Rumors about it have circulated for over a year, and now Nintendo has finally fully revealed its next games console: a hybrid home-and-mobile system called the Nintendo Switch.
Nintendo has demonstrated how the system works in a video trailer released today. Neither strictly a home or portable console, the Switch – previously codenamed the Nintendo NX – integrates elements of both, and can be quickly switched between home and portable configurations.
While there’s the option of using the console as a standard home system complete with a controller that connects to your TV, you don’t have to stop playing once you’ve decided to go outside. Instead, you can attach the controller’s sides to the Switch’s portable display and take it with you.
Multiplayer is also possible. You can share a single portable display between several players, each with their own slide-off “Joy Con” controller, or – as also confirmed by Nintendo and reported by TechCrunch – connect multiple Switch units to give everyone their own screen.
In the video trailer, Nintendo indicates that the Switch is “coming March 2017”. Nintendo will also make “Pro” controllers, closer in appearance to controllers traditionally used for home gaming, available for use with the Switch.