This thread smells familiar. Anyway, you can't counter anything that hasn't been on the market yet, or at least you shouldn't. This industry has a lot of reacting to nothing and that's an issue. If everyone wanted to go the tablet route, they'd have done so already.

Probably just keep doing what they're doing and focus on core consoles and games for core gamers. I think Sony and MS at this point have both learned the hard way that gimmicks either don't work or have very short lived success. The idea of the Switch is cool, but let's be real; it's going to be held back in so many regards and it's going to fall short just like Wii-U did. The concept is cool, and I'm sure Nintendo is going to put out some awesome games, but all that third party support is doomed to be short-lived, and gamers who enjoy third party games are going to stick to PS4/ XB1. I can see the device making a killing in Japan, but in the west it's going to be perceived as nothing more than a cheap iPad, and it's going to be widely overlooked.

It can do both. But its more of one thing than it is the other. and thats evident in its design language. But lets just agree to disagree instead of going back and forth on it. I feel the switch is a handheld with a home dock. You feel its both. If the switch gets the majority of Home console games that the other platforms get, then it would mean you were right. If it doesn't then I was right. time will tell. 

And as for carts..... carts aren't better than discs in the one area that matters to gaming. The one area that there isn't any work around. Data capacity. there is a reason that the switch is going to use 15/16GB carts. at a time when even 50GB isn't big enough to hold all the content on the other HD platforms and these games aren't even being built with native 4k assets right now. when they are that size could very well double. 

I don't know how some could be looking at carts as the secomd coming. Been there done that. it's ideal for a handheld device. particularly cause it allows the device be smaller and more durable and at least allows for data transfer speeds that would negate the need for a HDD. But don't make the mistake of thinking it's a better medium for data distribution than a disc. Look at it this way, off the top of your head. make a list of games that would never make it to the switch primarily due to its cart data size limitation.

And this is assuming the hardware can even run those games. But let's say it can. What do you think happens when they have to make specialized carts to hold 40GB+ of data for a game? you think that game will cost more than Its disc based equivalent? who foots the bill? What happens when the game has an 8GB DLC? where does that go? I don't see how you don't see how inhibitive all this is. You know those carts you are championing now? it killed the N64. It made Nintendo lose out to games like FF7 and MGS that were previously Nintendo staples. Ah well, we will see I guess. Maybe I'm just a sceptic. 

lol... you maut not know what a DDoS attack is. There isnt any way to prevent them. Only ways to manage tbem. And almost eveeyone tbat matters has been hit by them at some point or the other. Hell, they hsbe DDoS attacks for hire lol.

But tell you what, when Nintendo actually builds a respectable and proper online service, and has 10s of millions of subs playing the the most popular online games (in other words when they are a big enough target to gat attention) we will see how well they fight against DDoS attacks. 

Data capacity isnt really the issue.I mean, it already exists 1TB carts around.The issue is as I said, the price.I think by this point in time 32 GB carts can be made at a mass market price level(read that somewhere, not sure where now).And the cart size for the Switch games will be as they need to, as they wont be 16 GB max.But the problem will be for games that are bigger than 32 GB, which is basically most of AAA games nowadays.Now who will foot the bill?No idea.And that is a realllll problem.But I will give the benefit of the doubt to Nintendo here.Nintendo may make stupid mistakes here and there, but they also learn from their mistakes.And they know one of the reasons that the Wii U failed was the droughts and by extention, lack of third parties.I dont think Nintendo would show that list of developers this time around without making sure they will support at some level the console.At worst we will get games more tailored to the system, but it will be support nonetheless(it sucks but I must consider the possibility.

All in all, I remain positive about the subject, especially because everything is still a rumor, no matter how trustworthy the source is, but yeah, its one thing that we will need to wait and see if that is false and the carts or internal storage are big, if everything is true and the third party or bigger games in general will need to be downscaled(in every sense) to be ported or simply not brought in at all, or if Nintendo and NVidia worked some magic into this custom chip.

Do you have ANY idea how much a 1TB cart would cost? I'll help put it in perspective. A 128GB class 10 sd card costs $45+. And that's non specialized carts with read speeds of around 70MB/s.

And Nintendo are already using specialized carts, if their read speeds of 200MB/s+ are to be believed. That's basically looking at extremely high performance  carts. Which could explain why they are sticking with 16GB (something has to give, higher performance =lower capacity). But even if they could go bigger, it's gonna just become significantly more expensive than using a disc. There is no way a dev would make a game and sell it for $60 on the PS4/XB1 and spend a total of $2 dollars on disc and packaging. Then make the same game for the switch and spend $10-$20 on cart and packaging and still sell it for $60. if they can't sell it for more they won't make it at all. Unless of course they can get it to fit on the 16GB cart tho, without having g to butcher their game too much cause that in turn requires a lot of work. 

And I don't wanna sound like too much of a a sceptic, it's just that I've seen so much of all this before. Pay no mind to all those lists of developers Nintendo showed. It happens every single generation. Does the phrase "unprecedented support" mean anything to you? 

But yeah, a lot is still up in the air. 

They have 4k and VR markets they are trying to corner. They are not looking to tackle what Nintendo is. In there eyes Nintendo is trying to catch them.

How will Sony and Microsoft counter the Switch?

Answer: Games

Sony and MS don't need to counter the Switch.

Have you seen the ps4 sales? Sony don't need to counter it. Not sure if Microsoft will try anything. They've enough on their hands already fighting Sony and the ps4.