Nintendo announce: Nintendo NX

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This isn't how business works, gamers like to pretend this is a winner take all situation when its not. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Nintendo isn't targeting a much lower install base than in the past. They could be have a target of 35-50 million units, and be very profitable in doing so. Nintendo is expected to post profits again this quarter, so having big numbers of hardware sales doesn't really mean big profits. Even though I expect PS4/X1 to only have a 5-7 year run before being replaced, there is still traditionally a carry over for a year or two, so even though NX would be mid gen, it should still have a 5 year cycle before being dropped by third parties. Assuming that adequate hardware brings third parties back.


The goal for Nintendo with the NX is to re-enter the console market as a main player, they won't' succeed unless they present a product that is "better" than PS4 or Xbox One.
Nintendo doesn't need to make a new console to be profitable.
 
The goal for Nintendo with the NX is to re-enter the console market as a main player, they won't' succeed unless they present a product that is "better" than PS4 or Xbox One.
Nintendo doesn't need to make a new console to be profitable.
different, not better. They can not compete directly with Sony or MS ecosystem in such short time. Nor they want.
 
Can you make an example of something "different" from PS4 and Xbox One that the NX could do, aside for playing Ninty exclusives of course.
I sincerely don't know what Ninty could do that Sony or MS are doing already or are about to do.

BTW the more I look at it the more I think that NX will be a streaming hardware, a router/decoder/server call ti what you want, that will transmit from a device to another.
 
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Can you make an example of something "different" from PS4 and Xbox One that the NX could do, aside for playing Ninty exclusives of course.
I can not think of good example. But it's Nintendo's job to deliver.
Maybe NX gimmick won't appeal to me at all but will be popular. For example I do not play MOBAs and F2P at all but there is huge audience.

For me $200 1TF hardware would suffice for Nintendo exclusives.
 
Construct the console from toys to life. The more you buy, the more powerful it becomes.
 
IMO NX is doomed to be a mid-gen console.
Even if it will better, even if it will be more powerful PS5, and Xbox Twogether (see what I did there) will be better.
PS4 will have sold 50 mil by the time NX comes out so good luck beating it anyway.
I can't see their console doing better than either the PS4 or the XB1 and they should have focused on doing something neither can't, like be really cheap. Though to be honest I've no idea about what they should do with their home console, to me their focus should have been in the handheld realm foremost. I believe the market still has untapped potential though it needs a reboot outside of the NIntendo fans, it gets even more critical I would say as now decent tablets are getting crazy cheap ((like below 99$: Kindle Fire 7, Lenovo Ideatab 2 A7-10) and so are games (when they are not free).
 
The goal for Nintendo with the NX is to re-enter the console market as a main player,
That is only your pov, NIntendo said nothing as such. I am not sure they went as as far as acknowledging themselves as not a main player on the market.
they won't' succeed unless they present a product that is "better" than PS4 or Xbox One
There are many shades of better depending on one tastes budgets and use.
Nintendo doesn't need to make a new console to be profitable.
Well actually Nintendo needs to make more money, they make few money out of their existing consoles and that after suffering losses for a while. Nintendo needs to do investment, not profitable one, to stay in the game, like a better OS and overall network environment, it won't make them money, it is just needed at this point.
 
One benefit they get if they release a console that is appreciably better than the PS4/One is that they get some positive press/attention for doing so. In addition to this their strategy of offering weaker hardware has not paid off at all between the Wuu and the 3DS. Releasing late in the cycle they need some points of differentiation, and having more powerful hardware might be the ticket. Heck if VR takes off for instance then having a more powerful console able to offer higher frame rates could be the ticket to being seen as the premiere VR platform at least initially (if they support it)
 
How did the 3DS not pay off? I think PSP and Vita proved the handheld market isn't that focused on power.

That may have been true years ago when they were released when there was no such thing as tablets, but alot has changed since then in the market. Just because it worked then doesn't mean it'll work again in 2017. The market will continue to move on.
 
market, the market has changed.

its nanometer son!

btw releasing low power handheld will make developers got headache and discourage the cross compatibility between NX home and NX handheld...
 
That may have been true years ago when they were released when there was no such thing as tablets, but alot has changed since then in the market. Just because it worked then doesn't mean it'll work again in 2017. The market will continue to move on.

Doesn't mean it won't work again either. A 300 ~ 400 dollar tablet with no buttons is, apart from being portable, totally different from a 150 ~ 250 dollar handheld with dedicated buttons and a much higher quality software library.
 
Doesn't mean it won't work again either. A 300 ~ 400 dollar tablet with no buttons is, apart from being portable, totally different from a 150 ~ 250 dollar handheld with dedicated buttons and a much higher quality software library.
I think there is some truth to this. The differentiator for a gaming dedicated portable device doesn't have to be SoC hardware capabilities. Physical controls, low cost of entry, no monthly network plans, curated library of games, a more active policy for fostering diversity and quality of the software as opposed to mobiles free for all... There are different ways to appeal and strengthen your value proposition.
That said, there is no reason either to be penny wise and pound foolish. Spending another $10-15 on SoC and memory can make a world of difference in terms of performance, initial graphical wow factor and platform longevity, and the extra initial cost can be absorbed by Nintendo to aid platform growth. But I can also see that money going someplace else, in iSupplies teardown of the 3DS, the 3D-screen was estimated to be over three times as expensive as the SoC, for instance.
 
Nintendo doesn't, but DeNA might have that chance...

So now that Nintendo and DeNA have revealed the first fruits of their partnership scheduled to be released in March 2016, the absolutely fabulous game Miitomo, what is your confidence in them handling the online infrastructure and producing an online experience on par with Microsoft/Sony?
 
The more I think the more I believe that a cheap handheld was the way to go. Local multiplayer has always been a high point of Nintendo systems, nowadays secondary screens (secondary to the TV and I mean autonomous secondary screens) are really affordable to the extend which makes possible to pass on the primary one altogether.
Sony and Microsoft are selling 300-400$ systems, those systems have now a significant user base, there is no room for a system that is in the extended ballpark (upward or downward) of existing established systems. They can go for a cheap system but it ain't trivial either as they are coming from a weak system that failed (the WiiU) and both the costumers and publishers will need some convincing, they are running into the risk of pushing something out that is not enough of a step forward for existing WiiU owners. Overall it is a complicated situation they have to differentiate themselves but the ways to do so are not necessarily all that desirable.
As I said above nowadays autonomous portable "screens" are really affordable, whereas Amazon subsidizes for it (or is in the grey through ads) their late Fire 7 sells mostly for the price... of a controller, it says a lot. So Nintendo can't sell a ~300$ (or more) system without getting into Sony and MSft territory, no matter how hard they try their system is going to get compared to theirs systems. A cheap system (think 149$) is going to get compared with cheap tv box, runs into the issue of not differentiating itself from the WiiU, the 360 or the PS3.
So any way I look at it "front facing" the problem won't do it, Nintendo needs another way to get into a lot of people hands and I believe handheld is the way. Now it can't be done with close to 200$ handheld, the price of handheld has slide up through the year the price of games is by a bit too high too, all in all in this age of freemium and cheap phones and tablets, it is no longer the way to go.
In my opinion Nintendo needs to reach below 99$, and to further promote the (local not in an exclusive way though) MP nature of the system, they should plan bundle as the Amazon is doing, may be they can't sell a 300$ and up home system but they could more easily sell a bundle of 4 handheld for people to use in house or outside.
To get there Nintendo could reuse part they already are sourcing (at a good price I hope), in an attempt to get the price as low as it get while remaining in the grey. I could envision a system that reuse the new 3DS input, that uses the 2DS screen (for the ref ~5" screen with a 4:3 screen format ration, resolution is unknown to me 640x480? ) something akin to the 1DS mock-up. I would stick to resistive technology for the sturdiness.
this is how such screen compares to the screen in WiiU gamepad and to the screen of the PS Vita, not too bad a non XL version
For the SOC I would go with IP that offering great bang for bucks and that can realize most of their potential on affordable process /lithography. I think the ARM A7 and the freshly announce Mali-470 are the IPS a company in the situation of Nintendo should look after. On TMSC 28nm LP process those IPs should offers decent performances, it will be a tiny and efficient SoC perfect for a system sold for cheap. 512MB of LPDDR3 should go the trick for the ram.
79$ would be a great price to sell as a stand alone, they could go for 149$ for a 2 devices bundle and 279$ for a four devices and 359$ for 6 devices and last 479$ for 8 devices (the maximum number of supported devices supported for local only multi-playing).
The PS Vita demonstrated pretty nicely that the economics are not there to develop AAA games on handheld system, so I believe technological choices should be made on the software side. Whereas it is not economically viable to develop greater asset there are way to do better out of existing asset, emulators do a great job at showcasing that.
Newer decent hardware should have power in spare, untapped otherwise (delivering ~ the perfs as the PS Vita is pretty easy and that is still a beefy jump from even the latest 3DS), lots of the extra power vs existing handhelds will be spent through resolution increase and the processing of otherwise pretty rough asset. A nice benefit is that it will keep the game size down which is a necessity if one wants to continue to allow multiple players to play with a single copy of the game.

Then they could see if and how a home console could fit into the picture. Handheld devices have potential to replace a lot of boards, party games or to actually enhance some of those games (I know there will always be people that like the retro old way and it is fine), people have smartphone but they are not devices one wants to toy with in any circumstances, they are too important (and more often than not costly) to get used as toy in party gaming environment. Nota bene I don't want to limit the device to party, casual, board games, etc just I'm saying that being cheap you can afford to have enough devices for party playing which is not true with 180$ and more handhelds.
I want to add with regard to where the matching home console could go that aside being a secondary, greater screen to play on, it could turns actually into what is the "board" in many games, and I wonder to which extend the concept is extendable to usual games (in MP situation) It could be pretty a reverse of the WiiU approach, with the TV offering greater maps to the players, spectating mode, providing strategic insight, surprises, scary surprises, etc. The device could be cheap akin to android tv box. Nintendo could consider doing a tablet like (ipad sized) standalone version if the concept gains traction.

PS I've no hope for NIntendo to do such a thing, though it is definitely something I wish a company with enough resources would try.[/spoiler]
 
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So now that Nintendo and DeNA have revealed the first fruits of their partnership scheduled to be released in March 2016, the absolutely fabulous game Miitomo, what is your confidence in them handling the online infrastructure and producing an online experience on par with Microsoft/Sony?

Eerm... 3 out of 10... :(
 
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