No words. Just... watch this announcement video. They have some very talented people working there.

Edit: OK my actual words are 'This is the first video game reveal thing in a long time to make me say "yo what the fuck" out loud repeatedly.'

Just watched it. I have to say that although it looks kinda neat, the thought of letting actual children do this with expensive hardware is terrifying. Switches are going to be broken.

What the fuck is HAPPENING over at Nintendo?

"So it's like...video games...but you have to build shit to play them."

"Uh...YOU'RE FIRED."

What an amazing thing for parents and their children. Its not for me but this can be a real unit shifter if it catches on. Hell i even see schools using this thing as the software shows you how each contraption works. This is wonderfully crazy. Expensive for a gane cart and cardboard but a fantastic idea which will create many happy memories I'm sure.

That looks like something people might want, so they'll probably make 12 of them and then discontinue it.

@notnert427: *slow clap*

That's kinda smart, hopefully the cardboard stuff will be cheap

I'm really looking forward to seeing Jeff wear that cardboard backpack and arm things as he punches like a mad man.

I just want to say, toy-con is an incredibly good name.

I want a live stream of dan trying to build the robot set.

Better be some sturdy-ass cardboard

This thing looks crazy and cool and A GOD DAMNED PIANO?! A ROBOT?!!?!?!? Nintendo have gone insane and I love it.

Not to be a buzzkill, but this whole thing seems like more trouble than it's worth, and I fully expect there to be three games that support this thing, tops. It really strikes me as the R.O.B. of the 21st Century: cool in concept, but in the end, what do you do with it?

I Love It When Nintendo Gets Weird.

I really hope this is successful because I can see an expansion of the concept being a wonderful introduction to engineering, robotics and coding.

I wonder if this changes Vinny's plan to keep his kids from finding out that the Switch can be played undocked...

Edit:

Having multiple games came out to support the concept isn't a requirement (or even an expectation). Effectively, it's not competing in the gaming marketplace, but instead competing with remote-control cars, smartphone-connected toys, and robotics science kits. I doubt this will bring in many new sales of the Switch (that's a huge investment), but as an additional activity to do with your kids in households that already own one, it could be highly sought after in a very competitive market. I'm not saying it will be a massive success (or even a good product), but I think it's aiming for something very different to what R.O.B. did. R.O.B was limited physically, whereas the cardboard design allows them to keep the cost of multiple functions/activities low (leaving larger budgets for game parts).

On the one hand, as someone who growing up loved to re-purpose cardboard boxes into stuff (mostly ships for Star Wars action figures), this is rad as hell. On the other hand, this seems waaaay to expensive and you just know all the cardboard gets destroyed within a week, either through use or trying to store it. Certainly the most Nintendo thing in quite a while.

Boy I did NOT see this one coming. I guess I had almost forgotten that at it's core Nintendo is still a toy company, not just a game company. Honestly I don't know if its a good idea or not but at least their will be less waste since cardboard is easy to recycle and store compared to plastic tennis rackets and stuff. I'm not sure if I'm going to buy this..I might though. It seems silly enough to get a few hours of entertainment even for me as an adult. How ever I refuse to pay a premium price for freaking cardboard. I hope they get the pricing right for this.

This looks so rad, I wanna build a robot suit out of cardboard! That's just gonna be my halloween costume!

Why doe? I thought we finally got pass motion controls. All well, not for me. I hope it exceeds in whatever it is trying to accomplish and does not turn into the THQ uDraw Tablet.

I like the idea of this. Still, if it doesn't take off at least some of the materials can be easily recycled unlike ET cartridges and uDraw devices :)

Guys...guys...listen. Kids are going to bust the shit out of this shit. None of this cardboard will survive more than a week. I'm already eating a piece of it right now and I'm in my thirties. Nintendo is going to regret this so hard when the customer support calls start rolling in.

"My son has a cardboard boxful of joy-con lodged in his colon! Please assist!"

Looks interesting, reminds me of this Wii shotgun attachment I made out of lego years ago. Though I expect people are going to draw cocks on these things.

Just what the Switch needs... unlimited accessories.

Well, I guess now I can sit back and await the reports of broken switches and severe paper cuts, and then the wave of anger when Nintendo stops officially supporting the program in about a year?

That said, it's very creative and the world needs some of that right now.

I can say this is literally trash and be correct in my usage of "literally".

This is literally trash.

This is very cool and upsetting.

What in the heck..

As an adult who is good with their hands, mechanically inclined, self-taught and relatively experienced in automotive repair, electronics, basic fabrication, models etc etc..

..some of this looks complicated. Even for your average adult, let alone a child.

Part neat, part gimmicky nonsense. The cardboard remote control pet thing.. Clearly it just sort of "moves" via the vibration in each joycon.. Which will only work on smooth, hard surfaces. As a kid, I didn't want to play on a hard floor lol They'll be disappointed. Kinda like when the commercials showed that remote control dirt bike that was flying around on two wheels and doing jumps. I remember dying to get it for Christmas, I did, I took it out to the street on that cold December day and the thing just went in a circle on it's side mostly and after about 10 mins of that I was like.. Wow life sucks. No idea what happened to that junk. Just a small example.

This looks like a literal money printing machine. Easily broken, consumable, disposable, and cheap to produce toys intended for kids.

Edit: Also, you ever get yourself a cardboard paper cut? Good lord. Children will be laying in pools of blood.

Looks like a pointless gimmick.

I have no idea what the fuck I'm looking at here.

I think it looks absolutely fun and creative. I will definitely be getting this for my kids.

https://labo.nintendo.com/

According to the website, everything shown is in a package called the "Variety Toy-con", while the Robot is standalone. This looks dope, but I have to wonder how sturdy that corrugated board is.

That is going to be some expensive cardboard.

@rejizzle: apparently Nintendo are going to give free replacement kits if it breaks

@yesiamaduck: Wow. Seems pretty generous of them!

I feel the need to state the obvious here. Nintendo is now selling us cardboard.

We live in a weird world, ya'll.

I can't tell if this is a genius idea or a terrible one. I'm leaning towards a really good one, hopefully I'm right because I'm really interested to see what people do these boxes. Modifying them could be awesome.

This isn't going to be like the Move controller. This is Nintendo being Nintendo and making something that will almost 100% be supported only by them and the weird games they put out. Ubisoft aren't going to put fishing mini-games into Assassins Creed to sell cardboard.

Think of it less like a peripheral for devs to use and more like a weird toy package like that Sony card game that used the Eyetoy - Eye of Judgement or something.

HOW DOES IT MAKE THE PIANO WORK?

You know, Nintendo has been kinda hitting it out of the park with the Switch, putting out video games people want to play on hardware they want to buy. It really only makes sense that they'd announce a weird, gimmicky thing like as a reminder that yes, this is also still the same company responsible for stellar products like the E-Reader.

...What?

Are they just going to sell cardboard now? I definitely need more information. :)

The idea seems nice, but yea, I don't think I am going to pick this up any time soon.

Am I the only one who thinks this is fucking dumb? And not in a good way?

Seems like a novel cool thing. I bet it will sell really well. Not something I would be interested in, but then again I'm also not a kid. Not to say that adults can't enjoy this of course but that is obviously the target demographic.

This is going to have a cult following, and maybe 10x as many people complaining that anyone is enjoying it.

The guardian has more details on all of it: https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/jan/17/nintendo-labo-cardboard-switch-models-interactive-toys

specifically on the piano:

Each contraption is made out of cardboard and string, and transforms into a digitally augmented toy when you slot Joy-Con controllers and the Switch screen into it. The piano, especially, is quite amazing, and takes about two hours to build. The infrared camera on the Joy-Con controller can see reflective strips of tape on the back of the keys, which come into view when a key is pressed, telling the game software to play the right note. Cardboard dials and switches modify the tone and add effects to the sound.

Seems pretty cool, a little pricey but given that it comes with the kit and the game (of which I assume will be the only game that comes out for this stuff) it sounds alright if you're interested. The engineer in me just likes how all this stuff is put together and moves around.

I'll give them this: nobody saw this coming.

I can just see the Conversation I am about too have with my wife

Me: I need too spend $80

Wife: on what?

Me: on cardboard so I can make a robot suit too play a switch game.

Wife:...................(sound of bedroom door closing )

Me : soo is that a yes?

It's amazing that Nintendo can come up with these kinds of things but still have no neat inclusion of Amiibos. They could easily turn this into some kind of Amiibo sandbox kit, but I haven't seen anything like that in the preview. How cool would it be if you could pilot a robo-Waluigi and smash things?

I really want the dumb piano thing. If it is like a modern Mario Paint music mode that's just so cool. Also people saying it's $70-80 for a piece of cardboard...remember a game comes with it too.

I don't see how people are not more excited, if not more curious, for this than immediately thinking of it as a trash idea.

Who doesn't love building simple mechanical machines, let alone integrating your Switch for full functionality and experimentation? Besides being a fun project for kids, I can see two things coming out of this: fun video content, and watching what comes out of the modded community.

Fully on board.

At least something other than 1-2-Switch is finally using that infared camera on the bottom of the right joycon.