Nintendo announce: Nintendo NX

[Deleted member 11852]

During their press conference Nintendo announced a new platform: NX. Nobody seems to know what it is

From Eurogamer's article:

"Nintendo, together with DeNA, will jointly develop a new membership service, which encompasses the existing Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, the new hardware with a brand new concept NX, smart devices and PCs."

At this stage it's hard to tell what the NX is, exactly, but in an image published on Nintendo's official website, it's described as a "dedicated game system", which suggests a home console of some kind. We're told more information will be revealed next year.

​

UPDATED (from the Eurogamer article)

Iwata's comments direct from Nintendo:

"As proof that Nintendo maintains strong enthusiasm for the dedicated game system business, let me confirm that Nintendo is currently developing a dedicated game platform with a brand-new concept under the development codename "NX". It is too early to elaborate on the details of this project, but we hope to share more information with you next year."

"Nintendo, together with DeNA, will jointly develop a new membership service which encompasses the existing Nintendo 3DS and Wii U systems, the new hardware system with a brand-new concept, NX, and smart devices and PCs, and Nintendo will be the primary party to operate this new membership service."

"Unlike the Club Nintendo membership service that Nintendo has been operating, the new membership service will include multiple devices and create a connection between Nintendo and each individual consumer regardless of the device the consumer uses. This membership will form one of the core elements of the new Nintendo platform that I just mentioned."​

 

[Deleted member 86764]

Whaaaat??? Have Nintendo just announced a new machine? I need to look through the press releases...

Edit apparently it IS a new console, but they're not announcing it properly until next year? Very bizarre.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Yeah, sorry - added in the slide which shows, Dedicated game system "NX"

 

[Deleted member 86764]

“Jointly develop”, it’s possible they’re working to some extent with Google and Apple on get their OSes working with the new system. Maybe they’re looking to implement a Gamepad-type functionality with anyone’s mobile phone or tablet. It has non-Nintendo devices on the left and Nintendo’s on the right of the image. I’ve used a very similar slide in the past to demonstrate process flow and integration, which is exactly what I imagine they’re doing here.

Here’s a really “out-there” view; NX can sometimes be an abbreviation for Nexus. Is it possible that Nintendo and Google are making a machine together?? Probably not, but a fun view on this.

 

[orangpelupa]

a dedicated game platform with a brand-new concept

a special taste/interpretation of Virtual Reality from Nintendo?

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Looking at Mobage's wikipedia japanese entry, it seems they had launched in 2008 a platform for distribution and monetization for free-to-play games for mobile phones and web-browsers (PC), compatible with the NTT-Docomo and Softbank networks.
That platform was called DX.

NX may be simply a renewed version of DX for Nintendo games. It's possible that "dedicated video game system doesn't mean new hardware. It could be just an update for the 3DS and Wii U to get free-to-play games from and to those other platforms.
EDIT: Iwata seems to state clearly that it is a hardware platform.


EDIT: I wrote this on the other thread, but it might be relevant for this one too:

DeNA owns Mobage, which is a Japanese equivalent for Valve in the mobile games world.
It's both a publisher, a group of developers and a games-centered social network. They serve over 30 million customers and published+developed Rage of Bahamut,
a game that led Android's and iOS' top grossing app worldwide charts for over 4 months.

 

[AlNom]

NX-01 Ninterprise Led by Cpt. Falcon

 

[Michellstar]

The pieces are coming together

At Q3 2014 earnings reports, AMD announced two semi-customs desing wins, one x86 and the other ARM to be introduced in 2016

Last December, they gave further info

AMD Hints at a New Gaming Platform to be Announced in 2016
http://www.gamnesia.com/news/amd-hints-at-a-new-gaming-platform-to-be-announced-in-2016#.VQgUPY7SOxt

"I’m not going to give too much detail. I’ll say that one is x86 and one is ARM, and atleast one will be on gaming, right. But that’s about as much as you going to get out me today, because the customers from the standpoint to be fair to them. It is their product. They launch it. They announce it and then just like the game console or the parts you find out that its AMD’s APU that’s been used in those products." Devinder Kumar, a Senior Vice President and the Chief Financial Officer at AMD,

This could be the next nintendo system

 

[Deleted member 86764]

I suspect you're right. If it's going to be compatible with mobiles and tablets, I guess it'd need some mobile based SOC. I just hope it has some substantial power.

 

[AlNom]

I just hope it has some substantial power.

nVidia X1
Nintendo X

 

[Cjail]

More info next year, release in late 2016 maybe 2017...PS4 and Xbox One in the meantime are allowed to grow undisturbed and get all the customers.
Brilliant plan Iwata!
God forbid you instead go third party and sell on multiple devices anyway AND save billions of R&D in the process.

 

[loekf]

...one is ARM, one is x86.

So if Nintendo has the balls, we get a 14nm APU with 8 x K12 cores, 4 x A57 cores for compute and some GPU based on GCN-whatever truely capable of 4K @ 60 fps ?

 

[Globalisateur]

If this is a Nintendo mobile I am really interested.

 

[loekf]

If this is a Nintendo mobile I am really interested.

Aren't mobile consoles like the DS and Vita dead ? Maybe for kids, but smartphones have made them redundant.

 

[orangpelupa]

Ds and vita are dead but 3ds still steadily selling last time I remembered

 

[turkey]

I suspect you're right. If it's going to be compatible with mobiles and tablets, I guess it'd need some mobile based SOC. I just hope it has some substantial power.

I am sure someone here made the point only a few days ago, Mobile as it is has the flops but not the memory bandwidth, coupled with limited battery and passive heat dissipation the current chips cannot run to their limit. Place these in a console so it's without battery and has active cooling performance could jump massively.

AMD has new memory on the way, perhaps the mobile stars will align and Nintendo can at least match current console gaming expectations with mobile tech and have an easy offload of games to mobile creating a massive market instantly.

Is AMD going to push gcn as a viable mobile solution similar to nvidia?

 

[Scott_Arm]

Virtual Boy U with two Nintendo Power Gloves.

 

[Entropy]

nVidia X1
Nintendo X

Presumably, if it won't even be introduced in more detail until 2016, we can probably assume Samsung/GF 14nmFF for the process. Something on par with the X1 (with higher bandwidth) or PowerVR GT7900 is definitely conceivable. Depends on how much die area they are willing to spend, but the process is good.
A dockable-to-TV device is certainly possible, with decent performance compared to XBoxOne for instance. If they want to make a case for their platform, they need to differentiate from iOS/Android devices, but maybe (hopefully) they will settle for a device with a good set of physical controls.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Presumably, if it won't even be introduced in more detail until 2016, we can probably assume Samsung/GF 14nmFF for the process.

Nintendo using modern tech? That'd be newsworthy in itself!

 

[Scott_Arm]

If it's AMD, I'm guessing it's an APU similar to what's in X1 and PS4.