The Nintendo NX name is no more as Nintendo officially unveiled its next console, the hybrid Nintendo Switch.
As had been rumoured for months, the Switch is a hybrid portable and home console that will allow you to play the same games at home and on the go with a near seamless switch from the Switch dock to portable ready.
People have been speculating and reporting about the upcoming Nintendo NX for months now but a new report by Eurogamer seems to bring the NX into focus before its targeted launch of March 2017. Their report says that the NX will be a powerful portable console that can also serve as a home console by connecting it to your TV and detaching the controllers from the mobile unit.
Nintendo was the last company to do their E3 presentation. This year, they eschewed from using their Nintendo Direct presentation format and instead did a Nintendo Treehouse let’s stream type of format. The change in format seems to be a result of Nintendo not having too much to show at the moment apart from new Legend of Zelda and Pokemon games.
Nintendo’s next generation console, codenamed the NX, might be closer than you think based on recent rumours. Over the last week, there have been rumours about everything from what form the NX will take, how much it will cost, when we might see it, how powerful it will be and what Nintendo is planning to put on it.
As we have come to expect from Nintendo, their E3 presentation focused largely on first-party titles and franchises. While a number of the announced games for the Wii U were previously announced, the 3DS got all of the big surprises and reveals. Nintendo’s handheld got some new entries in a number of Nintendo’s legendary franchises including The Legend of Zeldo, Mario, Metroid and Animal Crossing. While Nintendo might have been lacking the overall punch on console that Sony and Microsoft had, fans should still be happy with what they saw.
Poor Nintendo. They were the biggest name in gaming through the Nintendo 64 but just lost traction along the way. Sure, the Wii was a sales success but they lost third-party support along the way and that hasn’t changed with the underpowered Wii U. That being said, Nintendo was probably the top first-party developer and publisher last year and this year’s E3 presentation hopes to help them retain the title.
For the second straight year, Nintendo forewent the big press event and instead kicked off the first official day of E3 with a special Nintendo Direct video conference. While it might scream of a company bleeding cash, it may not have been a bad idea this year. With neither Sony nor Microsoft setting the world on fire with their media briefings, the door was open for the white brand to make a big impression.
Not only did they have a big opportunity, they took it and got people excited about Nintendo for the first time in a few years.
There are few series in gaming that are as iconic and as loved as Nintendo’s Super Mario series. Despite the fact that Mario has been around for over 30 years, Nintendo has this way of reinventing Mario and the Super Mario series with each new console generation. The result is games that bring new gamers into Nintendo and Mario while still giving fans who have played Mario games for their whole lives something to love.
For the industry shaking Wii console, Nintendo took Mario to the one place he’d never been before: The final frontier. Not only did Mario’s first adventure in outer space prove to be a smash hit, at release, it was considered one of the best Wii and platformer games of all-time.
In an interview on Bloomberg TV last week, Microsoft President of Interactive Entertainment, Don Mattrick, said that the Xbox One was over-delivering on value. In fact, the Xbox boss went so far as to say, “We’re delivering thousands of dollars of value to people.”
The problem is that no one apart from Mattrick, Microsoft employees and the staunchest of Xbox loyalists believe this to be the case. When you look at the dollars and cents of the next generation of consoles, it’s pretty obvious that the Xbox isn’t actually over-delivering and definitely not thousands of dollars worth of over-delivery.
Coming into E3, many people were considering a move to the Wii U as it was the only console that was confirmed to not be actively battling its consumer’s rights. Then Sony came out on Monday night and destroyed everything that the Xbox One stood for.
Nintendo has a lot to gain at E3 this year despite not being there. That relied on Sony falling flat on its face. They were very prepared for that with a line-up of the expected first-party franchises and a third-party sizzle reel. The problem was that they were missing the big guns that were needed to pit them strongly against the PlayStation 4.
The Lowdown 