Nintendo Switch releases on 3 March

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This morning's Nintendo Switch event brought us the news we have all been waiting for - the system will release worldwide on Friday 3 March.

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​by James Michael Parry

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@james_parry

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The US recommended retail price is $299.99, which may mean we can expect a version in the UK for £299.99, but we will find that out when Amazon UK pre-orders open at 7.00am. (Early reports have it at a slightly more optimistic £279.99).

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was revealed as a launch title, after some teasing from Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé, as well as a lot of other games expected by the end of the year.

Our favourite plumber is back in action with Super Mario Odyssey, due out at Christmas, and his hat is alive! Apparently this will offer some new gameplay experiences.

Of games we have already heard about or seen in the original release video, the Splatoon game was confirmed as Splatoon 2, complete with new weapons and stages (and an eccentric presenter in a lab coat) which will be released in Summer 2017.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was also introduced by Bethesda's Todd Howard, which should come as no big surprise, and there is not one, not two, not even three but four Dragon Quest games talked about - reiterating X and XI as well as introducing Dragon Quest Heroes 1 and 2.

The presentation also featured some Switch-specific titles we haven't already heard about, namely Arms - a boxing game which takes the next logical step from Wii Sports' boxing - and 1, 2, Switch which looks like a collection of mini games similar to Wii Play, many of which don't require you to look at the screen while playing, using force feedback.

There was also more information about the system itself, with the first formal confirmation that the screen would be a multi-capacitive touchscreen and further details on what we will find in the box when we pick up our Switch in March.

Keeping it simple, the box will contain the console itself, the dock, two joycon controllers (either in black or an blue/red combo) with their mounting dock, an A/C adapter and an HDMI cable.

A montage of games at the close of the presentation, and subsequent press releases starting to come out this morning, have confirmed a new Sonic game, Minecraft a Telltale Games Series, Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers and LEGO City Undercover as well as new titles such as Xenoblade 2, Fire Emblem Warriors and Project Octopath Traveller.

So far there's an awful lot of information to process - so expect us to digest it further in the coming weeks up to launch (including a special Nintendo Switch-themed podcast, coming soon) - but it's safe to say there's enough here to get us excited, but what do you think? Will you be pre-ordering? Let us know in the comments.