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Nintendo Switch - Why we want it to have a touchscreen

You can't touch this. Or can you?

Nintendo Switch - Why we want it to have a touchscreen
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With the Switch, Nintendo's handheld and home console plans seem to be converging into one hybrid device. That's pretty exciting.

Of course, there are still plenty of unanswered questions about the device, some of which we've discussed already.

But there's one in particular we want to focus on here, and that's whether the Nintendo Switch will have a touchscreen or not. During Nintendo's slick three minute reveal video, none of the scenarios it presented showed the console-hybrid being interacted with directly through anything other than a control pad.

This has led some to suggest that the Nintendo Switch won't have a touchscreen at all. Here's why we hope that's not the case.

It's basically a tablet

Take away the Joy-Con controllers and the console dock, and what is the Nintendo Switch? It's essentially a 7-inch or 8-inch (maybe) tablet. It even runs on an Nvidia Tegra CPU of some kind.

Essentially, the Switch is much like the Google Pixel C. In case you didn't know, that's pretty much the flagship Android tablet on the market, if there is such a thing. So we have to ask: why on Earth wouldn't the Switch have a touchscreen input?


Continuity

Nintendo's current console, which the Switch will succeed, is the Wii U. That's driven by a unique control pad with a touch-sensitive display.

Nintendo's current handheld device, which the Switch will arguably also succeed, is the Nintendo 3DS. That too has a touch-sensitive display.

While Nintendo is all for hardware innovation, it's also a company of continuity. It likes to make games from one generation playable on the next.

By omitting touchscreen technology from the Switch, such continuity (we'd call it backwards compatibility, but given the difference in media and hardware architecture that doesn't seem appropriate) would be severely hamstrung.

Nintendo needs third party help

You ask a bunch of games fans what Nintendo's biggest problem has been over recent generations, and many will say it's third party support.

The GameCube, Wii, and Wii U all suffered for not having enough developers other than Nintendo itself making games for them.

With the Nintendo Switch and its unorthodox form factor - not to mention its lower power compared to the PS4 and Xbox One - it's going to be tough for third party developers to jump aboard unless it's an instant runaway success - despite what that lengthy list of initial developers might suggest.

But there's an open goal here for Nintendo. As we mentioned above, the Switch is basically a tablet, with a tablet CPU (albeit a meaty, souped up one). It's ripe for third party mobile game developers to develop for.

By including a touchscreen input, Nintendo would tempt loads of great indie developers to port their best mobile games across, as well as to include the Switch as a matter of course when developing new games. Conversely (and I realise I'm kind of arguing against my own point here) the Switch version of these mobile games would become the ultimate ones thanks to the default option of physical controls.

Over to you

What do you think? Should the Nintendo Switch have a touchscreen input, or would that be a control option too far? Should Nintendo be courting mobile game developers? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.