Well, we have talked about all the hype surrounding Nintendo Switch, to the pre orders, the people lining up today, finally they have hit the shelves. It's where we start our tech talk.
The machines are getting smarter.
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Al Mark Saltzman, Top of the Afternoon. To you, sir, and are you a Nintendo Switch guy?
I am. I have the new Nintendo Switch too in my grubby little hands. Yeah, it came out today. I was in New York yesterday and I saw when I was in the back of my uber, I saw all these people lining up outside of game stops and Best Spuys and all that. So, yeah, it looks like it's still in demand. I mean, Nintendo's got that secret sauce. They know how to create a system that just gets everybody bonkers. I mean, it's the This is the successor to one of the best selling game consoles in the
history of the industry. I think the original Game Boy was the biggest, but yeah, so this is the successor. This is it's whatever whatever made the Nintendo Switch eight years ago so sought after. They've improved everything, in my opinion, so a bigger screen. Oh, first of all, let's just take a step back. It's called the Nintendo Switch for those who don't know, because you can switch between a handheld console and one that you can dock and play
on your big screen TV. You get the docking station in the box. So that's why I think it's the versatility is one of the reasons why it had become so popular eight years ago.
Is there what is that way mark to compare that, to compare the computing power that's in a Nintendo Switch to to what other consoles were in the past.
So Nintendo tends to not play that game, and that's usually you know PS five versus Xbox Series X, like that's the they go for all that processing power that It is true that Nintendo has upped its game Punintendo in terms of specs. So it's got twice the resolution for the screen. It's a better looking screen and a bigger screen. This is on the device itself. It's got spatial audio. Now, it's got a faster processor. They don't.
They're kind of mom on the deets, like what exactly is the processor and how many hurts is it rendering images and all that, But that's not what Nintendo gamers tend to want. They do have twice the hurts or the response times, and measured it hurts where it can. The higher the number, the smoother the gameplay is. So now it's at one hundred and twenty, which doubles the typical sixty frames per second rate that some consoles have.
But Nintendo plays, you know, they march by the beat of their own drum, and they don't care about what Xbox and PlayStation are doing. And they've got those exclusives like you know, those characters like Mario and Donkey Kong and Princess Peach and Link from the Zelda series. That's what they want. What they have at it, and they are playing a bit of catch up. Here is for the first time, I built in microphone so you can chat with people who you're playing with or against, not
with you in person. This is something you've been able to do for years on Xbox and PlayStation, but Nintendo has this Jenna se Qua. They make it really fun and almost like a little wink and a nudge nudge, like when you pull up your friends pictures or icons on the Nintendo Switch to you know, you can see at the bottom of the screen, who's like what they're doing at that time, and then you can click and
then immediately connect with them. So it's kind of fun, you know, playful, which is very much in line with Nintendo. The Joycon controllers on each side of the screen now magnetically affixed to the console. You don't have to like find I don't know if your listeners are going to know what I mean, but there's with the original Nintendo Switch, there are these little grooves that you had to perfectly align the the game pads in it and slide it in.
It just magnetically attaches just across the board. They made it so much more fun. And yeah, whether you play with somebody beside you on the same device or on the same TV or online, I think they've hit a home run with this.
I mean time will tell, but Nintendo says they expect to sell fifteen million of these to even I think that's a conservative estimate.
Yeah, I think with the tariffs and all that they were bracing for a higher price, but it is what they were expecting. At four point fifty for the regular console and then five hundred if you want the game Nintendo It's called Mario Kart worlds, you know, Mario kart racing where you can throw bananas on the track and
all that. It's really fun. They have They've made it open a little bit more open world so you can even drive around and not particularly you know, partake in a particular race, driving around with friends, like in the desert, look for secrets and easter eggs, and take pictures of one another within the game. So yeah, I think they've they've done a good job. But at the end of the day, it's the games that are the most important. So hopefully there will have it'll have a rich library
of games. It's a little sparse to start, but there's some good ones coming. And parents will like to know that the Nintendo Switch to plays all existing Nintendo Switch games, whether it's a digital download or on a little card a little cartridge.
This is a weird trivia thing that I that I knew about. Doug Bowser is the president of Nintendo America, and Bowser is King Koopa in the Mario series.
Yeah, fascinating. So there was a clip of me on The Tonight Show last week where Jimmy, I don't know, I sent this to your producer, but I don't know you don't have to play it. It's short, but.
Oh my god, of course we will.
So it's it's it's basically Jimmy Kimmel, right, not Fallon. I always get those two.
Well, it depends which one.
It's Night Shows Kimmel, that's Fallon. Hey, I had alike, I get it. Yeah. Anyway, Jimmy Fallon is making a joke about he's he's like kiddit sing with the band leader and says something about how the pope's name something about his name is like pizza or something. And then he said and then the band leader said, and I'm sorry I forgot his name too, quest luck. He's thank you,
He says, what what what's next? You're going to tell me that the president of Nintendo of America's name is Doug Bowser because Bowser is, of course a character in the Nintendo world. And then you see a clip and then and then Fallon says, actually, take a look at this, and then you see me, uh, interviewing. I say, we're joined by Doug Bowser, and it is that is the name of the president of Nintendo of America. Is a funny clip. So all my friends were texting me, going, dude,
you're on the Tonight Show. I'm like, well, really not really, but it's cool. It's funny. Yeah, that's funny clip if they gave from that, yeah, it wouldn't that be nice. That was a big setup for not a huge sort of punch. Now it was fun, it was fine. It was fun.
You've been on The Tonight Show a whole lot more times than we have.
I would love to see Gary, Gary and Shannon on the Tonight Show. I think that would be awesome.
That makes one person, but it takes a journey of a thousand miles. Takes one person to make a thing. So the way switch to is four hundred and forty nine dollars, that is that seems kind of expensive for forty nine.
Yeah, it's inflation. I don't even know how much the original Nintendo switch was. I think maybe two ninety nine, going back, you know, eight years, so it's it's a markup. But PS five and xboxes are not cheap either, especially with what's going on with tariffs, so and some games are going to be expensive. I mean this has been online a lot of people buzzing about this that they could be as much as you know, eighty ninety dollars. We could see a hundred dollars games one day, you know.
So times are changing, It's not it's not cheap to be a gamer these days.
No, got out of that business a long time ago, unfortunately. So hey Mark, thanks as always, appreciate your time. Likewise, thanks Mark Saltzman. Make sure you follow Mark on Twitter on x M A arc underscore Saltzman
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