The Nintendo Switch and Gadget Design
wired.com
wired.com
Is this true? Is it no longer necessary to be an approved Nintendo developer to write software for it?
I recall back in the day it was difficult for an indy to get a Nintendo dev licence. What's changed here?
EDIT: For those who care - this is what I just found...
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/292788/Becoming_a_Nintend...
According to above article, it will be tough getting onto the platform as an indy. Pity, I was excited for a moment...
Personally I'm not going to buy a second dock, because it is unnecessarily bulky for traveling, when some thing dongle sized could do the exact same job. Taking my switch and plugging it into a friends TV shouldn't be as much of a hassle as it is, being that it is a portable console. Yes, it is smaller than other consoles even with the dock, but it still requires its own bag to carry it all.
But there are alternative docks available - Nyko makes a much smaller, more portable dock, for example.
Charging, input, and network adapters are all common, standard USB-C & Bluetooth, so that's progress at least.
I'm speculating here, but it's likely the Tegra at the Switch's core natively supported MyDP (Mobility DisplayPort), since it targeted mobile applications, where DisplayPort is a more common standard.
Unsure if this is a hardware or software problem, but I would say the lack of bluetooth audio support is way worse than the dock problem.
Also upthere-that you can't use the kick-stand AND plug in the USB-C charging cable.
Nintendo also shed beloved handheld features like Streetpass, didn't include obvious features like Bluetooth audio, and are really messing up their online services ... the internet Splatoon fanbase seems to roundly regard the Switch online experience a failure for the context of 2017
voice chat is difficult and terrible, so nobody really uses it! that's a major plus in my book. most people will never run into more vile people than when gaming online.
the multiplayer is unbalanced, issues with lag and disconnection often mean that the outcomes of matches just aren't fair. this is good, because it sort of limits how seriously you can take the game. just relax and have fun instead of a hypercompetitive 3-hours-a-day online sport.
the inconvenience of parties/team up is good, it means it's hard for people to get an us-vs-them mentality or want to just dominate weaker players.
i'd be really shocked if this is all intentional on Nintendo's part; it's probably just hubris and not-invented-here syndrome.
but in practice it feels almost like all the online inadequacies are a kind of traffic calming -- like putting trees and islands in the middle of a busy road to get people to slow down. it makes things more welcoming for people like me who normally loathe online games.
The lack of voice chat is no problem for me, though the app is terrible at what it tries to do (voice chat with your own team) which is something I'd want to do with casual friend players. Instead I just end up using Skype.
The touch screen and the the Joycon accelorometers/advanced rumble aren't used at all in many games, or if they are, it isn't anything innovative. ARMS is an exception, though, but I really don't think many people bought the game.
The Mii avatar you create can't do much of anything. On the Wii U, Wii and DS there was a bit more you could do with those.
Amiibo aren't really useful except for small in-game bonuses
The companion app is currently lackluster. They could have made a Mario Kart 8 section where you compare your scores to your friends, a BotW section that would interface with your game... for now it's just a Splatoon app with a few nice features, with only one main feature actually communicating back to the game.
I guess those middle two aren't Switch-specific, but there are a lot of Nintendo-specific things that they should really considers spending time cultivating.
It's especially nice in handheld mode, where the user doesn't have a decent speaker system to emphasize things (and may not even have the sound turned on at all). In those situations, the user may not be able to hear the sound effect when they get hit by a shell or drive off the road. But with the rumble, the punch of it is still there.
The docked mode works great (though the performance at 1080p is a bit sluggish in some games), the split-multiplayer mode in games like Mario Kart is friggin genius. I love that the Switch has brought back local multiplayer.
But its actual portability is kind of marginal. Unlike the DS/3DS, it doesn't fold up in a way that facilitates putting it in a bag. The scratchability of the screen means you really don't want to carry it bare in a bag bouncing around with your keys, and the protruding thumbsticks on the controllers make it something of a pain to fit into your default backpack/bag compartments.
It really demands a dedicated carrying case, which is something I thought we got past in the 90s in the Game Boy era.
Overall still really enjoying the Switch, but I carry it around a lot less than I used to carry around a Nintendo DS.
Sort of. I was really disappointed to find that Splatoon 2, one of the biggest games for the Switch, does not feature splitscreen multiplayer. The original Splatoon, on the Wii U, had awesome local multiplayer: one player used the TV, the other used the screen on the Wii U GamePad. Each user got a full screen. How splitscreen wasn't possible with better hardware is a little confusing, to be honest.
Throwing salt on the wound is having the co-op mode being only playable when they want you to. I actually haven't played it since the first time I went to play Salmon Run and it was blocked off.
Splatoon 2 is a really fun game, but they really did a botch job on the end user experience.
Come to think of it, my 'relationship' with Nintendo is very similar to the one I have with Apple. I sometimes feel that they intentionally do stuff that is unfriendly to their user-base, but ultimately they can get away with it by doing a whole bunch of stuff right in a way that others don't.
(And come to think of that, this description applies to most of the closest friends I've had throughout my life. Odd, that.)
this was annoying. My solutions were: 1) you can get a pair (1 spare) tempered glass screen protectors for $12 or so, 2) a slim hard shell zipper case for another $10 or $15.
Uhhhhhhh, what happened to all of nintendos past handhelds, sonys psp, the countless older handhelds that never gained traction?
The Switch has the same feature, you're right. But its designed (and marketed) around it. That's the difference.
With the Switch you can use it docked, handheld, and tabletop (i.e. stand alone).
It seems like a pretty obvious ad though.
The SNES also couldn't play GameBoy games, the Super GameBoy was really just an entire gameboy in a cartridge formfactor.
Yes, this is typical over-the-top Wired writing, but it's still a clever design that's likely to influence other hardware design.
Instead they released the PlayStation TV, which was incompatible with literally half of the Vita's library for controller and licensing reasons.
You can play multiplayer from anywhere with a buddy next to you, also 2 controllers breaks into 4 thats great fun when you have guests over.
The Switch all in all feels very polished and thought out, very happy with mine.
Yes, it's great for Mario Kart (before I got the Pro controller, my wife and I were playing with one Joycon each), and similar games (I assume ARMS and 1-2 Switch are built with single-Joycon use in mind) but it's not enough for every single game.
>The fact that a single controller breaks up into 2 fully capable controllers still surprises me to this day.
Right, each controller on their own is not fully capable. That said, I think it's an impractical goal (really; how would you play a game like BotW with one hand? Impossible.) and I'm not sure the Gparent meant it that way.
Looking back though, I either misunderstood the OP or the parent is correct. One joycon is obviously not fully function on its own, I never meant to say that.
While there are occasional apps that aspire to such, the fact that basic OS functions are private APIs and are not distributable on the only widely available vector into devices prevent malware and many (but not all) privacy breaches.
I don't see where QAPereo says the thing that you say they're saying. (In fact, I see the opposite, but that's beside the point.)
EDIT:
Three people (strictnein, nicky0, EpicEng) show up to point out the comment I'm referring to said it's "just another [...] walled garden". Er, yes. That's my entire reason for commenting. I can see the words that were written. Which is why I'm calling out the person I replied to for asking a question that suggests those words say something else.
Here's a breakdown of what has just occurred:
Person A suggests it's no different from any other walled garden that's come around before.
Person B asks Person A to defend the stance that it's different from other walled gardens.
I point out the contradiction between what Person A has said and what Person B apparently wants Person A to have said. Then you all show up. Why are we here?
I'm gonna leave HN for a while.
All major consoles are walled gardens.
What comment are you reading?
> It really isn't, its just another timely gimmick and a walled garden.
is at least ambiguous if you read it carefully. I didn't see why that would be highlighted if everything else in that category shared that exact attribute.
You say this like it's a bad thing? I love the walled gardens that commenters here seem to hate: iOS, iTunes, Kindle, etc.
I know what's going to work, where to buy what I want, don't have to worry about incompatibilities, and know who to go to if I need support. And the prices are reasonable!
It still works but it can be clunky at times and hasn't received a substantial update for quite some time last I checked.
Sometimes it's nice if a device would just adhere to standards. For example, I can simply mount my OnePlus 3 and traverse it like any regular USB on Linux.
Meanwhile on Windows and Mac, I have to use a wonky, seemingly unmaintained Android File Transfer program that gets in the way more than it helps!
And no one cares about consoles being walled gardens except for people like you on forums like these. Really, 99.999% of people playing these games couldn't care less. In fact, people like these walled gardens better than any other medium because they're simple and they work. The moment my wife has to open a terminal to figure out why her open source variant of a graphics driver is acting wonky is the moment she gives up and goes back to the console.
Then I decided to buy the switch for BOTW, and it's no gimmick at all. Sitting on the couch in whatever slouch position and playing is amazing.
And occasionally when I am away from the couch and want to game, the hand-held mode works great.
What's the gimmick you're referring to? The motion controls? The handheld mode? The dock mode? The kickstand?
Now I often undock it to play in the bed. I haven't really been into handheld gaming but this thing just makes sense.
That being said it really lacks games at the moment. Controllers are fucking expensive as well.