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

The controller comes with detachable components Nintendo calls "Joy-Con" controllers that attach to either side of the Switch tablet, so gamers can play the device on the go, like the company's portable 3DS — and earlier, Game Boy — handhelds.

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

Players can also connect multiple Switch tablets for local multiplayer.

The trailer shows four players placing two Switches 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 COO 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 Nintendo Switch can connect to your TV at home (top) or be played on the go (bottom). The Switch controller (seen at top left) detaches into two separate 'Joy-Con' remotes that can connect to Switch's tablet. (Nintendo)

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.

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

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Nintendo unveils Switch, its new hybrid gaming console