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Let's look back on the announcement of the NX to the launch of the Nintendo Switch

H

Hero of Legend

Member
I think now that we're two and a half months past launch, I'd like for us to look back and remember all the hopes, dreams, and utter insanity that was the LONG wait from Satoru Iwata's announcement of the NX, to what is now called the Nintendo Switch.

1) The announcement of Nintendo's new system, codenamed NX

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1011949

YaC2nY9.jpg


It was on the day of March 17th, 2015 during a surprise conference unveiling Nintendo and DeNA's partnership to bring Nintendo into the mobile market. Iwata announced that while Nintendo is making mobile games, they are NOT leaving the hardware business, and it was then that he revealed that Nintendo was underway with a brand-new gaming system simply codenamed NX.

All we knew then was that the system was based on a new concept, and we'd learn more in 2016 at an unspecified date.

We would have to wait a very long time for that time to come.

2) The Legend of Zelda for Wii U delayed to 2017, now also coming to NX. NX won't be at E3 2016

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1212191
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1212187

In a move that some didn't expect while others did (ha), Nintendo on April 27th, 2016 had just pulled a Twilight Princess and announced that the long awaited new Zelda game is actually a cross-gen title.

However, Nintendo announced also that the NX would NOT be present at E3 and instead only the Wii U version of the new Zelda title would now only be showcased... but also be the ONLY playable game at the show, seriously.

Turned out Nintendo may have been onto something with that choice there...

3) The rumors and leaks

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1252881

iyk68.jpg


While we've had numerous bits here and there, the largest point was likely on July 26th, 2016 when Eurogamer posted what would be an almost entirely true leak where the NX would be a portable using carts, has a docking station to display games on the TV, have detachable controllers, and be powered by Tegra.

The only false bit was seemingly the September unveiling bit, however, it turns out they were not terribly far off...

4) Introducing the Nintendo Switch

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1297108

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5uik5fgIaI

CvN3VKEVUAIlnwU.jpg
Click to expand...

A few months later, the promised time had finally arrived. On October 20th, 2016, Nintendo uploaded the officially unveiling trailer of the NX, now called Nintendo Switch. Nintendo announced the trailer's debut just the night before and people flipped OUT.

The trailer indeed confirmed the Eurogamer leak, and Nvidia announced on their site that they are indeed the company behind the Switch's power.

The trailer was a HUGE hit, not only is it Nintendo's most viewed video on their YouTube channel, but its view count is just south of 31 million views.

The trailer also unveiled a few games, including a mysterious new 3D Mario game, a Splatoon game, a port of Mario Kart 8, a Basketball game, and even a port of Skyrim!

Less than a week later on October 26th, 2017 Nintendo announced plans for a special presentation dedicated to showing off the final details of the Nintendo Switch, including functions, release date, software, etc. But we'd have to wait a bit longer for this event...

5) The Nintendo Switch Presentation 2017

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1333086

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntzz8O7SpWs

On January 12th, 2017, the time had finally arrived to fully life the curtain on the Nintendo Switch. We finally got a launch date of March 3rd, 2017, a launch line-up including 1-2 Switch from Nintendo, Super Bomberman R from Konami, and the LONG awaited, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. We also had a pretty decent showing of other games, new ones and ports, such as ARMS by Nintendo, Disgaea 5 Complete by Nippon Ichi, Sonic Mania from Sega, and a new No More Heroes project by Marvelous and Grasshopper. We also got to see the new 3D Mario game in full, now titled Super Mario Odyssey and it's a new sandbox-style entry for the first time since Super Mario Sunshine (or Super Mario 64 DS technically...). Oh, and there's no region-locking!

So that's that! Launch came and went, the system's doing amazingly well, Nintendo's had a direct since on April 12th, 2017 showing new games such as Fate/Extella for Switch, as well as Sine Mora EX and Battle Chasers: Nightwar by THQ Nordic.

Now I want to hear your thoughts and memories of that LONG wait from March 17th, 2015 to date!
 
1

13ruce

Banned
It was the best ride ever imo and the Switch really turned out to be epic. The crazy theories the hybrid thoughts. Multiple platforms and more it was a wild ride and i loved all rumors and theories it created.

It turned out what i thought it would be a hybrid handheld you can dock to the tv whenever you want.

The Switch reveal trailer was the most hypest thig ever imo and it's currently at 30m+ views the hype is real and has delivered imo.
 
J

James Scott

Banned
The fake NX controller fooling basically everyone and that group of dorks that were "Team AMD" like Happy Nintendo Fan and SMD are events I'll remember for quite awhile.
Fun times.
I was originally on team "handheld first then home console" but as a Handheld Switch is leagues better than I expected. Thought it would lead to games that were uglier than Wii U when the handheld itself surpasses it.
Weird to announce it so soon but then have the reveal to release be one of the shortest in the industry.
It was probably a necessity to announce it so early since Wii U's outlook was super bleak after 2014's fairly big year failed to make a dent.
 
Geno Breaker

Geno Breaker

Banned
So funny when people shat on Emily Rogers and Laura Kate Dale when they got a ton of things true. Nintendo consoles and their details being leaked ahead of time is nothing new, not sure why people were so skeptical.
 
T

tsundoku

Member
if they hadn't needlessly tried to obfuscate what the system was and could have started production a literal year earlier:
laxbCVB.png
 
F

ffdgh

Member
It was fun watching people slowly lose it during that info drought lol. Fun ride aside from that bumpy spot in the reveal earlier this year.
 
R

RAWRferal

Member
I must admit, I was hella sceptical about the whole concept, but now I have it in my hands I can say it's easily my favourite Nintendo console purely from a hardware perspective.

Great concept, executed really well. The future looks bright too.
 
B

BD1

Banned
Nintendo was masterful in all the run up to the reveal. The hype was so fevered it was driving people legit crazy. It was a brutal wait, but looking back.... good times.
 
D

Dark Cloud

Member
You forgot about the hell of a ride it was from when it was announced as NX to when it became known as Switch!

It was too much and mentally draining for some.
 
G

Griss

Member
I'll never forget how whenever anyone casually said they thought it would be a hybrid multiple Nintendo fans would pounce on them telling them how stupid that was an quoting some ancient Iwata quote about how it wasn't going to be that.

Their new console could have been a home machine, portable or hybrid. And the echo chamber consensus against a hybrid was so strong that of course it was the one thing it ended up being.
 
N

NinjaCoachZ

Member
That whole era was completely brutal for the Nintendo fanbase and I have no interest in ever doing that again. Even seeing the initials NX makes me squirm reflexively.
 
A

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
While the wait for the announcement was long I appreciated how short the period was of the announcement to release.
 
G

GDGF

Soothsayer
A crazy time for Nintendo fans that was only matched by the road from Project Reality to Nintendo 64.

Freaking love the end result though.
 
Z

zigg

Member
Griss said:
I'll never forget how whenever anyone casually said they thought it would be a hybrid multiple Nintendo fans would pounce on them telling them how stupid that was an quoting some ancient Iwata quote about how it wasn't going to be that.

Their new console could have been a home machine, portable or hybrid. And the echo chamber consensus against a hybrid was so strong that of course it was the one thing it ended up being.
Click to expand...
It's interesting you saw it that way—I was personally annoyed with people who only skimmed what Iwata was talking about when he discussed the unified development and took that as proof that NX would be a hybrid. That's certainly not what he was saying, but there was also nothing that he said that precluded a hybrid, either.

In fact, he was specifically asked about it, and said he didn't know what Nintendo would do yet:

Despite recent (and relatively fuzzy) rumors that Nintendo's next system would take the form of a single, portable/TV console hybrid, Iwata said he is "not sure if the form factor (the size and configuration of the hardware) will be integrated... Whether we will ultimately need just one device will be determined by what consumers demand in the future, and that is not something we know at the moment."
Click to expand...
The whole thing was about building software once, then easily making it available on all Nintendo's devices much like iOS apps run on iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads.
 
K

key

Member
zigg said:
It's interesting you saw it that way—I was personally annoyed with people who only skimmed what Iwata was talking about when he discussed the unified development and took that as proof that NX would be a hybrid. That's certainly not what he was saying, but there was also nothing that he said that precluded a hybrid, either.

In fact, he was specifically asked about it, and said he didn't know what Nintendo would do yet:


The whole thing was about building software once, then easily making it available on all Nintendo's devices much like iOS apps run on iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads.
Click to expand...

Sure, but Griss is right that it was common for anyone who suggested that the NX might be a hybrid to be told that it definitely would not be because "Iwata said so."
 
G

Griss

Member
zigg said:
It's interesting you saw it that way—I was personally annoyed with people who only skimmed what Iwata was talking about when he discussed the unified development and took that as proof that NX would be a hybrid. That's certainly not what he was saying, but there was also nothing that he said that precluded a hybrid, either.

In fact, he was specifically asked about it, and said he didn't know what Nintendo would do yet:


The whole thing was about building software once, then easily making it available on all Nintendo's devices much like iOS apps run on iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads.
Click to expand...

It was this quote from 2013 that people relied on far more than the one you posted (which was 2014):

Last year we also started a project to integrate the architecture for our future platforms. What we mean by integrating platforms is not integrating handhelds devices and home consoles to make only one machine. What we are aiming at is to integrate the architecture to form a common basis for software development so that we can make software assets more transferrable, and operating systems and their build-in applications more portable, regardless of form factor or performance of each platform. They will also work to avoid software lineup shortages or software development delays which tend to happen just after the launch of new hardware.
Some time ago it was technologically impossible to have the same architecture for handheld devices and home consoles and what we did was therefore reasonable. Although it has not been long since we began to integrate the architecture and this will have no short-term result, we believe that it will provide a great benefit to our platform business in the long run.
Click to expand...

People misunderstood that Iwata was simply explaining that integration didn't necessarily mean they had to make a hybrid. Instead, they read it as him saying that they wouldn't make a hybrid. This misunderstanding was widespread.
 
D

Dark Cloud

Member
It didn't help when you had rumors saying the Switch was multiple systems or SuperMetalDave pretending he was an insider and going on about AMD was working with Nintendo to make atleast a super powerful console for Nintendo lmao

Of course you had the fake rumor where it was an all glass handheld with no buttons. Then not long after that someone else put online they had something similar to that showing that UE4 or mobile trailer running on it...it was a mess
 
S

scitek

Member
13ruce said:
It was the best ride ever imo and the Switch really turned out to be epic. The crazy theories the hybrid thoughts. Multiple platforms and more it was a wild ride and i loved all rumors and theories it created.

It turned out what i thought it would be a hybrid handheld you can dock to the tv whenever you want.

The Switch reveal trailer was the most hypest thig ever imo and it's currently at 30m+ views the hype is real and has delivered imo.
Click to expand...

Is this all iyo?
 
A

AquaWateria

Member
I remember 98% of GAF were saying it would be DOA and sell less than WiiU during the January event.

It really blew my mind how a massive amount of people were surprised and disappointed it cost 300 dollars.
 
A

AppleSautts

Member
The road to the Switch reveal was such a wild ride. All those rumors and "leaks" almost all turned out to be bullshit.

One thing I think has been looked over is how WSJ got it right a year before the Switch was even revealed:

The exact shape of the NX hardware isn’t yet clear. People familiar with the development plans said Nintendo would likely include both a console and at least one mobile unit that could either be used in conjunction with the console or taken on the road for separate use. They also said Nintendo would aim to put industry-leading chips in the NX devices, after criticism that the Wii U’s capabilities didn’t match those of competitors.
Click to expand...
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1125479
 
L

L Thammy

Member
AquaWateria said:
I remember 98% of GAFF were saying it would be DOS and sell less than WiiU during the January event.

It really blew my mind how a massive amount of people were surprised and disappointed it cost 300 dollars.
Click to expand...

Oh man, now I'm imagining ZZT, Wolfenstein and all that on Switch.
 
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