Nintendo announce: Nintendo NX

[McHuj]

Nintendo is not in a position to ask for more than $199. WiiU was too expensive for what it was and so was the 3DS at 249. Did everyone forget the ambassadors program and the huge price drop months after launch?

Nintendo is in no position to ask for a premium price even if they have a premium device. This will be a secondary device whether that's secondary to another console, phone, or PC.

Expect $199 and adjust the tech predictions accordingly.

 

[rabidrabbit]

Somehow, to me it just makes more sense that Nintendo would somehow evolve the WiiU tech where the home console is streamed to the handheld device. The current tech used in WiiU is already quite robust, even so that the lag on the WiiU game pad's screen is often less than on TV screen.
I've never experienced any slowdown or image deterioration when I've played for example Mario Kart 8 on the pad - unless of course if I wander too far when the connection just cuts, and that's not very far.

 

[TheLump]

Doesn't sound like something special or new to me. This concept of displaying 'mobile' games on your TV screen has been present since the Iphone.The quality games and a solid controller will differentiate itself from smarthphones I guess.

But at this point I wonder if they have enough power to do anything impressive not just visually speaking but from an A.I,Multiplayer,physics ect perspective. Less powerful than XB1 and PS4 is a bit weak 3 years in lol

I may be wrong, but to me - if this rumour is true of course - the USP is going to be displaying console quality games on your handheld, not the other way around (handheld quality games on a TV). It's subtle, but its a big difference psychologically. If they can convince consumers they are getting a solid enough experience when plugged into a TV and that they can then take that experience on the go*, then that becomes a useful concept. Crucially it becomes something which is actually very simple to market.

*albeit with lower resolution, which may or may not be noticeable depending on screen size.

 

[Grall]

One Plus 3 has top of the line specs for 399, but you're also gambling with Chinese bugginess, probably cutthroat margins that Nintendo is unlikely to stomach, and 399 is obviously high compared to what we're talking about.

True, however, the OP3 is a phone, not a games console, and thus has a cellular modem included which comes with a number of discrete ICs and a bunch of IP baggage and patent license costs as well which bumps up the price a bunch.

 

[Esrever]

True, however, the OP3 is a phone, not a games console, and thus has a cellular modem included which comes with a number of discrete ICs and a bunch of IP baggage and patent license costs as well which bumps up the price a bunch.

Being a phone doesn't increase the cost because of economy of scale, removing those things will likely make the phone more expensive.

 

[kalelovil]

Lets look at a smartphone, there are decent phones with 5" screen for 199, but, it's pretty dicey and you'll sacrifice in many areas.

They've become a lot better in the past couple of years.
See for example the build quality and performance of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 for $140.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/10463/xiaomi-redmi-note-3-meizu-m3-note-reviews

 

[Entropy]

Doesn't sound like something special or new to me. This concept of displaying 'mobile' games on your TV screen has been present since the Iphone.The quality games and a solid controller will differentiate itself from smarthphones I guess.

But at this point I wonder if they have enough power to do anything impressive not just visually speaking but from an A.I,Multiplayer,physics ect perspective. Less powerful than XB1 and PS4 is a bit weak 3 years in lol

A third differentiator vs. streaming games from mobile is latency of controls. Also, note that the full capabilities of the device can be harnessed by games, they don't have to allow for previous generation/lower end mobile. Overall, we are looking at a device that among its other qualities will offer unprecedented graphical pedigree for mobile gaming. Less powerful than the PS4/XB1 in a handheld device is pretty damn good.

I may be wrong, but to me - if this rumour is true of course - the USP is going to be displaying console quality games on your handheld, not the other way around (handheld quality games on a TV). It's subtle, but its a big difference psychologically. If they can convince consumers they are getting a solid enough experience when plugged into a TV and that they can then take that experience on the go*, then that becomes a useful concept. Crucially it becomes something which is actually very simple to market.
*albeit with lower resolution, which may or may not be noticeable depending on screen size.

And this is an excellent point. In geographical areas where the stationary consoles define the norm, this is a great message to send - bring your console quality games with you wherever you are! Whereas in other areas more solidly dominated by mobile and handheld gaming, you can emphasise the message that you get the best portable gaming device ever - and you can enjoy and share your gaming on Big Screens as well!
Hypothetically, this can also be part of the confused rumours - depending on the messenger, NX can be described as either a (stationary) console or a handheld device, with the emphasis from western publishers probably going in the direction of NX being a console with a detachable handheld.

 

[Technewsreader]

A third differentiator vs. streaming games from mobile is latency of controls. Also, note that the full capabilities of the device can be harnessed by games, they don't have to allow for previous generation/lower end mobile. Overall, we are looking at a device that among its other qualities will offer unprecedented graphical pedigree for mobile gaming. Less powerful than the PS4/XB1 in a handheld device is pretty damn good.

But didn't people say that PS4's GPU is technically a mobile GPU or something like that? On top of that,Nintendo could have been a bit nicer to their fans when talking about the NX. They clearly said that NX is NOT a hybrid and now it sounds like its indeed a hybrid. Bit confusing but ok thats none of my business.

 

[AlNom]

But didn't people say that PS4's GPU is technically a mobile GPU or something like that?

Jaguar

 

[Kaotik]

Jaguar

That's the CPU, not GPU. PS4 (and Xbox One) both have 2x (4xJaguar) + 2nd gen GCN iGPU, and then some customizations on top

 

[Shifty Geezer]

AlNets means it's the CPU that's mobile-esque. There's nothing mobile about the 1.8 TF 18 CUs GPU in PS4!

 

[Fourth Storm]

Somehow, to me it just makes more sense that Nintendo would somehow evolve the WiiU tech where the home console is streamed to the handheld device. The current tech used in WiiU is already quite robust, even so that the lag on the WiiU game pad's screen is often less than on TV screen.
I've never experienced any slowdown or image deterioration when I've played for example Mario Kart 8 on the pad - unless of course if I wander too far when the connection just cuts, and that's not very far.

I've also been wondering if it would be possible for Nintendo use this tech to allow streaming to local smart devices. How necessary is that Broadcom hardware in the Wii U Gamepad? Surely, modern cell phone CPUs could decode the signal just as well. The idea of local split screen multiplayer on a handheld screen just doesn't work. Maybe that's actually not the concept though, and we're missing some key information.

Btw, hello Beyond3D folks. Been a while. Hope you've been well.

 

[Technewsreader]

AlNets means it's the CPU that's mobile-esque. There's nothing mobile about the 1.8 TF 18 CUs GPU in PS4!

alrighty then. My bad

 

[rapso]

Nintendo is not in a position to ask for more than $199. WiiU was too expensive for what it was and so was the 3DS at 249. Did everyone forget the ambassadors program and the huge price drop months after launch?

if they really sell it as a stationary and a mobile device, they can split cost, maybe the stationary console could be even $99, while the handheld $199. ( you might get away with the handheld only, which would sound cheap, before you realize you need to buy one per kid.)
I think it's also very likely they'll offer a paid online service like XBL and PS+ is, $50/a extra is most likely taken into account for pricing the hardware.

yet, until now, Big N always priced the HW beyond what everyone would call "sane prices".

 

[rapso]

The Shield TV isn't tweaked for mobile usage, since it's always connected to the power outlet. AFAIK, its SoC has the Cortex A53 module always disconnected, the A57 module runs at the full 2GHz all the time and all the power saving features are turned off. That's why the power consumption at the wall is close to 20W (actual SoC consumption should be closer to 15W, considering ~80% PSU efficiency and 1W for peripherals).

maybe this is with an updated firmware. On my tests, with a _very_ early shieldTV, the power saving was still enabled and moved threads from the 4x cores to the same one. which was kind of wonky when your threads "awoke" and at first collide and have friction.
(I'd also expect, on low load (e.g. menu), there still should be power saving, but I haven't tested that).

 

[McHuj]

if they really sell it as a stationary and a mobile device, they can split cost, maybe the stationary console could be even $99, while the handheld $199. ( you might get away with the handheld only, which would sound cheap, before you realize you need to buy one per kid.)
I think it's also very likely they'll offer a paid online service like XBL and PS+ is, $50/a extra is most likely taken into account for pricing the hardware.

yet, until now, Big N always priced the HW beyond what everyone would call "sane prices".

I think multiple SKU's or some sort of split setup like you suggest would work and is fine as long as there's a entry point under $200.

I'm not sure Nintendo can pull off a paid subscription. But maybe Nintendo's deal with Nvidia goes beyond just Tegra and includes some Grid technology/infrastructure.

 

[rapso]

I'm not sure Nintendo can pull off a paid subscription.

why not? for technical or business reasons?

 

[McHuj]

why not? for technical or business reasons?

Mainly business reasons. I'm not sure consumers would be willing to spend money on another subscription.

 

[babcat]

I'm not overly interested in handheld gaming. For example, I don't even have a single game I play on my cell phone. The main reason being that on most handheld games the graphics are awful. However, if the NX offers PS4 level performance and utilizes a 720 screen, some of the games could look decent.

The following is my hope:

1) A thick bulky handheld. I don't care about slimness in electrons. The case I keep on my cell phone makes it three times as thick. I wish a manufacturer somewhere would build an uber powerful cell phone that was thick and bulky. If the NX was thick and bulky, it would have more space for cooling and a larger battery.

2) A Quad Core Tegra X2 using 10nm Pascal. This could potentially make each Tegra core much more power efficient, perhaps cutting power usage in half or more. If each produced 512GFLOPS, four of them would combine to produce 2TFLOPS. Combined with the pascal architecture, this would make the console a little more powerful than the PS4.

3) A 720P screen (not 1080P) to allow games to look awesome instead of being rendered at 1080P.

4) A top of the line upscaler in the dock to boost the resolution up to 1080P when connected to a television.

 

[orangpelupa]

@babcat for me it's because most phone game story are awful.

Although Lady Layton will come to android. So there's that...