The Nintendo Switch – What Parents Need to Know

Nintendo has finally given us more information about their upcoming home console. The Nintendo Switch was officially unveiled in a three minute teaser video that was released on October 20th.

If you haven’t seen the video yet, then take a moment and watch it below and then pop below for analysis.

Neat video huh? I know it succeeded in getting the entire EFG team pretty hyped about it. It did NOT, however, give us the answers to all of our questions. Below is a list of everything we KNOW and another list of the things we DON’T.

We Know…

1. The Nintendo Switch is a tablet device that, when placed in a special cradle, will allow console quality games to be played on an HD television.
2. Nintendo is positioning the Switch as a home console. This means that their focus here is to replace the Wii U while giving it the added functionality of being able to take it on the go and STILL play console  quality games.
3. The console will include a pair of “Joy-Con” controllers that can either snap onto the side of the tablet, be held independently, or snap onto Controller grip to allow multiple different ways to play games.
4. One of the Switch’s most unexpected features was the ability to give one Joy-Con to each of two different players so they can play multiplayer games anywhere.
5. The console itself is powered by a custom Tegra chip by Nvidia. They have a good amount of experience dealing with mobile computing so this should be seen as a good sign.
6. The three minute trailer included gameplay footage from: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Skyrim Enhanced Edition, NBA 2K127, a new Mario game, Mario Kart 8 (but with additions), and Splatoon. Nintendo will not give us confirmation that these games will be coming to the Switch, but this is a good idea of what they are trying to accomplish with the games lineup.

We DO NOT Know…

1. The specs. We know (as stated above) that the Nintendo Switch is powered by a custom Tegra chip. But, we have no idea how powerful this chip is. It is probably safe to assume that the Switch is more powerful than the Wii U, but we have no clue by how much.
2. The price. Nintendo has been hushed on the price so far. I struggle to think of how Nintendo could justify charging more than the PS4 or the Xbox One,  but I have been wrong on price points before.
3. The games lineup. We saw trailers and “game play footage” in the teaser video. But, Nintendo has not released any information regarding a specific launch lineup.
4. When it is coming out. The teaser video says March of 2017, but we won’t know officially until January.
5. When we will hear more information. Nintendo has confirmed that we will not see any more official announcements until an event in Tokyo on January 12th, 2017.

Keep your eyes on Engaged Family Gaming as we get closer to the release date for more information on the Nintendo Switch!