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TouchSense, a haptic technology, will be implemented in the Nintendo Switch's touchscreen

Nintendo Switch: Hands On
Jeffrey Van Camp/Digital Trends
There are roughly 50 confirmed Switch games in the works, and we imagine there’s a bunch in development that have yet to be announced. From traditional console play with connected Joy-Con remotes, to motion and gyro controls, to the portable unit — both as a conventional handheld and touchscreen device — Switch developers have a plethora of control schemes and play styles to work with. We now know that one of the focal points of the hardware, the touchscreen, is set to be enhanced by TouchSense technology.

Immersion announced on Friday that it signed a multi-year deal with Nintendo to bring its patented technology to the Switch. The technology, once adapted to the Nintendo Switch console, will assist design efforts by giving developers access to the TouchSense software suite. According to the press release, “Immersion’s TouchSense software will help developers provide immersive touch-based gaming controls to players around the world.”

Immersion has lended its haptic technology to over three billion devices, across a plethora of industries — automotive, medical, video games, and others.

“We are thrilled about the opportunity to work with Nintendo to bring Immersion’s TouchSense technology to their customers,” said Vic Viegas, CEO of Immersion. Previously, Immersion provided its haptic technology to Apple devices, including multiple iPhone iterations. It also brought force feedback gaming to the Mac Operating System. The relationship, however, has since turned sour. Immersion is currently suing Apple for its alleged use of Immersion’s haptic patents in the iPhone 6/6S and force touch in the Apple Watch.

Immersion appears to be looking forward with its new partnership with Nintendo, though. “Nintendo sets the bar with their gaming systems, and adding advanced touch effects will give them an additional edge in delivering an incredible gaming experience to their customers.”

TouchSense technology makes touchscreen controls come alive, giving users the sense that they are touching physical buttons. It can be expected that when Switch developers gain greater control over touchscreen development with TouchSense technology, gameplay experiences on the Switch will become more refined and immersive.

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Don’t expect Zelda’s $70 price to become the new Switch standard, says Nintendo
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While Nintendo will release Tears of Kingdom at $70, a spokesperson for the company tells Digital Trends that this will not always be the case for its first-party games going forward. 
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To get more insight into the price shift, I spoke to Omdia Principal Analyst George Jijiashvili, who explains what has caused the price of games to go up in recent years and how Tears of the Kingdom demonstrates that Nintendo will "remain flexible about first-party title pricing." Ultimately, Nintendo fans are finally starting to feel the impact of inflation that's been sweeping across the game industry, even if it's only "on a case-by-case basis" for now.
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It makes basic financial sense for Nintendo to ask for a little bit more for a game it knows will be one of the biggest releases of 2023. But what factors in the game industry and world's economy at large caused Nintendo to make this decision? 
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Jijiashvili provided us with a graphic created by Omdia that "shows what the typical price points for each generation would look like if you adjusted for inflation." As you can see, the inflation-adjusted prices are only exponentially growing, and the big game pricing shifts the graph highlights were all technically not even enough to keep up with inflation when they happened. 

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