The Nintendo Switch will be available in Japan, the US, Canada, “major European countries” and Hong Kong on March 3, Nintendo announced in a Japanese presentation late Thursday night. The Nintendo Switch will cost $299 in the United States, 29,980 Yen in Japan, and cost will vary by retailer and country throughout Europe.
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According to Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima,”The Nintendo Switch will not be region-locked, and that all software would work on systems released in all countries.”
The Joy-Con controllers, which can be slid off the side of the capacitive touch screen tablet on the hybrid system, will sport a motion IR camera that Nintendo says can “tell the difference between rock paper and scissors” and the distance of a hand flashed in front of it. The system also makes use of what Nintendo is calling “HD rumble,” which can let players differentiate “the number of ice cube in a virtual glass” and the water filling that glass.
A “capture” button on the left controller will let players store and share screenshots of Switch games, though video capture and sharing will only be coming “in the future.” An NFC reader on the right Joy-Con controller will allow for Amiibo connectivity.
The Nintendo World Store yesterday announced that pre-orders for the console will begin on January 13 at 9 a.m EST (7:30 p.m IST) at its New York outlet. This comes after retailers across the world have already listed the console for pre-order including GameStop’s Italy and US branches as well as UK’s Gameseek and Australia’s EB Games.
“Quantities will be in limited supply. No surprise given how tough it is to acquire a NES Classic. Nintendo console in general are painful to get during their launch window. Even the Wii U was hard to find. And it seems that the Switch will follow the same trajectory,” the Nintendo World New York Twitter account stated.