
Nintendo Labo Official Site - fniephaus
https://labo.nintendo.com/
======
TheAceOfHearts
Direct link to the first look video:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3Bd3HUMkyU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3Bd3HUMkyU)

This looks really neat, if a bit expensive. Despite owning a Switch, I can't
see myself buying either kit. Maybe when more information becomes available
I'll reconsider. Admittedly, I might not be in the target demographic.
Although on the other hand, most Switch owners that I know are male adults.

I like anything that gets kids to play around with building stuff. Even when
you're just following instructions, you get a sense of accomplishment. I'm
sure after building a couple of these cardboard toys some kids will start
wanting to experiment with their own creations too. Although if my limited
experiences with kids are anything to go by, you'll probably need to buy a
couple cardboard replacements in order to survive prolonged contact with
children.

It's also a fairly innovative. I genuinely hadn't considered something like
this as a possibility. Have other console developers done anything similar?

~~~
bane
It's not really _that_ expensive if you break it down. The $69 variety kit is
basically 5 toys and 5 different pieces of software. Put another way, would
you pay $14 for one of these with the software? The Google Cardboard kits used
to be $10-$15 and they were much simpler devices.

The other one is $80 (okay a bit pricier), but it lets you "play" as the
avatar instead of just waving around a wiimote (Nintendo seems to be a bit coy
about weather you put the console itself in the headset to make it a VR
experience, but whatever).

I think this is Nintendo about to freaking nail it again, and this shows their
DNA coming from toys again. People are talking about buying more than one
Switch for a household just so the kids won't fight over the labo toys. That's
something Sony and Microsoft (and even Google who sort of came up with this
concept) can't even dream about.

I'm really blown away by the Nintendo of the last couple years: NES Classic,
SNES classic, Switch...their only execution problem at the moment seems to be
getting enough hardware in stores, but it's almost like they accidentally dug
up a joy vein deep in the Earth and are now selling the distilled and refined
happiness to the market so we can all partake.

This Nintendo "gets" it.

~~~
notatoad
>Nintendo seems to be a bit coy about weather you put the console itself in
the headset to make it a VR experience, but whatever

Almost certainly not. vr on a 6" 720p screen would be an absolutely terrible
experience.

~~~
sclangdon
Like when people said the 3DS couldn't pull off 3D without glasses...

~~~
Accacin
I mean it wasn't great and I'd always turn it off until I got the new 3DS with
the eye tracking.. Now it's perfect and I very rarely turn it off.

------
Eric_WVGG
I used to walk by game shops and imagine landfills overflowing with Guitar
Hero controllers and Wii tennis rackets and swords and whatnot.

I dunno if the choice of cardboard is to make it seem approachable, DIY, or
cost-cutting, but I appreciate it.

~~~
drusepth
As someone who's been trying to find guitar hero controllers for less than
$60/guitar for weeks now, I wish this were the case. :(

~~~
k_
I used to buy my guitar controllers with their respective game (on amazon and
such), it was always cheaper than the controller alone. I don't know what to
do with the spare GHTV games, though...

------
ruytlm
This strikes me as a rather ingenious way to target schools, and I feel like
there's going to be some _really_ interesting indie applications developed,
particularly when combined with 3D printed parts.

I hope they keep it a reasonably open platform; but then on the other hand,
this is Nintendo we're talking about.

~~~
bastawhiz
> ingenious way to target schools

I think schools buying up Nintendo Switches is probably not very likely.

~~~
bitwize
The Angry Videogame Nerd recently did a review of Lightspan Adventures, a
series of edutainment games for PlayStation. I'd never heard of it -- I was in
college by the time the PlayStation hit it big -- but apparently, more than
one school district procured PlayStations for the express purpose of playing
these games all in the name of "education".

~~~
tinco
Compared to the usual educational hardware PlayStations are really cheap. If
you're putting 10k beamers with 3k PCs in every classroom, who cares about the
few hundred bucks to buy a couple experimental devices that make your school
look cool.

~~~
bitwize
"The usual educational hardware" consisted typically of Apple IIs and overhead
(transparency) projectors -- even in the mid-90s when the Lightspan stuff came
out. Today might be a different story.

------
rhn_mk1
I am going to be impressed if this pans out.

On the surface, it looks like some of the toys may be more reliable than
others - they really need to have skillful designers and coders to be able to
pick up particular keys of the piano (I assume they don't have much to work
with apart from vibrations).

The second part is that they are just complicated to make and not as robust as
dedicated toys. Piano, or the foot pedals are examples - how many days of use
until they fall apart? Will Nintendo fight copycats who provide cheap
replacements?

Even if they gett all of the above wrong, I will forgive them if there will be
a way to adapt or design your own gizmos and make them work without being an
approved developer - this _really_ does look like a great way to learn
hacking.

~~~
anfractuosity
I was really curious about how the piano example works too, apparently it uses
a camera in the controller -

"The right Joy-Con’s motion IR camera reads the back of each key in order to
tell the piano which note to play. "

[http://time.com/5106363/nintendo-switch-labo-toy-
cons/](http://time.com/5106363/nintendo-switch-labo-toy-cons/)

It does seem a really interesting system, look forward to hearing more about
it!

~~~
vvanders
Yeah, pretty darn clever. With a camera you can do rotary encoders and all
sorts of other awesome tricks too.

Nintendo really seems to be hitting their stride with the switch.

------
cupofjoakim
It would be really cool to see some collaborations with other companies on
this - Pizza boxes or whatever company uses some cardboard for packaging and
targets families or kids.

I highly doubt this will be popular for adults, but for kids this could be
amazing, especially if nintendo does their job right.

------
Tiktaalik
With the slogan "Make Play Discover" it seems like Nintendo is marketing this
product as something a half step away from games and partially oriented toward
the educational STEM toy market. I get Lego vibes from this.

This product may also allow Nintendo to gain a presence in retailers that they
haven't worked with before. Indigo, Canada's big box book/toy retailer, stocks
the Kano computer kit in their toy section but no other video games. I
wouldn't be surprised to see Nintendo's Labo series appear there too.

------
crooked-v
I look forward to an indie dev making a cardboard version of the Steel
Batallion controller.

------
neuland
This looks way too good to be true. It's a pretty awesome concept, though
kinda like lego mindstorms but more focused on things that you interact with.

Hopefully there's people that come along and create kits with more durable
components than the cardboard that this page and the ad show.

~~~
ghostbrainalpha
I'm super excited for where this is going, but $80.00 for a controller made
out of cardboard that will break the first time a dog jumps on it or a child
falls over.....

Definitely not too good to be true territory.

~~~
neuland
I did not notice the price. Wow, totally agree about $80 being way too much.
Plastic or some other more durable material would be a big improvement to
justify the cost.

Edit: It looks like they're providing templates to make these yourself too.
[0] So, the $70/$80 can be considered more cardboard + software to interact
with it. From that perspective, I don't think this is too bad of a deal. For
something innovative like this, I personally think it's work the price of a
game ($60) and then the other $20 is for cardboard, but you can just make more
if it breaks.

[0] [http://fr.ign.com/nintendo-labo-nintendo-
switch/33103/news/n...](http://fr.ign.com/nintendo-labo-nintendo-
switch/33103/news/nintendo-labo-annonce-pour-inventer-de-nouvelles-facons-
de-j)

------
qiqing
I can imagine this causing our family to need more than one Switch. And it's
totally ok if kids play rough with it and break it because you can build
another one. And building it is half the fun.

------
prawn
I'm amazed that this announcement has barely made the front page and has only
75 comments. It's a novel release from a major brand. It's a product that
would ordinarily intrigue technical types, curious people, makers, etc -
people that are all over Hacker News.

Is there another discussion I've missed or is there another reason this hasn't
captivated the community?

I would've thought there'd be 50+ comments each about the use of cardboard,
about how the piano even works, or the potential in schools, or as an activity
for parents with curious kids, etc.

~~~
mercer
The activity does seem a bit lighter, but I think 78 comments in a day (or a
little more than that) qualifies as more than 'barely'.

Perhaps there'll be more activity when the product is actually released?

------
david90
I've read through many negative comments on Labo (esp. on other sites) But I
think - hey this is amazing as I wished to build things when I was a kid. This
inspires kids to create, interact and invent. Making connections to machines
or instruments we daily use.

Looking forward to support custom models.

------
dpkonofa
I'm excited for this but also, at the same time, a bit skeptical about what
the target for this is. It looks like it could pair well with schools and
places where many different kids get to try out different things. I don't
really see it working on an individual basis, though. Why would a kid want to
buy this? Why would a parent want to buy it for their kid? Would an adult even
want something like this?

~~~
celticninja
My kids like the switch and papercraft so this seems like an ideal game for
them.

------
thebiglebrewski
THIS IS AMAZING

~~~
nol13
already in line!

------
anotheryou
how do they sense the piano keys?

ah, IR illumination and tracking of white dots. So the little controllers have
cameras?

[https://youtu.be/P3Bd3HUMkyU?t=133](https://youtu.be/P3Bd3HUMkyU?t=133)
(freeze the frame here to see it)

~~~
ggus
only the right one have a IR camera

------
didibus
As long as they keep churning out awesome AAAs and continue to get lots of
quality indie and third party games to the Switch, I'm okay with this also
being a thing they do.

------
laurentoget
On one hand these look way less durable than Legos.

On the other hand replacing a broken or misplaced part will be easier than
with lego pieces.

They look way less painful to step on, too.

------
knowaveragejoe
Assuming they keep it open, this could really go places.

------
neonIcon
Probably won't personally buy either one, but I think it's going to be a home
run for Nintendo.

------
westmeal
I don't get it. They're selling cardboard for 70 dollars.

~~~
sioa
With softwares that can turn them into innovative toys. So its an one time
investment, if you want you can just use your blueprints to make a toy when
you eventually break it

------
nukeop
Can't wait to see all these over 30 Switch owners wearing cardboard helmets in
front of their wives and kids while they play the newest legend of something.

~~~
AndrewDucker
If you've reached the age of 30 and are still afraid of looking a little silly
while playing games, then you've not done a great job of growing up.

------
MollyR
Neat, but I'd still recommend an arduino uno or a raspberry pi over a switch.

~~~
pjmlp
Maybe an Arduboy then.

[https://arduboy.com/](https://arduboy.com/)

~~~
laurentoget
thanks for that!

