Nintendo Labo Confirmed

[D4rkDragon]

It'll be out on April 20th. Link to the website: https://labo.nintendo.com/

The trailer showed some cardboard toys, and how they were used along with the Switch as accessories (for instance, a JoyCon & some assembled cardboard as a fishing rod).

Nintendo cleared stated before the upload it that "kids & kids at heart" were targeted.

There are two packs confirmed: the Variety Kit and the Robot Kit.

The Variety kit costs $69.99 (which I assume will get pleasantly (for them) converted to €69.99), and the Robot Kit costs $79.99 (assume €79.99 if you're in EU). Both kits seems to come with booklets, likely for instructions on how to use the probably provided cardboard and the software that comes with the Switch.

Thoughts ?

Edit 1: (Only applies to EU) Some people suppose that the price will likely be floored down. Expect 60€ for the Variety Kit, and 70€ for the Robot Kit. Sources aren't official, will be updated as soon as details are available

 

[PrimordialMew24]

Seems really expensive for cardboard cut outs...

Besides...I don't know about you, but my hands get all sweaty when I play video games and cardboard just wouldn't hold up. Also, seems to be a poor material choice. I mean how long does Nintendo think these will hold up? Laminated cardboard would be better and so would particleboard or even thin sheets of plastic.

I could go on with my rant, but I won't. I must say Nintendo is being really creative with cardboard.

EDIT: I just received an ad from Nintendo a moment ago. The MSRP for the US is $69.99.

 

[D4rkDragon]

Seems really expensive for cardboard cut outs...

Besides...I don't know about you, but my hands get all sweaty when I play video games and cardboard just wouldn't hold up. Also, seems to be a poor material choice. I mean how long does Nintendo think these will hold up? Laminated cardboard would be better and so would particleboard or even thin sheets of plastic.

I could go on with my rant, but I won't. I must say Nintendo is being really creative with cardboard.

EDIT: I just received an ad from Nintendo a moment ago. The MSRP for the US is $69.99.

Yup, I took the prices from the websites for US, because prices weren't up for EU yesterday, so I just put up a "placeholder" price.

As for my reaction, I think it's the same. Feels weird to pay so much for basically cardboard, a booklet and the game. I assume that the game could be around ~$30/€30, but then, that'd mean up to $50/€50 of cardboard for the Robot Kit, which is insane.

So, just like almost everybody else on the Internet, I think the idea is creative, but the application probably wasn't what people expected or wanted. Especially considering the targeted audience. People thought about (small) Animal Crossing games, Kirby games, or games along those lines (at least, they did on French gaming boards). And now, with all the "backlash" (wouldn't really use that term, it's more like negativism with small hint of "it's creative"), I wonder how Nintendo will react.

 

[Arshan]

It looks really boring to me, but I understand it's for kids.
But it saddens me that they are charging so much for essentially $10 cardboard with a few extras. Then again they do that with physical games too.

I'm seeing a lot of people trying to defend this on other sites but honestly those people are just in huge defense of nintendo. You can tell most of these minigames are the same kind of stuff you find on mobile or even coolmathgames.com. The robot one is cool but I doubt it's anything huge.

 

[Duffy]

I really can’t see these things doing well at that price point. I’m not excited at all about then. Although I will say, given how cheap cardboard is, Nintendo probably only needs to sell like 1,000 of these to turn a profit...

 

[Arshan]

So apparently this stuff is already selling really well on amazon. I'm not really sure why people are buying pieces of cardboard but ok. Guess it's a success then.. How many would they really need to sell to make a profit anyways?

 

[Dowhat?]

i Think is more a demo of how much more you can do with a switch, and how some of this stuff could be implemented into actual games. I would buy it, if it was more then that.

 

[D4rkDragon]

i Think is more a demo of how much more you can do with a switch, and how some of this stuff could be implemented into actual games. I would buy it, if it was more then that.

I'd see it more as a tech demo then, or a way to give ideas to developers. I read on a French "pre-review" of the game that the Piano thing they show basically work because when you press a key, it pushes the key, and the cardboard that makes the keys have some IR-reflecting material, so, the right Joycon gets data beamed back, and might be making an estimation between the moment of transfer and moment of reception (or use another way to detect the distance or something like this) to know which key was pressed.

So apparently this stuff is already selling really well on amazon. I'm not really sure why people are buying pieces of cardboard but ok. Guess it's a success then.. How many would they really need to sell to make a profit anyways?

Assuming the components provided with the sets, and considering the IR "reflecting" thingies on the cardboard, I'd say a bit more than what people expect. But in the end, it's still going to be cardboard and a bunch of wires, so I'd say "not a lot". The part they'll need to compensate will likely be the software development one, but considering how "simplistic" (aside from the Robot Kit) what we were shown was, it'll make a profit pretty quickly.

 

[Farhaan Raja]

The thing about the Joy-Con's was that i was pretty sure that the IR camera and HD Rumble feature would never get used. I know 1-2 Switch in particular used it, but who cares about THAT game?

This makes really good use of the Joy-Con technology, but i feel it's a little overpriced.

Also, it's cardboard. It could rip easily.

 

[Dark Link]

I like the idea that it gets kids to build something and then have fun with whatever they made, but I dislike that it's made from cardboard. I mean there is many ways you could accidentally ruin it, and it would be a waste of money.
Picture this, your helping your kid make whatever it is and you kid accidentally rips it while trying to fold a piece.

Another thing is that if your a little kid with one of these, then most likely for Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner you'll want to have your meal while playing the game. The problem is the kid could accidentally spill their drink on the cardboard or their messy hands will stain the cardboard and ruin it.

So apparently this stuff is already selling really well on amazon. I'm not really sure why people are buying pieces of cardboard but ok. Guess it's a success then.. How many would they really need to sell to make a profit anyways?

They could be buying replacements...

Besides...I don't know about you, but my hands get all sweaty when I play video games and cardboard just wouldn't hold up. Also, seems to be a poor material choice. I mean how long does Nintendo think these will hold up? Laminated cardboard would be better and so would particleboard or even thin sheets of plastic.

This is really a problem that I can't believe Nintendo never thought of...