After months of leaving fans on tenterhooks, Nintendo have finally announced a slew of details about the much anticipated Nintendo Switch. Buckle up, there’s a lot of info here.
Announced overnight during a press conference and live stream (above), we now know that the Nintendo Switch will release on March 3rd for £280 ($299.99 in North America and ¥29,980 in Japan.)
We also know that you’ll have to pay a subscription in order to access online play, but that it will be free until the Autumn, presumably to let people get a taste of what they’re signing up for.
Other features include being able to sync up to 8 consoles for local multiplayer, an on-the-go battery life of between 2.5 and 6.5 hours (though you’ll be able to play while charging) and capicative touch screen. The console won’t be region locked either, so you can take it anywhere and play any game.
So, to the games. As we already knew, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be a launch title with the Switch, releasing March 3rd.
There’s also going to be a brand new, open-world Mario game called Super Mario Odyssesy scheduled for “holiday 2017”
1-2-Switch is a system exclusive party game that has you and is billed as a kind of spiritual successor to Wii Sports.
ARMS will be a motion-controlled bowing game that uses the Switch’s Joy Con controllers. It’s due to hit shelves some time in Spring.
What would a Nintendo console be without a Mario Kart game? Well, the Switch is getting a revamped version of the Wii U’s Mario Kart 8 coming on April 28th, called Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
A surprise inclusion on the list is Splatoon 2 – successor to Nintendo’s wildly popular paint-em-up multiplayer game Splatoon. It’ll be coming in the Summer.
Koei Tecmo’s Fire Emblem Warriors is also headed to the Switch but we don’t have any other information on the title as yet. RPG game Xenoblade Chronicles 2 will also be headed to the system.
Other games announced in the livestream were Sonic Mania, Super Bomberman R, Puyo Puyo Tetris and Skyrim.
Now we simply play the waiting game until the Switch releases and we can get a proper look at the console, but Nintendo certainly seem to have high hopes for their new baby.
Mark is the Gaming Editor for UNILAD. Having grown up a gaming addict, he’s been deeply entrenched in culture and spends time away from work playing as much as possible. Mark studied music at University and found a love for journalism through going to local gigs and writing about them for local and national publications.