Yes, we’re already on record as saying that from what we’ve seen of it so far, the Nintendo Switch appears to be another misstep in the company’s read on the current gaming climate, particularly the mobile segment. Then again, we’re …
Yes, we’re already on record as saying that from what we’ve seen of it so far, the Nintendo Switch appears to be another misstep in the company’s read on the current gaming climate, particularly the mobile segment. Then again, we’re also fully cognizant of the fact that we could be wrong. Or maybe partially wrong.
Nintendo isn’t officially sharing any more info about the Switch until January. That didn’t stop Eurogamer from tapping its sources to find out some of its rumored details earlier, including one that might make mobile gamers perk up a bit: It supposedly has a touchscreen.
Specifically, the portion of the Switch that looks like a tablet when you take it out of its dock is said to sport a 6.2″ capacitive touchscreen that supports multi-finger gestures, a first for any Nintendo hardware. Eurogamer thinks Nintendo might have downplayed this feature in the initial announcement video (and by downplay, we mean not mentioning it at all) so that it didn’t confuse or take away from the idea that this was a full-powered console that just happens to be portable.
The Verge has an even more interesting idea, which is that Nintendo might intend the Switch to be able to play its upcoming mobile games like Super Mario Run. This would make sense, as it would allow one device to play everything Nintendo is currently offering on the hybrid console — which is sort of the point, one would think.
But let’s take a second to dream even bigger. Since Nintendo is embracing third party developers more than ever with the Switch, let’s suppose it extended that same line of thinking to mobile games as well. Its already been theorized that the Switch might run on some variation of Android, so if it was connected to the larger ecosystem in some way and could play Android games … well, maybe we’d have to back off our stance that Nintendo doesn’t truly comprehend mobile after all.
This is all just conjecture at this point, but it would be strange indeed to give the Switch a touchscreen and then mot make good use of it. We’ll likely know more on January 12, which is when Nintendo is scheduled to talk more about its new machine.
