of cooling by fans.
But hopefully itll be closer to current gen than last gen and can run 3rd party games with less detail and post processing -
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The PS4 Pro and XBox One S aren't even half-step improvements over the original hardware. This might be a semantic argument but I wouldn't consider a meager three year update that isn't being targeted by developers as a generational improvement. I own a PS4 Pro and there's nothing 9th generation about it.
Again, the point is whether or not a current gen game be ported over to the Switch. The PS4 and XB1 are both easy port targets for the Switch based on their relative settings in the Unreal Engine 4 master branch files. On a settings scale of 0-3 where "0" is low and "3" is ultra, the PS4 and XB1 are "3" while the Switch when docked is set at a "2" and undocked at a "1".
Its a totally different situation from the Wii where straight ports were technically impossible based on the performance delta between it and the 360/PS3. This is a mere settings change, not a ground up rewrite of a totally new game.-
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Why would it be semi-playable? Its the difference between high and medium settings on a PC. There are comparison screenshots out there and its not that big. The question then is if you want a portable and want Nintendo games. Its far from the difference in having what are essentially "non-port ports" as in period generations.
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I want Nintendo games that are cutting edge. I don't care if the system is $400.
Nintendo doesn't think they can compete in that space (maybe not, but they haven't given it a go in 15 years). They are failing at what they've been trying though, that's for sure. The switch seems like another iteration of the same failed philosophy.-
Their games already look awesome, and they put "Nex Gen's" 30 fps bullshit to shame. And this is at a fraction of the horsepower of the PS4 and XBOne.
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We're Nintendo fanboys because we're the type of people who don't give a shit if they "push tech".
That’s actually what's going on here. Most Nintendo fans that I know literally don't care if the graphics are as good other games. At all. It's a hard point to get across to people who don't feel that way because all they see when they look at a Nintendo console is underpowered while the fans see FUN.
Look if Nintendo fails miserably with this console then I'll concede that they might need to get with the times just to please the people who don't think the way I do about their consoles. Here's hoping this underpowered little guy succeeds with good games despite not pushing tech as you say.
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Many of the best looking games of this generation are on the Wii U, gorgeous and pinned at 60fps.
I have a gaming PC with a GTX 1080, a PS4 Pro, and an XBox One, and I say that with no reservations. The idea that Nintendo is incapable of having games with gorgeous visuals is absurd.
Are you playing games or reading spec sheets? I'm not sure you understand how far art direction and engineering can go to push world class graphics. Nintendo is one of the few companies outside of Blizzard and Valve that gets this.-
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A "Playstation that plays Nintendo games" doesn't do enough to differentiate itself in the market while shutting out a good chunk of Nintendo's audience that's on handheld. It simply isn't practical in a time when mobile hardware is as powerful as its become.
As for current gen graphics, Bloodborne is one game I would put on its level of quality. Uncharted 4 is obviously in a league of its own, I can't even put other PC games up against it. Sadly the game wasn't great but that's another topic.
This isn't a discussion about the Wii U games looking "good" or "good enough", they really do look better than most of what's on other platforms. Believe me, I wish I could say more good things about my PS4 Pro. At least my XBox One was a gift from a friend at MS...
As for cutting edge, a hybrid console that literally gets every Nintendo game which is also capable of playing third party games seems pretty cutting edge to me. Utility and differentiation are what matter to me, otherwise I just play games on my PC.-
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Always cool to bail from a discussion by claiming the other guy is saying something he isn't. I wouldn't (and I assume Serpico74 wouldn't) be happy with "whatever" Nintendo gives me. I have been happy with what they have been giving me. There's a big distinction there.
I can't even begin to tell you how much more I've played my Wii U than my PS4. Hundreds upon hundreds of hours more. Because to me eyes the games look good and they are fun. That's all I want from Nintendo. They've delivered.-
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People can have bad opinions that lead them to poor conclusions, it happens all the time and its fine.
I'm here with my GTX 1080, a PS4 Pro, and an XB1, and kind of shrugging at people talking about how consoles masquerading as shitty PC are so great. IDGI. Meanwhile Nintendo's games are still among the best looking of this generation despite being much lower specced than the PS4 and XB1. It goes without saying that they play great as always.
Spec sheets are only as good as the art direction and engineering that goes behind it, and Nintendo is still one of the absolute best at that. I'm happy to take whatever they give me because they blow away most of what anyone else does.
Feel free to jump in whenever but we know we're all good. :)
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It's a PORTABLE system how dense are u
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If it cannot beat a top of the line gaming PC with a 500 hour battery and an 8K display, I can't imagine how anyone would ever purchase it. And it should have holograms. Because otherwise I might as well just get an HTC Vive. It can't come close to beating the 0-60 of a BMW M3 either, which is an absolute disappointment.
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it needs to be powerful enough to get ports of XB1 and PS4 games or else it needs to sell so well that 3rd parties make exclusives for it without additional financial incentives (like Nintendo handhelds of old). Otherwise it's the Wii U again, a piece of hardware with some great Nintendo games and little else. That wasn't good enough for most people. It wasn't good enough for Nintendo either.
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It just needs to be powerful enough to get straight third party ports. The fact that it supports Unreal Engine 4, supports Unity, and supports low level APIs like Vulkan says that the main factor in getting ports will be the size of the userbase.
To put it another way, the Xbox 360, an 11-year old console with only 512MB of RAM and an ancient hardware/software architecture got ports of Rise Of The Tomb Raider, Far Cry 4, and Metal Gear Solid 5. The Switch has 4GB of RAM and an ultramodern hardware/software architecture (Nvidia Tegra, OpenGL 4.5, Vulkan, UE4 support, etc etc).
This seems like a very different situation from the Wii where a completely different game would have to be created when making a port for it. That's the main fear people have but the Switch looks like it will be much easier to make ports for. Install base will be the main factor for third parties so Nintendo needs to come out swinging in its first year. -
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Have you considered that doing that might end up with them selling fewer consoles, and losing money?
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No one would argue the WiiU was a success, but it wasn't because of its lack of horsepower. Lack of 3rd party support and a bad name/poor differentiation from the Wii caused that.
I see the Switch as Nintendo altering their path to try to improve. Clearly you disagree, but the Switch is their most conventional console since the GameCube imo and has a significantly better chance of success as a result. -
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If Nintendo ever puts that console out, I'll buy you one.
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If you have any intention of buying a nintendo console, it would probably be for the games, games that specifically are not on other consoles. And if that was the case, why would you not buy a Switch? If a chance to playing remasters of some of tbe best games of this generation doesn't appeal to you, what difference would a different system make? Are the games not the point of buying the system?
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Intent of my comment is that I don't think the console that AM is describing will ever happen.
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Nope. Just nope. Nintendo doesn't need to waste a few billion dollars trying and failing to play the mass market console wars with the two entrenched powers. It didn't work in 2001, it's not gonna work now.
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So many (actually only 2 or 3 vocal shackers) fanboys defending nintendo's bad decisions.
You know, it is possible to like Nintendo and hope they do something different, right? That doesn't make you a bad fan. It's ok to want to play a Mario or Zelda game that isn't running 4 year old specs. I want the BEST Mario and the BEST Zelda I can get.
Neither one of us is on Nintendo's board, but Sony and Microsoft sure think it's worthwhile to "waste" a few billion dollars chasing new tech. Nintendo has been wasting a few billion dollars chasing gimmicks, so might as well try the other.-
Gamecube was faster than PS2, it failed.
And don't say it was the tiny discs, because it wasn't the tiny discs.-
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The point is that competitive specs don't make it more competitive. Gamecube had tons of good games, it's just he Playstation brand (and now Xbox) are more attractive to a larger portion of the population. Nintendo can't change its identity overnight to be a "cool" brand to play with bros.
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Utility is another thing that made the PS2 more successful despite having the weakest specs. The "gimmick" of being one of the best and most affordable DVD players on the market pushed it into a lot of homes. Third party games flat out looked way better on the Gamecube but it didn't matter, DVDs pushed the PS2 over the top for many people.
Utility matters. Utility carried three of the weakest consoles of their respective generations (PS2, Wii, DS) to be the three best selling consoles ever.
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They'll go third party before they only make a home console. Handhelds are way too much a part of Nintendo's DNA and a hybrid makes sense from that standpoint. Note that Pokemon Sun & Moon was the biggest selling game this holiday, had the highest number of console game pre-orders in the last five years, and was the fastest selling Nintendo game ever.
They would be idiots not to lean into the strength of their handheld business, and this is before we get into Nintendo staying in their own lane and addressing a separate market instead of overlapping exactly with what everyone else is doing.
The successor to the Switch will be a faster Switch.-
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Yeah, this is the take home message. There is a strong market there. Maybe not 100 million, but 50-75 million if they play their cards right. That's enough to keep doing their thing.
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Absence of evidence and conjecture is not evidence
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"There is plenty of evidence that the market will ignore what Nintendo is trying, however."
I'll say it again, it is remarkable how some people will jump to conclusions while ignoring empirical evidence.
You are willfully ignoring Nintendo's dominance in portable gaming. Call it old news but the 3DS is the hardest console to find right now. Even after five years they just had their fastest software launch ever, with the most preordered game at retail in five years, with the highest selling game of the holidays. This is after a year of several other record breaking launches, the fact that the 3DS is the only console that matters in Nintendo's home territory of Japan, etc.
Its obvious why Nintendo would lean into that while also combining their handheld and console teams into one unit. Ignoring that data is ignoring the market. -
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weird you mention mobile space. noone really makes money in mobile outside of F2P. monument valley made something like 5 million, and mario run with all the advertisement in the world made like 20 million?
compare to pokemon sun selling 10+ million copies and nintendo making mad bank off it-
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They've been far and away the most consistent at making money. A worst case scenario like the Wii U resulted in a flat period over five years. In the meantime a success like the PS3 erased everything that was made on the PS2 and then lost billions more. Their conservative approach with the PS4 combined with Microsoft's failure at launching the XBox One saved them (that is one of the few things going well for Sony right now, a first).
Sales successes like the XBox and XBox 360 again lost billions for Microsoft. They launched cheaper, had a one-year head start, lost billions, and at the end of the day they still barely tied with the Playstation. They're so in the hole on the XBox that they stopped reporting those numbers in their quarterlies and hid them among other products. Not surprising for a company that lost $10 billion between the Kin and Nokia, but its still better to hide the truth from investors in a case like that. The gaming division is getting enough internal scrutiny as it is.
Point is that Nintendo pulling a Microsoft by laying billions on the line trying to go head-to-head in the living room against an entrenched brand like Sony (twenty-one years!) is fiscal suicide, not to mention stupid by ignoring handheld and shutting out such an important part of their audience.
What is known is that their handhelds still generate revenue and have a very dedicated userbase. What some people mistakenly conflate is handheld gaming and smartphones. This is a big mistake and I think its where you are confused. The idea of smartphone gaming eradicating handheld console gaming holds as much water as smartphones killing standard console gaming (which the Switch also is) or the PC.
Until there is a radical shift in the market I don't see games with greater depth and physical controls going away.-
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Instead they are releasing a console that will play every Nintendo game being made going forward. This means no more droughts on handheld or console since they're one and the same thing. That alone is pretty huge. It will also play cross-platform close to what is on the other platforms right now. Comparison screenshots between recommended UE4 settings for PS4/XB1 and Switch were surprisingly close.
I mostly play Nintendo console games with a smattering of 3DS stuff. Knowing that the handheld franchises will bolster the same platform that 3D Zelda and Mario games are on is pretty exciting. Pokemon and Monster Hunter means that the Switch will do better in Japan alone than the Wii U did globally.
We'll see how it goes!
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^^Said during the N64 and Gamecube launches
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Isnt there a news at 10. Don’t know if I can stay up that late.
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I am, but im jokin. I don’t usually go to bed til 1ish.
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Grain-of-salt rumor, Day T-3:
Monster Hunter for the Switch
https://www.reddit.com/r/MonsterHunter/comments/5myxsz/gamestop_apparently_has_mh_listed_as_a_switch/?sort=new
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