Nintendo offers a sneak peek of its latest game system ... and critics yawn
N intendo
Co Ltd offered a sneak preview of a new gaming system that can be used both as a traditional console as well as a handheld device.
In a three-minute video teaser, the Kyoto-based company unveiled Nintendo Switch, its first new gaming device in four years, which will launch in March 2017. It remained, however, silent on the key issue of pricing.
The success of Switch will be crucial as Nintendo still considers console gaming to be the centre of its business, even as casual gaming has moved to smartphones and tablets and as it last console, the Wii U, flopped badly.
If sales disappoint, the company will come under even more pressure to embrace smartphone gaming — something it has only just begun to do.
“The trailer does not show the device being played in interesting new ways, gameplay looks to be surprisingly similar to gaming with any number of other consoles,” Takeshi Koyama, a senior analyst at Mizuho Securities, wrote in a report to clients.
He added that many aspects of the new device remained unclear, such as whether the screen on the main unit is a touchscreen or whether it can be synced up with other smart devices.
The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Splatoon are among the games lined up for the console, according to the trailer, while dozens of publishers such as Activision Publishing Inc, Electronic Arts Inc and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc are developing games for the device.
Eiji Maeda, an analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities, said the games should go down well with traditional Nintendo fans but there were no games shown that seemed to break new ground.
Nintendo has sold only 13 million Wii U consoles since its launch in 2012, compared with 101 million sales of its predecessor, the Wii, launched in 2006.
That flop helped push Nintendo into mobile gaming, leading to the runaway success of Pokemon GO and plans to debut its game franchise Super Mario Bros on Apple Inc’s iPhone in December.