How much can you talk in five minutes? That’s what we tried to figure out on this week’s episode of the UploadVR’s virtual reality news podcast: the Upload Download. I, your host, Joe Durbin, am joined by Az Balabanian and Ashley Whitlach.
Now that CES 2017 is over and we all survived (somehow) we’re back in the studio to talk about some of that shows biggest announcements including the HTC Vive Tracker and Oculus decision to give this year’s convention a skip. We’ll also get into some notable VR company closures as well and what Nintendo’s newest console could mean for VR.
Nintendo’s Potential Switch…to VR
Earlier this month, Nintendo finally pulled back the curtain on its brand new console: the Switch. The Switch is a hybrid console that can hook up to your TV and be played on the couch with a controller, and a handheld tablet that you can take with you anywhere and game on the go. Nintendo is claiming that the Switch has enough horse power on the inside to run in mobile mode with the same graphical and processing power as it does in full console mode.
A thin, lightweight tablet with a high resolution screen means only one thing to the ear’s of the VR community: potential mobile VR headset. If the Switch is really the pint-sized workhorse that Nintendo says it is, than it should be a simple thing to adapt the console for mobile VR. In fact, we already know that at least one patent has been filed showing a possible Nintendo-manufactured VR headset that would integrate with the Switch tablet and the controllers are already perfect.
However, during this week’s press conference not one mention of VR was made despite the fact that what we learned about the system’s included Joy-Con controllers made the prospect of an easy-fix Nintendo HMD seem even more likely (IR hand tracking, HD haptics, etc.). But still, the big red “N” has yet to give us an official VR confirmation.
On this episode we dig into all of this in depth as well as the ongoing Oculus/Zenimax trial. Don’t miss i! And be sure to let us know in the comments below what topics we should cover next time!
