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takyon writes:

Coverage of the Nintendo Switch console "launch" is available at Ars Technica, Tom's Hardware, Anandtech.

Nintendo Switch uses a USB Type-C cable for charging, and has a battery life ranging from 2.5 to 6.5 hours, comparable to (but less than) the latest version of the Nintendo 3DS XL. It can be played in Console, Handheld, and Tabletop modes. The handheld has a 6.2" 720p screen but the docked console supports 1080p60 gaming.

The Switch has 32 GB of internal storage, some of which is used for the operating system. It has a "game card slot" for games released on some form of proprietary physical flash media, but also comes with a standard microSD slot for expandable storage.

Nintendo will offer a free trial of a paid online gameplay service for the Switch (similar to Xbox Live Gold or PlayStation Plus) until sometime in Autumn.

The system will be released on March 3, 2017 for $299.

Here are some of the games.

Previously: "Nintendo Switch" Coming in March 2017
Will Third-Party Developers Support Nintendo's Switch?

Original Submission

takyon writes:

SanDisk (Western Digital) has announced a 400 GB MicroSD card for $250:

In 2015, SanDisk released the world's first 200GB microSDXC storage media using TLC flash technology. Today the company announced a successor, the Ultra MicroSDXC UHS-I, which doubles capacity to a massive 400GB housed within a card roughly the size of your finger nail.

This form factor is now the de facto standard for several classes of devices that span a wide range of product types. Most modern cell phones and tablets have standardized on microSD, and the technology has also penetrated other devices, such as drones and game consoles.

This new 400GB model can hold up to 40 hours of Full HD video and has a transfer speed of up to 100 MBps. That comes out to transferring up to 1,200 photos per minute. The card also meets the A1 App Performance Class specification built by the SD Association to ensure high random performance. The specification insists that products carrying the logo can meet or exceed 1,500 random read IOPS and 500 random write IOPS for quick loading of mobile optimized applications.

Time to update your sneakernet bandwidth calculations with this and a 787 Dreamliner.

Also at Engadget, The Verge, and PC Magazine.

Previously: Samsung Announces 256 GB MicroSD Card

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Nintendo takes a gamble with record-setting Switch production plans

The Nintendo Switch has been an unqualified success so far, with Nintendo recently promising increased holiday season production to meet demand and expectations of over 16 million total sales by the end of March 2018. Reporting now suggests the company is expecting that sales pace to increase markedly in the coming year, though, and another associated production increase would come with both a fair amount of potential and risk for the company.

The production news comes from The Wall Street Journal, which cites "people with direct knowledge of the matter" in reporting that Nintendo plans to make 25 to 30 million Switch units in the coming fiscal year (which starts in April 2018). That's a major increase from the 13 million produced for the current fiscal year, which itself was a sizable increase from the company's initial plans to make just 8 million units for the console's first full year on shelves. WSJ's sources say those production numbers could go up even higher if coming holiday season sales are strong.

Nintendo exec: Failed Wii U is responsible for Switch's success

The success of the company's latest gaming console, the Nintendo Switch, is the result of lessons taken from the failed Wii U, according to Reggie Fils-Aimé, the president of Nintendo America.

[...] The console also didn't have a consistent flow of new games supporting the system. "We've addressed that with the Nintendo Switch -- having a steady pace of new launches is critical," he said. The Switch includes games like "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," "Super Mario Odyssey" and "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe."

Another issue with the Wii U was that it didn't have "strong support" from Nintendo's third-party partners, Fils-Aimé said. "Whether it's the big companies like Electronic Arts, or whether it's the smaller independent developer, we need those companies to create content to support us. We have that now with Nintendo Switch," he said.

Previously: Will Third-Party Developers Support Nintendo's Switch?
Nintendo Switch Available on March 3rd for $299
Nintendo Switch Stolen by Distributor's Employees Ahead of Launch, Details Leaked
The Ghost in Nintendo's Switch - Game Unlocks on the Date of Satoru Iwata's Death

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Skyrim, a game in the Elder Scrolls series first released in 2011, is now available for the Nintendo Switch, and has a VR version for PC and PlayStation 4 as well:

How Bethesda was able to fit Skyrim on the Switch

"While docked, Skyrim operates at a native 1600 x 900, while playing in mobile mode shows us the first sign of compromise," Digital Foundry said. "When we looked at the Switch port at Gamescom, everything indicated a native 720p resolution, but the final code reveals more: a fairly basic form of resolution scaling designed to sustain smooth performance. Under load, resolution drops back suddenly to 896 x 720 — 70 per cent of the native pixel count."

'Skyrim VR' makes the 6-year-old game feel fresh again

Having played through Skyrim from start to finish more than once, and having drudged through the opening act more times than I care to remember, I was skeptical that what amounted to a gimmick would be enough to draw me back into the snow-capped region that I'd already seen every inch of. But within moments, I was captivated.

How Bethesda brought The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to VR

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR is available now for PSVR and PC. With hundreds of hours of gameplay between the core campaign, side content, and three expansions players will be able to lose themselves once again in the frosted wastelands of Skyrim.

The world of Skyrim is thrilling and flawed in VR

Other small annoyances abounded in my brief time with Skyrim VR so far. The interface seems imperfectly tuned for the new VR perspective; in-game books and menus are presented with big, readable text, but pop-up warnings and notifications like a stamina bar appear too small and out-of-the-way to be very useful. Navigating menus means holding a button and flicking in the direction you want to move, a usable but imprecise method of navigation. Picking up loose items, meanwhile, requires pointing directly at them and tapping a button, a process that gets annoying after constant repetition. This also makes it extremely awkward to play while sitting, as your legs often end up getting in the way of items on the ground.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Nintendo Switch Kernel exploit 34c3 presentation: "Nvidia Backdoored themselves"

Yesterday, hackers Plutoo, Derrek, and Naehrwert were at the 34C3 hacking conference in Germany to give a presentation on their kernel hacks on the Nintendo Switch (video below). Hacker Yellows8 wasn't there but was also credited for some of the work that led to this presentation.

[...] They detail in particular the sm:hax exploit (which consists in skipping an initialization step for a service, which results in the service manager thinking the service has pid 0, making it root giving it additional privileges*), as well as the hardware glitching process that was used to get the Kernel decryption keys. Naehrwert also presents how he bypassed ARM's Trustzone on the Switch, a stunt he insists "is not useful for homebrew, but fun".

One of the highlights of the presentation is how the hackers leveraged the fact that the Nintendo Switch uses an "off the shelf" Nivdia Tegra X1. A GPU that is well documented, and for which debugging hardware can also be officially be acquired at reasonable prices. The X1 documentation in particular gave the hackers detailed information on how to bypass some security of the SMMU (system Memory Management Unit). "Just search for 'bypass the SMMU' in the documentation", Plutoo says. He concludes: "Nvidia Backdoored themselves".

Nintendo Switch Homebrew Launcher Could Allow Custom Software Via NVIDIA Backdoor

The one caveat to this new homebrew experience is that it is only currently validated for Nintendo Switch 3.0.0 firmware. So, if you want to take part in the festivities, you will need to stay on that firmware and resist the urge to update to a newer build.

Also at HackRead, TechRadar.

Related: The Ghost in Nintendo's Switch - Game Unlocks on the Date of Satoru Iwata's Death
Nintendo to More Than Double Production of Switch; Success Rooted in Wii U's Failure
Nintendo Sells at Least 10 Million Switch Consoles in 2017, 64 GB Game Cards Delayed to 2019
34th Chaos Communication Congress (34C3) Presentations Online

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Nintendo's Switch just outsold the GameCube

The Switch's lifetime sales, as of this writing, have reached over 22 million units, which surpasses not only the Wii U's 13.6 million units, but the GameCube's 21.7 million units. For reference, the next most successful Nintendo console was the Nintendo 64 at 33 million units and the most successful (in non-handhelds) is the Wii at 101 million units.

Before crucial holiday season, Nintendo struggles as Sony shines

As 2017 came to a close, Nintendo was busy reveling in Switch sales that were exceeding expectations while Sony's PlayStation 4 was showing signs that its strong sales had peaked. Leading into the all important 2018 holiday season, the companies' comparative console war outlooks seem to have changed a bit.

Let's start with Nintendo, which recently announced worldwide shipments of 3.2 million Switch systems in the July through September quarter. The good news is, that's up slightly from the 2.93 million sold in the same period a year ago. The bad news is that slight increase doesn't put Nintendo on track to meet its long-standing projection for 20 million Switch units sold during the fiscal year (which ends in March 2019). Overall, Nintendo's quarterly profits and revenues both came in significantly below analyst estimates as well, though both were up from a year prior.

[...] Sony, meanwhile, is seeing surprising resilience for the PS4 during its fifth full year on the market. The console shipped 3.9 million units in the last quarter, down slightly from 4.2 million a year ago, but not down nearly as much as might be expected for a platform that launched in late 2013. Overall, the PlayStation division's quarterly profits were up 65 percent year over year, with sales up 22 percent; both figures exceeded analyst expectations.

See also: Nintendo chief says beefing up Switch sales is the main task in his strategy

Previously: Nintendo Sells at Least 10 Million Switch Consoles in 2017, 64 GB Game Cards Delayed to 2019

Related: Video Game Consoles are Doing Better than Ever
Hidden "VrMode" Found in Nintendo Switch Firmware

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Macronix will begin shipping 3D NAND in 2020, with Nintendo as the first customer:

Macronix, a Taiwan-based manufacturer for special-purpose memory solutions, will start volume shipments of its own 3D NAND memory in the second half of next year. The company will become the first flash manufacturer in Taiwan to produce in-house designed 3D NAND.

Macronix will manufacture 48-layer 3D NAND memory in the second half of 2020, said Miin Wu, the chairman of the company, during a press conference dedicated to Macronix's 30th anniversary. The company then plans to start shipments of 96-layer 3D NAND in 2021 and 192-layer 3D NAND in 2022. At present, the most advanced technology used by the firm to make NAND is its planar 19 nm technology that has been in use since February, 2019.

Macronix did not disclose the organization of its 3D NAND, but since the company typically produces memory for specialized devices such as defibrillators, drones, video game cartridges, and watches, they are likely aiming for longevity and reliability here. Which these days is a rather unique offering, since most commodity flash memory is focused first and foremost on density.

One likely product will be 64 GB game cards for the Nintendo Switch.

Related: Nintendo Sells at Least 10 Million Switch Consoles in 2017, 64 GB Game Cards Delayed to 2019

Original Submission