After well over a year of rumors, fake leaks, real leaks and speculation, Nintendo Co Ltd. has finally drawn back the curtain on its next game console, which finally has a name: Nintendo Switch.

Previously known by its codename, Nintendo NX, Nintendo Switch proves that the Japanese game company is still willing to take risks and innovate, and Switch offers some of the most radical features Nintendo has ever introduced.

What we know so far

Nintendo Switch is an interesting hybrid between a home console and a handheld gaming device that is similar to the Nvidia Shield Portable. At home, the Nintendo Switch works like any other console by plugging into your TV, but the home system itself functions as a dock for a tablet-like device that can be removed and used to play all of the same games anywhere you want. Apparently, Nintendo actually considers the tablet to be the Switch console itself, while the home system is referred to as the Switch Dock.

Nintendo Switch comes with two different types of a controllers: a standard gamepad that looks not unlike an Xbox One controller, and a similar controller that breaks apart and attaches to the tablet. The pieces of this controller also appear to be able to function independently, allowing two players to play on the same tablet without needing two controllers.

Aside from these brief glimpses, we do not really know much else about Nintendo’s new system. There are no hardware specs or any hint of a price or an exact release date yet, and according to Nintendo, that sort of info will be revealed sometime between now and the Switch’s projected March release.

Will Nintendo Switch win back developers?

While Nintendo enjoyed enormous success with the Wii, reaching somewhere in the neighborhood of more than 100 million units sold, the more recent Wii U console has not performed nearly as well, and as of June, Nintendo reported that the Wii U had only sold 13 million units. Meanwhile, Sony Corp has reportedly sold more than 40 million PlayStation 4 consoles as of May.

One of the main criticisms that has been levelled against the Wii U has been its lack of adequate third-party support, and many games that have released on Microsoft’s and Sony’s consoles never find their way to Nintendo’s system. However, Nintendo seems to be hoping this will not be the case with Nintendo Switch.

In a press release, Nintendo of America President and Chief Operating Officer Reggie Fils-Aime said that “[Nintendo Switch] gives game developers new abilities to bring their creative visions to life by opening up the concept of gaming without boundaries.”

With Nintendo Switch’s unusual hybrid design, third-party development might not be as straight forward as it is for PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. Depending on the actual system specs, game makers may have a hard time putting their products on Nintendo’s system, especially with its odd control scheme.

It is important to note, however, that Nintendo’s long list of Switch supporters includes a number of middleware and game engine producers, most notably Unity Technologies Inc., the company behind the immensely popular Unity 3D game engine, and Epic Games Inc., the creator of Unreal Engine 4 (UE4). Unity and UE4 are the two most popular multi-platform game engines in the industry, and they allow developers to create games for multiple systems at once.

Ideally, this means that third-party developers will be able to create games for Nintendo Switch as easily as they can for PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, but until Nintendo reveals more information about Switch’s hardware and features, it is hard to say if the company has learned from its mistakes with the Wii U or if history is about to repeat itself.

You can watch Nintendo’s teaser video for the new Switch console below:

Images courtesy of Nintendo