Fact: Nintendo to release HD console + controllers with built-in screen late 2012

[patsu]

And I'm not discounting it entirely, I just think its stupid to have people looking at some tiny display when they have a huge HD display in front them. It doesn't seem very appealing to me. If you play in low light having the screen come on and off would also be very annoying.

Update: Sources now confirm to IGN the new Nintendo controller allows players to stream entire games to the device from the console, saying it's like a miniature television. The screen size on the controller is also confirmed to be six inches in size.
http://wii.ign.com/articles/116/1162045p1.html

If true, problem solved.

 

[patsu]

Controllers with screens will cost what, at least $50?

Pure gimmick.

I remember we had an earlier discussion on controllers with built-in screens. It's actually not too bad an idea for a livingroom digital board game. Each player usually has his/her own hand of cards (e.g., Catan).

 

[wco81]

Ergonomics should be such that the controls become second-nature and you don't have to look down at the controllers.

That's ALWAYS been the case with all consoles.

Why would they have you look down now? I remember all these fanciful ideas for the DC controller and most of them never came to pass.

You can play scrabble with an iPad and multiple iPhones but how often are people playing this way?

Anyways, by now, a significant part of multiplayer sessions have to be online instead of in-person. The Wii and party-gaming reversed some of that but the trend is the other way, where discrete, player-specific content could all be on the big screen.

All a screen does is make extra and replacement controllers needlessly expensive. It certainly catches attention because it's unique. But is it going to be useful?

 

[RudeCurve]

I think one of the main uses is as a simple touch pad control interface for "touch games" that are played on the big screen. It will likely have a back light on/off option to conserve power while still being able to use it as a touch input device.

 

[patsu]

Ergonomics should be such that the controls become second-nature and you don't have to look down at the controllers.

That's ALWAYS been the case with all consoles.

Why would they have you look down now? I remember all these fanciful ideas for the DC controller and most of them never came to pass.

You can play scrabble with an iPad and multiple iPhones but how often are people playing this way?

Anyways, by now, a significant part of multiplayer sessions have to be online instead of in-person. The Wii and party-gaming reversed some of that but the trend is the other way, where discrete, player-specific content could all be on the big screen.

All a screen does is make extra and replacement controllers needlessly expensive. It certainly catches attention because it's unique. But is it going to be useful?

Playing with iPhones, Androids, and iPads in a livingroom party is seen as clunky or anti-social. Nintendo will need to package the concept as a social party game.

There is no reversal in trend. There may be 2 different needs. One picked up pace earlier. The other may follow suit if the vendors do the right thing.

EDIT: For looking up and down while playing a game, Bingo! is another example.

Also, if iPad makes it into the classroom, I wouldn't write off a classroom game with 20-30 iPads, plus perhaps a digital whiteboard.

 

[Xenus]

Seems pointless to do with a controller rather then an accessory for streaming the games. Seems like they are planning to do remote play but with every game.

 

[AlphaWolf]

6" screen? how big is that controller going to be?

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Yap. 6" sounds way too big to be practical.
They're going to have tablets as controllers? That way, they'll get too expensive.
And if they get too expensive, people won't buy one-system-multiplayer games, which was one of the Wii's major selling points.

 

[oramay]

6" screen? how big is that controller going to be?

If the same controller has all the usual face buttons and a 6" screen, it'd be quite big indeed. Nonetheless, it's possible the 6" screen rumor only refers to one version of the controllers or a peripheral that can be attached to a controller like a chatpad.

I'm just not sure whether I want to keep looking up and down, switching between the big and small screens when I play games. If I'm not going to be spending much time on the small screen, is it still worth the initial investment of extra money and the long term effort of holding extra in my hands.

 

[AlphaWolf]

I think it's more likely that it's just bullshit. I just don't think the practical applications justify the cost.

I could see them allowing you to use a 3ds as a controller, I don't see them wanting to build that much cost into a standard peripheral.

 

[eastmen]

a radeon hd4x00 series is to week. I would perfer they would have gone with even a radeon 5770 or whatever chip repleaces it in the 6x00 series .

 

[Rangers]

Controllers with screens will cost what, at least $50?

Pure gimmick.

Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers cost $50 right now.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Xbox 360 and PS3 controllers cost $50 right now.

They sell them for $50, they probably cost less than $20.

 

[AnarchX]

How powerful would you estimate DMPs SMAPH-S in 16 FP/8VS configuration with >500MHz?

http://www.dmprof.com/english/e_products/e_smaph_s/

 

[Teasy]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/podca...w-63-new-nintendo-console-captivate-2011.aspx

Based on this: "it will be in the same neighborhood as PS360", slighty better or slighty worse

According to IGN its significantly more powerful then PS3. Also according to a french website who were the first to break NGP's correct specs it will be based on a R700 (so its either a R7xx family GPU or its specifically a R700 in the dev kits which is a Radeon HD 4870x2).

 

[Teasy]

Why would they go with an AMD R7xx family of GPU? Surely from the perspective of licensing it would be as good for them to buy an r8xx for minimum DX11 compliance otherwise they'll yet again fall into the trap of having a system which doesn't support key features of the other two consoles GPUs. This especially true if we're comparing DX12 level hardware to DX10 which whilst it would still be DX compliant it would still be old by comparison to the feature set of the other two consoles.

If its a R7xx based GPU (modified obviously) then I don't see a problem. It reminds me of what they did with GC (modified 3 year old GPU), although this time I can't see DX11 (or even DX12 if its out by then) having as important a leap over DX10 as DX8 had over DX7.

512mb sound kinda low if you ask me. Expected atleast 1~2 gig or something for those that gpu series.

512MB isn't part of their info, if you read the article that's its only their guess that it will have at least 512MB based on the other info.

a radeon hd4x00 series is to week. I would perfer they would have gone with even a radeon 5770 or whatever chip repleaces it in the 6x00 series .

Why do you think its too weak?

 

[Deleted member 13524]

How powerful would you estimate DMPs SMAPH-S in 16 FP/8VS configuration with >500MHz?

http://www.dmprof.com/english/e_products/e_smaph_s/

Unless clocked at something like 1500MHz, unbelievably weak compared to Xenos or RSX+SPEs?
I don't think Nintendo would use a DMP GPU for a supposedly powerful home console.
Unless PICA Extreme turns out an unimaginably powerful, high-power GPU (which I honestly doubt).

If its a R7xx based GPU (modified obviously) then I don't see a problem. It reminds me of what they did with GC (modified 3 year old GPU), although this time I can't see DX11 (or even DX12 if its out by then) having as important a leap over DX10 as DX8 had over DX7.

DX11 isn't really a factor here, but IMO it should be of Nintendo's best interest to support OpenGL 4.1, hence fragment/vertex shader 4.1, hardware tesselation (in OpenGL) and CPU-less OpenCL interoperability at this point.

Why do you think its too weak?

I wouldn't say weak, but a bit outdated, yes.
Evergreen and Northern Islands GPUs aren't only more powerful, they're also more efficient, performance/power-wise (even though they're packing more transistors because of DX11 and GPGPU compatibility)
But like you said, Nintendo always seems keen on using old tech, so a R700-based GPU wouldn't suprise me at all.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Can we please stop the Nintendo likes using old hardware when the only time they used hardware that was really outdated was with wii.

What could the potential risks be if nintendo would release far earlier than the competition? Could it be that we end up with another wii that will lack 3rd party support? Seems like porting could be problematic in the long run and they might only get ps360 ports in the beginning too. Wich cant be good either because why buy a wii2 if all you get is ps360+?

 

[patsu]

The GAF original post has been updated with a lot more info and corrections.

 

[patsu]

Update: Sources now confirm to IGN the new Nintendo controller allows players to stream entire games to the device from the console, saying it's like a miniature television. The screen size on the controller is also confirmed to be six inches in size.
http://wii.ign.com/articles/116/1162045p1.html


OMG. Local variant of ONLIVE! It the TV is ocupied by other housemembers, games can be streamed to the gamepad and played from there. So cool, but i wonder what kind of battery life will gamepad have in those circumstances. 6" screen, maybe few buttons, and constant wifi connection.

If they want to, Nintendo can also virtualize the home console, and sell the new controller as a real OnLive-type client. ^_^

Then again, Sony can also make a cheap NGP-style controller to do the same.

Would be interesting to see how MS and Sony react.

EDIT: I should probably throw in cloud computing elements. Spoke to a Gartner consultant, all her past 10-12 projects are on Cloud Computing for the past 2 years (with assorted clients). It's hard to ignore the online business if Nintendo is planning a nextgen console. I reckon we should have some online innovation from Nintendo as well.