Price
The Nintendo Switch is definitely a great-looking piece of tech. Finally offering a proper remote play experience by combining the home console and handheld, the Switch has a ton of different impressive aspects. Of course, the only issue with this is that this stuff doesn’t come cheap.
Though we don’t yet know specifics, if the console is going to match the Xbox One and PS4 for power, as well as utilize some impressive technology in the controller and in terms of a wireless handheld experience, then the Switch has the potential of clocking in over $400. With it needing to be competitive against the Xbox One and PS4, the Nintendo Switch’s price is a crucial bit of information that could ultimately determine its success.
Battery Life
The fact that Nintendo has managed to get full-fledged console games like Skyrim running on a portable console is seriously noteworthy. However, this only becomes a really impressive feature if the hardware can support and sustain this portable play for extensive periods of time.
That’s why battery life is such a huge factor for the Switch. If you can’t play Skyrim on the portable for more than a couple of hours, it quickly loses its appeal. Yes, a two-hour life may be fine for someone who just uses it when taking a short commute to work, but for those wanting to use it on a flight as was shown in the trailer, this may not cut it. With mobility being such a fundamental aspect of the Switch, battery life could ultimately be what makes or breaks the platform.
Games
New developments in technology and sweet new features are incredibly exciting, unless there are no games to play on it. While the trailer gave us a quick look at Mario Kart, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Skyrim, a new Mario title, and NBA, there’s not all that much more regarding games at the moment.
Yes, we have a list of third party developers and publishers who have agreed to support the Switch, but we don’t know exactly what titles they’ll bring to the system. With the Wii U having third party support withdrawn pretty quickly following its launch, it’s yet to be seen whether or not the Switch will suffer a similar fate. Though, from the list of third parties, it certainly looks like Nintendo has acknowledged this fear and is attempting to repel it.
Touchscreen
While we got to see the portable screen of the Switch in action, a lot of the action focused around the crazy morphing controllers that you’ll be using to interact with your games in a variety of different ways. Yet, what we didn’t see is whether or not that big screen is also a touch display.
With the Wii U and all of the DS family having adopted touchscreens, it’ll be interesting to see if Nintendo has ditched it once and for all in favor of more traditional input methods… Well, if you can call those controllers traditional, anyway. While its presence or not is unlikely to be the deciding factor for many fans, it may be a sign as to whether this is a complete abandonment of previous designs.
Actual Power
From what we saw of the Nintendo Switch in the trailer, it certainly seems to be packing some power both when docked at home and when taking it on the go. However, the big question that’s still on everyone’s mind is just how powerful this machine really is.
While we know it’s using a custom NVIDIA Tegra processor, we don’t know any confirmed specifications as of yet. In order for the games to run smoothly when playing in the portable form, the Switch is going to need serious hardware. Not to mention, it’s also got competition like the Xbox One and PS4, both of which are moving onto upgraded hardware in the near future. Just how powerful the Switch is remains to be seen, hopefully we’ll get some more details on it soon.
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