Nintendo NX Revealed as the Nintendo Switch

Nintendo's portable and home console hybrid is real and powered by Nvidia.

News by Mike Williams, Reviews Editor

Updated on 20 October 2016

Today, Nintendo finally revealed the Nintendo NX to the world under its new moniker: The Nintendo Switch. The system is, as rumor suggested a portable and home console hybrid, allowing Nintendo to focus its considerable expertise with both sides of the divide on a single console.

Over the course of the three minute video, Nintendo showed off a system that lined up perfectly with the rumors. The console is a portable that slides into a dock when you're at home.

The controllers on either side of the system - called JoyCon R and L - are detachable, attaching to a controller shell for playing at home, or even splitting for multiplayer when you're out and about. Being able to move between home play, portable mode, and multiplayer seems to be the primary point of the Switch; take your home console gaming with you. Later in the video there was also a Pro controller for the new console.

The games - card-based according to the trailer - shown were existing titles, including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and a version of Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, or enhanced ports or sequels, like Mario Kart and Splatoon. The exception is the all-new Mario title.

In a seperate announcement, Nvidia confirmed that the Nintendo Switch is powered by Tegra technology.

"Nintendo Switch is powered by the performance of the custom Tegra processor. The high-efficiency scalable processor includes an NVIDIA GPU based on the same architecture as the world’s top-performing GeForce gaming graphics cards," said Nvidia in the announcement.

"We’ve optimized the full suite of hardware and software for gaming and mobile use cases. This includes custom operating system integration with the GPU to increase both performance and efficiency," the company added.

It's worth noting that the a big problem with previous Tegra-powered devices is the battery life. The Nvidia Shield Tablet K1, which the switch vaguely takes after, had a 6-7 hour battery life. Hopefully, Nvidia and Nintendo have worked to improve that.

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Mike Williams

Reviews Editor

M.H. Williams is new to the journalism game, but he's been a gamer since the NES first graced American shores. Third-person action-adventure games are his personal poison: Uncharted, Infamous, and Assassin's Creed just to name a few. If you see him around a convention, he's not hard to spot: Black guy, glasses, and a tie.