Nintendo unveils Switch, its new hybrid gaming console

After months of speculation and anticipation, Nintendo has formally unveiled its new video game console: a hybrid home-and-portable machine called Switch.

The 3½-minute trailer posted Thursday morning reveals a tablet device that can also connect to your television via a dock.

The main controller comes with detachable components Nintendo calls Joy-Cons, which attach to either side of the Switch tablet and allow gamers to play the device on the go.

These Joy-Cons can also be detached and played with one in each hand, or used by two people using a single Joy-Con. 

Players can also connect multiple Switch tablets so a crowd of people can sit and play together (local multiplayer).

The trailer shows four players placing two Switch devices on a park table, each person using a single Joy-Con.

"Nintendo Switch allows gamers the freedom to play however they like," Reggie Fils-Aime, president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America said in a release.

"It gives game developers new abilities to bring their creative visions to life by opening up the concept of gaming without boundaries."

The trailer demonstrated people playing the Switch outside the house, such as in the park or on an airplane. Nintendo's last home console, the Wii U, had a similar tablet-like controller, but couldn't operate more than a few metres away from the base plugged into a TV.

Multiple games were shown on Switch, including the upcoming Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, 2015's cartoony online shooter Splatoon and Bethesda's open-world fantasy game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

There was also a brief glimpse of a new, as-yet-untitled Super Mario game, similar to 2013's Super Mario 3D World.

The Nintendo Switch, formerly known by its project code name NX, is scheduled for release in March 2017. Pricing has not yet been announced.