If there’s one thing the Nintendo Switch is missing from making it a truly all-in-one entertainment device/game system, it’s well…all the basic apps your iPad has. There’s no YouTube, Netflix, or Crunchy Roll way to view entertainment on the Switch. It took some time for Hulu to make its way onto the system but comics is beating the rest to Nintendo’s hybrid device. InkyPen app will bring comics from IDW, Valiant, and many others not named Marvel or DC to the handheld system.
InkyPen on the Nintendo Switch (via download on Nintendo eShop) will be a subscription service where for $7.99 a month (U.S) Switch owners will get to read tons of comics on the go or at home. The library according to the company will consist of “over 10,000 titles” which include American comics, Manga, and European books. Right now its publisher deals include IDW, Dynamite, Valiant, the bigger format Humanoides Associes, with more be announced later.
The app will launch in November of 2018 and we’re eager to test it out. Nintendo Switch itself is a great piece of gaming hardware but when you take it on the road with the attached joy-con controllers it becomes a bit bulky as an entertainment device. It’ll be interesting to test out touch screen functionally which if done correctly helps shrink the device for reading by eliminating the need for the attached controllers. There’s also the question of how vertical-oriented print comics will read on the device. InkyPen will come with a guided reader mode to help but I’m really dying to see what the experience is like when I turn my Switch vertically to read comics.
Perhaps the best part of this is the app works when the Nintendo Switch is docked and connected to a television meaning your 40′-1000′ TV could become your favorite comics reader.
If InkyPen’s is a success in the current no competition Nintendo Switch app market, Marvel and Comixology will undoubtedly take notice. The hardware has, according to Nintendo’s latest report, 20 million units sold worldwide. Even if only between 2 to 5% become InkyPen subscribers, it’s still a good size audience to compete with the likes of Comixology Unlimited. With the competition having apps on other devices, both competitors software could be optimized for Nintendos hardware at some point. For now, we’ll enjoy finally getting another entertainment app on the Switch because it seems like such a rare thing. At this rate Sling TV will probably make it’s way to the Nintendo, Xmas 2020. Regardless we’ll be eagerly awaiting InkyPen coming to the Nintendo platform.
