Nintendo’s Yoshiaki Koizumi recently took part in an interview with Game Informer to promote the upcoming release of the Nintendo Switch. Game Informer asked many questions, but two questions in particular stood out among the rest.
The first question was when Koizumi first started dreaming about the Switch and what the initial vision was. Koizumi responded by saying that “we are always thinking about new hardware, and we started working on this plan about three years ago. Since then, there have been a lot of discussions between our staff, and we tried a lot of different things. Nintendo’s concept of a social experience for the game systems we have developed in the past has been to provide a chance to play games together in your living room. To adjust that to the world as it is today, we decided that an unfettered experience that can be enjoyed anywhere would ultimately maximize the number of people who can enjoy our games and be the most fun, and so we decided on this design.”
The second question was about why Koizumi feels that GPU speed is less important than a console’s other features. Koizumi said that “for Nintendo, the axis of improvement for each new generation is the system concept. To make it possible to play a game system at home or on the go seamlessly, we had to take a different perspective and consider factors such as the battery usage of the ‘system on a chip.’ This is a different axis than simply improving processing power, so we selected design elements that fit the type of product we wanted to produce. This was definitely the case for Nintendo Switch.”
childish ? its far more powerful than wiiu and a hybrid SO JOB COMPLEAT
The job is completed, indeed. Nintendo never focused on graphics. They focused only on how you can play games. That’s the right way.
“Nintendo never focused on graphics”. You must be really young ma’ boi ; )
Son.. back in my day, Nintendo only focused on POWER.. It wasn’t until the Wii they started focusing on the concept.
Back in the days of the NES and Super NES, Nintendo’s consoles were actually the most powerful and impressive. The NES dominated over the SEGA Master System. And the SNES dominated over the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive (face it people, it did). And even the Gamecube had better graphics than the PS2, but didn’t get the love it deserved. I agree that it wasn’t until the Wii that Nintendo seemed to start focusing more on the concept than the power. Although Nintendo always did their own thing. They didn’t really care about “competing” with the competition.
Nintendo Switch is much powerful then Windows 10. I don’t think the Wii U is not powerful enough. Nintendo is fixing there mistakes. Eat that PS4 and Xbox gamers.
Windows 10 is not a piece of hardware though.
Maybe he talks about PC and he wrote Windows 10. But we don’t have to compare OS to a Gaming Console.
No gaming console is more powerful than a PC, so OP is still wrong.
To us technicians, it might a ways be a piece of hardware because you want to throw it out every time you service a customers computer
I know.
Yeah. Eat that PS4 and Xbox gamers. :)
XD
I think you’re too young to be on the internet unsupervised…
And why?
I sense that this is a joke, a bad joke.
Ok Koizumi, fair enough, this GPU should be enough, but always aim at the best you can achieve, even for a mobile product. And certainly the Switch is good overall.
Don’t sleep on achievements, always best yourselves. And don’t experiment too much, you know that sometimes you exaggerate and make bad design (Virtual Boy, Wii U, Wii abysmal specs). So this design is almost perfect, certainly solid, next console just 5-8x this power (more FLOPS, RAM and the likes) and a longer battery (hit 4 to 5 hours of actual play on its best games, and we are in). No need to overdo when you reached this kind of solidity.
Dear Nintendo:
Going after the casuals like this is how you lose gamers though. The ones that will spend $1000+ on games during the consoles life cycle. The ones that boast that they have “x game or x console”. The ones that spend their money and make video games their #1 pastime. Nobody really brags that they have a Nintendo product anymore. Games are supposed to be for gamers first and then casuals. If you want to target casuals then make a “Nintendo lite” or something. You guys keep making the same mistakes over and over again. Your reputation went from “Now we are playing with power” to ” Now we are playing with grandma”. Sure, they deserve to play games too. You should throw them a bone “once in awhile” instead of throwing gamers a bone “once in awhile”. Your focus should be on gamers first and then casuals. I believe it’s time to hire a new staff. I can make Nintendo great again.
The most powerful portable device dedicated to gaming first is a middle to gamers?
The most powerful portable device dedicated to gaming first is a middle finger to gamers?
You could also call it the weakest home console…
..
I started replying to you but I grow tired of explaining things and I don’t much like being negative.
The compromises made to its power were all because it needed to be portable.
Well, ok. However, too many compromises were made. Also, Nintendo is very cheap and very selfish. So, most of those compromises weren’t compromises at all, it was just Nintendo being cheap again.
You can’t tell me that putting a mic jack in the controllers is not an absolutely, 100% “no brainer”. A mic jack in the joy con grip and one in the pro controller. If you handed anyone, one of those controllers, whom has spent any time gaming recently or just being near a gamer, while they were gaming, would notice after examining it, that there wasn’t a headset jack in the controller.
Could go something like this:
After handing said person the controller, this is what would be said…
” Hey, where do I plug my headset in? – P1
“In the Switch console”. P2
“I mean when i’m at home? P1
“Uhhh…In your phone” P2
“Lol.” P1
“Im serious, lol” P2
“I dont believe you…” P1
“Doesn’t matter what you believe” P2
“So, I have the phone attached to the headset acting as an anchor while holding the controller and trying to play my game? I highly doub’t it lol. There’s no way Nintendo would do that. They probably just use bluetooth then…kinda dumb though. Now I gotta go buy a new headset as i’m sure Nintendo doesn’t include one.” P1
“Nope. Doesn’t support bluetooth headsets. Their controllers use it though but even that signal is weak” P2
“…ok then. Let me take a look at that dock thing” P1
“Sure, here, have a look” P2
“Nice…Hey sweet, is that usb-c? Oh, I like how this comes down. Hey, where do I plug in the Ethernet cable?” P1
“You have to buy an adapter for that” P2
“Crazy. Well at least it keeps the cost down” P1
“Well….”P2
I could keep going…
I didn’t even get to the analog triggers yet…
Did they need to compromise on those things? or was that Nintendo being super cheap and selfish? I’m going to say the latter..how about you?
I was hoping that Nintendo was going to “take at least one for the team” this time ’round. Since the last offering from them was ridiculous and the time before that was a nightmare, a nightmare that just wont end. Blah blah blah
I’m going to be honest and say those are features I’ve never given two shits about but can see how others are annoyed.
Zelda BotW was taking forever to download on Switch so I was gonna bring my Switch into the living room, hook up the dock, & plug in an ethernet cable to speed it the fuck up, but then I noticed there was no place to plug one in so I looked online & found out I need to buy YET ANOTHER FUCKING ACCESSORY! 1 step forward, 2 steps back from NintenD’OH! *facepalm* as usual. :/
There was no ‘need’ to go portable, no one was asking for a nerfed hybrid. That’s just Nintendo’s narrow views.
I was.
Well thanks, I guess they listened to you just like those that asked to ride Epona and now we have to deal with horses getting hurt.
3DS was a weak handheld compared to the PSVita, but which one was the top dog in the end?
Wii was the weakest console last gen, but oh my, look at how it destroyed the PS3 and Xbox 360 fo years.
Nintendo Switch is already seeing good healthy pre-order numbers so I don’t see why you’re complaining about the power. Nintendo stopped focusing on power since the Wii but the Switch is the most powerful gaming tablet (excluding Microsoft Surface) and it’s a pretty good Home Console as well.
3DS also struggled at first until Nintendo slashed the price and the higher ups had to take a pay cut.
Only reason the 3DS took off was because it was cheaper than the Vita after the price cut, so it sold way better, people got to experience it and see the 3D for themselves, but because Nintendo was too god damn fucking stupid to put kiosks in more places is why it did not do so well at first, and i remember the DS and the GBA before it having demonstration stands at WalMart.. but the 3DS had none.
If the Switch does not have plenty of ways for folks to try one at their leisure, it could possibly be an issue.
So far who is to say that the Switch is not just selling well to the core nintendo fans?
Rather than traveling around and letting a select few try the god damn thing, nintendo needs to do like they did back in the day with the NES and SNES and put some damn kiosks out there in the wild somwhow and give more folks a chance to easily walk into a store and fucking try the damn thing!!
So far they are doing better with the switch than they have in the past, but i fear it’s not enough… that’s basically what i’m saying.
Wii had a unique play style that captured the casuals. 3DS had third party support.
Switch has controller issues and no support. Good luck to them.
You do realize that Nintendo has always focused on casual gamers and newcomers do you?
Since the Wii…sure. Maybe if you were a little older you wouldn’t be so ignorant.
It’s not ignorance. Their first home console was literally called the “Family Computer”
Sega truly challenged Nintendo with power during the 16 bit era. That’s why the SNES was a powerhouse at the time.
Ok, what does that name have to do with anything? They were the best, the strongest, had cutting edge graphics and tons of third party support. Just because you pulled “Family computer” of some wiki page doesn’t change the facts of what it was.
Ugh. I really, really don’t know why I still care. believe what you want.
The Famicom/NES was a pretty powerful system. But it wasn’t the most powerful of it’s generation. The Sega Master System was actually a more powerful 8-bit console. The main reason Nintendo enjoyed all the 3rd party support back then was because their success allowed them to employ draconian, anti-competitive practices on publishers, even going as far as to prevent them from releasing games on other systems.
Umm… no. That’s laughably false.
Is it? Are you really going to tell me that a console that was literally called the “Family Computer” was aimed primarily at hardcore gamers?
These new gen Nintendo gamers are something else. They really should keep quiet before they defend Nintendo’s current mindset of focusing on casuals with bullshit lines like “they always focused on casuals” or “they always focused on gimmicky controllers over power.” Shows how ignorant & young some of you really are. Or just a very, very out of touch adult that didn’t pay attention to much past their own little bubble. Say whatever you will after I make this comment but your alternate facts & delusions won’t change the truth of the past.
“From now you’re playing with power” to “Now you’re playing with Grandma.” xD Made me laugh.
And from, “We won’t make mobile games” to “All games will be played on a tablet.”
But hey, If enough people are having fun to keep them in the hardware business, they don’t need most of the original gamers. So good for them, we’ll see how this pans out in the next year or so.
“Now we are playing with power” to ” Now we are playing with grandma”
This!…
This one speaks truths..
Quadraxis,, you have some splaining to do…
||A Steambot has no valid arguments to make about Nintendo nor in this base Xbot…||
Yeah but he’s right, you role-playing dipshit…
I think”once in a while” should be hiatused for a long while (long then the gap between Sonic Lost World and Project Sonic 2017). As as for games for casuals, that’s what Pokemon Go and Candy Crush are for.
The Switch should be for Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Sonic Mania, Project Sonic 2017, Yooka-Laylee, SSB5 (no cut characters), Pokemon Stadium 3, Sonic Adventure 3 (not Heroes, 06, or Unleashed), Sonic Generations (the console version) Klonoa 2: Lunateil’s Veil, Klonoa 3, Mega Man 11 (Mega Man Adventure), Power Stone 1 & 2, Power Stone 3, Ultra Street Fighter IV, Marvel vs Capcom Infinite, Undertale, J-Stars Victory Vs, etc.
Big entries into each respective franchise, not shallow spin-offs and underwhelming titles that are more chore than fun.
This is hilarious to see people complain about the power when there is another option for gaming. Why do three companies plus the PC market have to pump out the same games? Sure each has exclusives, but what about the experience? Is it not logical to say that you can sell a system that gives the user an experience that deviates from the crowd so to give an alternative? Xbox One and PS4 are the same type of machine. They have different attri utes. Ut they are not trying to deviate. Nintendo had to and now they have a handheld that will have staying power aNd can bring along a “more powerful” ysgem down the road if that is needed or they want to. the Nintendo exclusive content has gotten steadily better and they get the most out of their hardware. Some of these games seem more of what gaming has always meant to be as opposed to the desire to make and rarely come close to a cinematic experience which the other systems appear to be more focused on and still don’t deliver.
To be fair.. i would be happy if we just went back to the 16 bit era personally…
The issue is game droughts as witnessed on the U and evident with the Switch for it’s release period.
And thanks to not focusing there’s a nerfed home console for the sake of being portable. Goodbye third party support, haven’t seen you since the Wii.