You may have heard (or not) that Nintendo is coming out with a new product known as the Switch. It is a follow up to the Wii U, which did not sell as well as they had hoped. This new product will combine the ideas of tablet gaming and in-home gaming. Instead of a traditional controller, the Switch has a two-piece controller, known as the Joy-Con. These two pieces can slide onto either side of the tablet, to make it a handheld gaming console. You can also connect the Joy-Con grip, which joins the two pieces to become a traditional controller, for in-home gaming. The set also includes Joy-Con wrist straps, a dock for the Switch, an HDMI cable and an AC adapter.
Both Joy-Con controllers have accelerometers and gyro-sensors, which allow each controller to be used independently from the other. The left controller can be used to take screenshots of the current screen and post them on social media sites. The right one is a tad more advanced, including a near field communication (NFC) touchpoint and infrared motion camera, which can detect real-world surroundings to be used in specific games.
There is also a feature that allows up to eight Switches to be connected over a local Wi-Fi network and play games against one another, but obviously Nintendo will need to make enough sales for this feature to be useful. This is very similar to the face-to-face competition that made the Wii so popular, so they are hoping this feature will be a good selling point.
The games that are currently expected to be available for the Switch are: MarioKart Deluxe 8, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, 1-2-Switch, Just Dance 2017, Has Been Heroes, NBA 2K18, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Minecraft, FIFA, Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers, Disgaea 5 Complete, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, and Puyo Puyo Tetris. The product will be released on March 3, 2017 for sale. Nintendo expects to sell four million units.
