Nintendo unveils newest gaming device — Nintendo Switch

SEATTLE — Nintendo has pulled back the curtain on its upcoming video-game system, announcing the Nintendo Switch, a living-room console that converts into a portable, handheld device.

In a 3-minute trailer posted online on Thursday, the Japanese gaming giant showed off the new device functioning as a classic console linked to a television screen.

The console, which looks to be about the size of a small tablet computer, can be removed from its docking station for play on the go. A handheld controller snaps apart and can be attached to the sides of the console. Nintendo Switch is slated for release in March. The company, which has its North American headquarters outside Seattle, didn’t announce pricing for the new device.

The teaser video is the latest evidence of the independent streak at Nintendo, a company with a reputation for going its own way regardless of prevailing industry trends. The company helped popularize handheld gaming with its Gameboy, and, more recently, broke the living room console mold with its motion-sensing Wii.

As Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox units focus on packing their flagship devices with supercharged graphics and support for virtual reality, Nintendo appears to be banking on simpler concepts of portable gameplay and easy-to-use gaming with friends.

Much is riding on the gaming system, formerly called the NX during a secret development phase.

Nintendo has been losing ground in living-room game consoles to Sony and Microsoft, hampered by the poorly received Wii U, the sequel to the Wii. Meanwhile, the rise of gaming on smartphones cut into demand for Nintendo’s handheld consoles.

Turned off by slow sales, some giant publishers had largely stopped making games for the Wii U, meaning Nintendo’s console lacked world-beating hits such as “FIFA” soccer from Electronic Arts or Activision’s “Call of Duty.”

Nintendo on Thursday touted the publishers it said were working on games for the Switch, including Activision, EA, Ubisoft and Bethesda.

(c)2016 The Seattle Times, Matt Day