Nintendo had their long-awaited Switch presentation last night and revealed additional details about a platform that is expected to be the company’s sole combined console and handheld gaming strategy going forward. Perhaps most important, though, is that that presentation also kicked off pre-order opportunities in the US at Amazon, Best Buy, Target (where I ended up ordering my grey system and Mario Kart and Zelda games from after several false starts), and GameStop, for its March 3, 2017 release date. MSRP, which shouldn’t budge until at least 2018, is set at $299.99 (which pretty much falls in line with my earlier prediction, although I was expecting a few different SKUs instead of just the one, although it is available in grey or blue/red neon styling).
What follows, are the system’s key details. What I find most interesting is that it fits our prediction of 720p resolution and about 3 hours of battery life when used as a handheld. Neither is especially great, but are good enough for the first iteration of this product. Finally, here’s a list of the games, plus what looks like Nintendo actually trying to take their classically weak account systems and online services to a level at least somewhat similar to what Sony and Microsoft are doing, including having a premium tier with a subscription fee.
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