Nintendo President Teases New Accessories For Switch; Still Interested In Virtual Reality

Nintendo will be announcing the release date, price and games for the Nintendo Switch on Jan. 12, 2017, and it looks like the company is set to announce some more surprises at the event. Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima revealed recently that the Switch will come with some new add-ons.

“It may be appropriate to call them accessories. Or it might be better to call them add-on hardware. It’s probably more correct to call them accessories. You can assume that there will be a wider array,” Kimishima told Bloomberg in an interview published on Thursday. Kimishima also said that the trailer for the Switch from last week didn’t show everything.

The trailer for the Nintendo Switch focused more on allowing users to play games on the go. The new console comes with a detachable LCD screen and a new set of Joy-Con controllers. Since Kimishima’s statements about the console’s new add-ons appears to be quite vague, it could simply mean that the Switch will have alternative to the Joy-Con controllers, as speculated by GameSpot.

It was also recently leaked by a number of sources that the Switch’s detachable LCD screen will come with multi-touch controls, according to Eurogamer. It’s possible that Kimishima was also hinting this specific feature when he said that the trailer from last week didn’t show everything.

As for the Nintendo Switch’s software, Kimishima said that they can’t show it yet. “We want people to touch the device in January and experience the software for themselves,” he said. What Kimishima did confirm however was that they are interested in virtual reality.

“VR offers new ways of playing, but that depends on what kind of software can be played,” Kimishima said. “If you ask us whether there are any possibilities, we can’t say no. It may be that we will build VR software titles, I think that opportunity is available to us.”

Although the Nintendo Switch announcement undoubtedly got a lot of gamers excited, the same can’t be said for the gaming firm’s investors. Nintendo’s stock dropped by 7.3 percent right after the Switch trailer was released, which Kimishima admits was quite unexpected. “To tell you the truth, I was surprised,” Kimishima said. “I don’t understand why.”

Nintendo is currently planning to ship 2 million units of the Switch console to retailers during its March 2017 launch, according to the Wall Street Journal. The gaming firm appears to be more cautious with its new flagship gaming device since it will be launching in March rather than the busy holiday season.