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Nintendo Switch: Masahiro Sakurai’s thoughts on the console, excited for Nintendo’s unified output

Every odd week, Masahiro Sakurai publishes a column in Famitsu magazine, where he talks about various things (gaming in general, the development of games he’s working on, or some totally random topics). In the latest issue, he’s talking about something everyone has been talking about… the Nintendo Switch. Find out what he had to say thanks to Source Gaming‘s translation of the column!

Masahiro Sakurai reveals that his very first reaction was about the release date. If you were not expecting the console to be released so early, then don’t worry, you were definitely not the only one… Masahiro Sakurai also wasn’t! There’s also the price, and his reaction was quite different from most people… he actually found the console quite cheap.

As for the Nintendo Switch being region-free, it’s something he’s pretty happy about, since he doe play a lot of games from other regions. Quite interestingly, Nintendo going with paid online doesn’t seem to faze him at all (which is most likely due to the fact he’s already used to it on PlayStation platforms, for example).

But like many others, what Masahiro Sakurai is really excited about with the Nintendo Switch is Nintendo’s unified output. No more handhelds and consoles, with separate teams.

Here’s what he had to say about that:

In the past, when Nintendo approached the release of new hardware, they might even have had teams working on three or more different platforms at once. Before, directors, departments, and studios might have been working on different platforms, but now the Switch can unify all of that development power. On a simple level, we can expect a big increase in Nintendo’s development power.

Because of the complexity, depth, and content expected of modern games, there may be some trade-offs to this approach, but I think being able to increase your development capacity in this day and age is something worth celebrating. Because in the end, software is what decides success and failure, not the hardware details.

Oh, and if you thought that Masahiro Sakurai was an insider with unlimited access to top secret Nintendo info, think again:

People tend to think of me as someone who solely works for or with Nintendo, but I actually didn’t know of this information until I saw the presentation.

Make sure to check out the full translation of the column over at Source Gaming!

The Nintendo Switch will be released on March 3rd.

Lite_Agent

Founder and main writer for Perfectly Nintendo. Tried really hard to find something funny and witty to put here, but had to admit defeat.

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