History Platform / NintendoSwitch

Like the DS and [=3DS=], the Switch stores physical copies of games on Game Cards, a proprietary type of ROM cartridge based on the SD Card (flash memory) format; continuing a tradition for handhelds, but breaking the three-generation streak of Nintendo's home consoles storing games on optical discs. As a result, the Switch is technically the first cartridge-based home console since the Platform/Nintendo64 twenty-one years prior. It is also the first Nintendo home console system to be [[UsefulNotes/RegionCoding region-free]], something Nintendo themselves noted during the Switch's launch presentation.

The Switch has another first in the form of introducing Nintendo's first paid online infrastructure. After online play being free for the first year-and-a-half of the console's life, Nintendo Switch Online was introduced in September 2018. For only US$20 a year (or US$35 for up to eight users via family membership), you can gain access to online play, cloud saves, exclusive games and avatars, and a downloadable library of NES and SNES titles playable via UsefulNotes/{{emulation}}. A higher paid tier known as the "Expansion Pack" was released in October 2021 where, for $50 a year ($80 for a family plan), users get additional access to Platform/Nintendo64 and Platform/SegaGenesis games, as well as the paid DLC of select games such as ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons'' and ''VideoGame/MarioKart8Deluxe'' for no extra charge. Finally, subscribing to NSO also gives access to exclusive items on Nintendo's online store, mainly wireless Bluetooth controllers for the individual retro systems granted by the service. In February 2023, Platform/GameBoy and Platform/GameBoyColor titles were made available to all subscribers while Platform/GameBoyAdvance titles were made exclusive to the "Expansion Pack" tier.

** '''[[UsefulNotes/GraphicsProcessingUnit GPU]]''': Second-generation NVIDIA Maxwell with some ISA/CG backported from Pascal [[note]]mostly via customized firmware, possible because Pascal itself at a silicon level is but a die-shrink of Maxwell with a HBM memory controller instead of a GDDR one, it's the new firmware that makes Pascal more efficient[[/note]], 256 CUDA cores, runs at 768MHz in console mode or 307.2MHz in handheld and tabletop modes. Can reclock its speed on the fly as the device switches between console and handheld/tabletop modes. Games can also force the GPU run at 768MHz.

* The Switch retains the UsefulNotes/{{Mii}}s introduced all the way back on the Wii and introduces new customization features. However they seem to be heavily DemotedToExtra - rather than being available forefront in the main menu, their tab is tucked in the back in the Settings menu, and there's no connectivity with Miis from the Wii U or the 3DS. The only way to transfer an old Mii is by having one stored on an amiibo figure.

** ''Move It!''

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel''