Nintendo Says Non-Gaming Apps for Switch Will “Come in Time”

Reggie has offered some words of comfort for Switch owners who are missing out on Netflix, Hulu, and other popular apps for the Switch, but I am curious how many Nintendo fans truly care about this. It seems embarrassing not to support additional services on a modern console, but at the same time, this is basically a portable system that will probably be paired with a smartphone much better equipped for non-gaming, streaming activities. Some of you may also find this 12-minute video of console lemons interesting.

While the Nintendo Switch has seen generally positive reception from critics and the marketplace so far, many have noticed that the tablet-like system doesn't do much besides play games. Web browsing, social media, video streaming, music, and other apps that are practically required for any Internet-connected device these days are nowhere to be found on the Switch as of yet. Nintendo doesn't want that situation to last long, though. In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime says that, while gaming will always be the focus, the company is looking into non-gaming features for the Switch down the line.

Go against the grain and leave that stuff out. Just make it a gaming console. Concentrate on producing enough units so that you don't create a secondary market by basement-dwelling entrepreneurs.

Well, one of the reasons why the Switch may fail is because it is compared to a tablet. It costs $300, and basically only plays Nintendo games. As an adult, you're going to need a tablet with that Switch to watch videos and play games downloaded from the app store. As an adult who's buying a Switch for a child, you'll still need a tablet because playing a game can only entertain them for so long, and they can't do homework on a Switch. And there's a lot of tablets that are $300 or less. Like the Nvidia Shield Tablet which is only $200.

Also there's the question if the Switch is actually faster than the Wii U. Cause it may not be.



Then you have the Wii U emulator which can play Breath of the Wild in 4k.

March 2017... 720p optimized gaming... sigh... console peasants.

Gweenz said:

Go against the grain and leave that stuff out. Just make it a gaming console. Concentrate on producing enough units so that you don't create a secondary market by basement-dwelling entrepreneurs.

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That always works on paper but what you leave is a need. And that need ends up getting satisfied by another device, or in the case of gaming it might mean they need a ps4 to compliment the switch. It is one of those little things that can turn the sale the other direction and lets be honest, the less total devices I 'need' connected and maintained the better. And the less something does, the less value is perceived. At the moment the switch feature list is a little dry for its pricetag.

It would make sense to think that the Wii U would me as powerful than a Switch. Afterall, the Switch is a tablet and would need to yield to having all it's hardware under one mobile roof. The Wii U does not.

I know I'll buy one in time. I'll probably buy it sooner and not later, too. Thanks to Zelda. Reminds me of my N64 purchase - just for Mario. Mostly because the first party games tend to be really good.


It's a shame it's not stronger as a home console, when docked.

I kinda wanted one, than I saw the insane accessory prices, no virtual console, Zelda the only relevant launch game, no apps at launch. I passed on it for a GPD Win.

wow that is insane, did nintendo even test the switch prior to release, or they just don't care ? the screen scraching from the dock is unbelievable, and the tegra seems to be working well, all these graphic glitch probably tegra's fault
this is really bad news, there cannot be this many issues for this many ppl for the low amount of ppl with the system this soon, the system is broken.
nintendo go software please.

Nintendo better hurry up. They have some "breathing room" in that Breath of the Wild is so incredibly good that it will create a halo effect for the hardware....for a limited time. Within 3 to 6 months, they'd better have a LOT more to show for it!

I've been of the opinion from the start that is much like Duke Nukem's post above - the Switch is only rationally - and favorably - compared to a mobile tablet. Compare it to anything else it falls short, which isn't exactly fair to the Switch either. For instance, it is nowhere near as powerful as current gen home consoles, especially the PS4 Pro etc. However, nobody would have ever claimed that the Nintendo 3DS was "supposed" to be as powerful as the Xbox360, so that's not an issue. Instead, it is best to look at the Switch as a tablet; it has ARM powered, Android-tablet-like internals, multitouch display. Looking it as a "$300 package including a $200 tablet plus a Dock, 2 controllers (or even 1.5 controllers), and accessories" however, and it becomes a better value proposition.

I've said for a long time that this is what Nintendo should focus upon - make it capable of a full tablet experience PLUS the ability to play Nintendo games and compatible with high-quality peripherals; both Nintendo's strong suits. I would have preferred if the SwitchOS was a skinned version of latest generation Android as this would be best for compatibility (even sideloading), but it has a FreeBSD kernel so that's something that should make porting over at least a bit easier assuming the userspace isn't garbage. With a full tablet experience (best able to run Android apps people already like and use but even without that...) Nintendo could make a strong argument for people to buy the Switch for themselves and/or their kids, as a relatively inexpensive alternative to another tablet which also plays Nintendo games! However, Nintendo borked this up with shortsightedness and focus exclusively on the games and with barest support for anything else. Imagine if the Switch came on Day 1 with full support for Kodi (hell, make it a Nintendo skinned version) and other multimedia players, Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, CrunchyRoll, TwitchTV, full-featured e-reading applications, a full extension-ready HTML5 browser based on Firefox or Chrome/ium, and more, not to mention a well-heeled (equal to XboxLive/PSN) friends list and online play system - PLUS a full integration with the Android / iOS titles out there like FireEmblem Heroes etc.!

They can't forget about the "Tablet stuff" or take a long time in coming to it because yes, people may have phones and whatnot but if they want to justify the purchase of the Switch for more than just perhaps 1 or 2 games a year (ie the WiiU underwhelming crowd at best), they need to support and push all of the Switch's functionality and make it a worthwhile alternative to buying an Android / iOS tablet for you or your kids.

Reinforces why I stated I'll be waiting until at least holiday 2017 if not next summer before I purchase one. It was pretty obvious that the system was honestly not completely ready to be launched. I've waited since I bought the wii however many years ago for a new nintendo console, waiting 1 more for it to be polished won't kill me.

The problem of viewing it as a tablet is that the screen isn't big enough. Should have been 7" screen min. 8" like a Shield Tablet would have been ideal with more room for a bigger battery.

I guess this just leaves room for a Switch XL in the future.

I wanted one pretty bad for the mobile aspect, but that battery life is an absolute buzzkill. Was also hoping for some backwards compatibility, or some sort of emulation, to work DS or even GBA games, but Nintendo has never been keen on that.

Disappointing.

kirbyrj said:

The problem of viewing it as a tablet is that the screen isn't big enough. Should have been 7" screen min. 8" like a Shield Tablet would have been ideal with more room for a bigger battery.

I guess this just leaves room for a Switch XL in the future.

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Not sure why it needs to be seen as a tablet. Its around the size of a phablet, with a 6.2 inch screen. I had a chance to play around one for a few minutes, and it was plenty big.

Don't worry the Super Nintendo CD will be released later.
Don't worry there will be hundreds of games soon for the N64.
Don't worry you'll be able to keep and transfer your virtual console games.

Don't worry non gaming apps and virtual console will come in time? Um I have lived through enough Nintendo promises to believe absolutely NOTHING that they promise post launch of anything.

I don't really want it to be treated as a tablet, like every other tablet. Look at the Apple Store or Google Store. When you remove all semblance of quality, you just end up with garbage. Sure, there probably are some quality games, but who's played them, when you have to sift through thousands of trash titles? I mean, even with Steam, I don't think I've looked at that store in the past couple years, because I just can't trust it nor the curators.

Darunion said:

That always works on paper but what you leave is a need. And that need ends up getting satisfied by another device, or in the case of gaming it might mean they need a ps4 to compliment the switch. It is one of those little things that can turn the sale the other direction and lets be honest, the less total devices I 'need' connected and maintained the better. And the less something does, the less value is perceived. At the moment the switch feature list is a little dry for its pricetag.

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To be honest, the Switch is a genius move from Nintendo. It'll still fail, but I'll explain why the Switch is a smart move for Nintendo.

#1 It's portable and that means it isn't comparable to the PS4 or Xbone. One of the reasons that Nintendo avoided competition with Sony and Microsoft is they would die a horrible financial death. Hence why they kinda flew under them, instead of competing head to head with them.

#2 The Switch is Nintendo stepping out of the home console market, and that's good. For Nintendo this means they can focus on making games for one platform, instead of two. So their developers aren't split and they can work on making better games.

#3 The Switch is the fastest portable console, as far as I know. Unlike the Wii, and Wii U which were horribly under powered compared to the competition. But in the mobile market, there's no denying that Nintendo is on top. Microsoft doesn't exist, and Sony's Vita is aging. It also means 3rd party developers might actually make games for it, now that it's on top.

Now the reasons why I think it'll fail.

#1 It doesn't exist in a bubble. Like it or not, tablets are the main competitors and some of them even have built in gamepad buttons. The Swtich is lacking so many features that you'd find in a tablet. Enough that many people would just rather buy a more powerful tablet than a Switch. It's not like you can't hook up a tablet to a TV and play games too.

#2 The Switches battery life is horrible. Nintendo has usually focused on battery life first, and performance second, but with the Switch it's performance first. Nothing more frustrating then playing a game and having the system shutdown cause you ran out of power. Nvidia's Shield gets around 8 hours on a full charge.

#3 Emulators have always been a thing Nintendo has had to deal with, and the Switch won't be any different. Since Nintendo consoles are usually much slower, they're feasible to emulate. And since there's a demand for playing Nintendo games, there's a demand for emulators. And lots of people like myself aren't going to go buy a $300 machine to play a $60 game, not when my PC can do it far better. Someone will make a switch emulator on PC, and it could decimate the Switch's market. It'll even be the death of the Switch if there's a Switch emulator on tablets.

DukenukemX said:

<snipped to conserve space>

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I really would like to argue with you but you honestly make very good points on both sides.

I really didnt think too much about it but yea, by dodging the home console market they dove into a market far more saturated, but also stagnating. There really hasn't been anything inspiring in the mobile market for gaming. I myself have a 4yr old ipad and no desire to upgrade, nothing really gained by doing so. But if I were to want a tablet, the switch could sway me, but I still would love to have standard tablet 'thingies' on it as well.

I hope they do well, i really do. I just kind of feel that this is too much of a wiiU2 and it will come and go quickly.

Darunion said:

I really would like to argue with you but you honestly make very good points on both sides.

I really didnt think too much about it but yea, by dodging the home console market they dove into a market far more saturated, but also stagnating. There really hasn't been anything inspiring in the mobile market for gaming. I myself have a 4yr old ipad and no desire to upgrade, nothing really gained by doing so. But if I were to want a tablet, the switch could sway me, but I still would love to have standard tablet 'thingies' on it as well.

I hope they do well, i really do. I just kind of feel that this is too much of a wiiU2 and it will come and go quickly.

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Honestly, I get a very Virtual Boy-esque vibe from this device release. Only time will tell if Nintendo's name alone will have allowed it to survive in a market with far more competitor saturation. With that said, I agree with DukenukemX points. I am leaning more towards the negative side than the positives because they just have more historical weight backing them up.

That video is hilarious, especially the controller attachments being cemented on when you put them on the wrong one.

I was gonna buy one this week but I still can't find one in stock, and instead started looking at getting a wiiu since i still haven't played xeno X yet and really just wanted to buy this for zelda anyways.

Is it just me, or would Nintendo be better served if they had marketed Switch as a portable device with a dock that allows you to play on the TV, rather than marking the Switch as a TV based console with the option of pulling it out of its dock and play on the go?

Ducman69 said:

March 2017... 720p optimized gaming... sigh... console peasants.

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DVD movies still seem to look like real human beings. 480p worked just fine. Push resolution cause you can't push realism?

Just got my Switch yesterday, TBH I got none of the issues people are having. Tho I do use Pro Controller only when docked.

I just wish the screen was glass and not plastic. But it is a fantastic handheld otherwise, the screen is beautiful, probably not gonna use it as portable much until I can buy a grip (not the JoyCon grip), since (like all handhelds) it cramps my big hands.

Also, every gamer needs to try BotW.. Its truly incredible, the interactivity they brought in is next gen stuff. Truly hope that we get devs to push further for this, I was kind of disappointed how HL2 brought physics but they haven't evolved that much since then.

i dont why they dont allow gane streaming from pc to it, both the shield tv and shield tab do it well, shouldn't be too hard to add the capability to it.

Yaka said:

i dont why they dont allow gane streaming from pc to it, both the shield tv and shield tab do it well, shouldn't be too hard to add the capability to it.

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Probably not the market they were aiming for TBH.

When your average Joe or Jane sees a tablet device from Nintendo, they don't usually associate it to be used with a PC. A windows or nVidia tablet might, Nintendo wouldn't.

That being said, hopefully it'll be a software thing, not hardware limitation.

chenw said:

Probably not the market they were aiming for TBH.

When your average Joe or Jane sees a tablet device from Nintendo, they don't usually associate it to be used with a PC. A windows or nVidia tablet might, Nintendo wouldn't.

That being said, hopefully it'll be a software thing, not hardware limitation.

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Yeah, that streaming tablet thing really worked out for the Wii U - which was a streaming tablet addon for the Wii.