Nintendo announce: Nintendo NX

[Shifty Geezer]

16 GBs won't fit much by way of patches or downloads.

 

[east of eastside]

NX handheld will come out this Fall for $199 and merge and rehash 3DS and Wii U software w/ only the minimum tech required to run Wii U games at 540p @ 4 watts.

Nintendo will rehash Wii U software and all new games will be long in coming. I fully expect NX handheld to launch w/ ports of Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros, and Zelda Wii U.

It only makes perfect business sense for Nintendo to focus on rehashing software on a cost basis and also for the fact that millions of gamers ignored Wii U and 3DS and haven't played these games.

NX will be, at least initially, about repackaging, merging, and unifying the delivery of what Wii U and 3DS have already done.

 

[bunge]

NX will be, at least initially, about repackaging, merging, and unifying the delivery of what Wii U and 3DS have already done.

I've owned neither and would welcome that at the right price.

 

[BRiT]

NX handheld will come out this Fall for $199 and merge and rehash 3DS and Wii U software w/ only the minimum tech required to run Wii U games at 540p.

Isn't that pretty much reverting back to the Wii then?

 

[east of eastside]

I've owned neither and would welcome that at the right price.

Ditto.

And this handheld would also play Nintendo's mobile (ios/android) titles, and all this library would be playable on NX home console (cartridges and digital) when it launches a year later.

Isn't that pretty much reverting back to the Wii then?

Wii rehashed GameCube hardware, whereas NX will rehash 3DS/Wii U software while introducing more efficient and capable hardware.

The 3D Mario with 8th gen graphics will be there, but now when it takes another 3-5 years to produce Smash Bros and Zelda NX, there will be the entire 3DS/Wii U and retro Nintendo (and mobile too, now) library to draw from.

I think the idea that Nintendo has all new hardware, with all new software, and an all new gimmick is just plainly wrong, because that is costly and starting from scratch while leading to big software droughts. None of which Nintendo needs to make this a success.

Look at how Nintendo is recycling SNES with style on the New 3DS VC, likely that is a preview of what NX will do initially.

Nintendo's earnings are depressed from declining hardware sales, selling Super Smash bros Wii U on a cartridge cross-compatible between NX handheld and NX console w/ all DLC and NX exclusive characters + Amiibo sounds like a very realistic plan to make money back quickly while keeping costs low through recycling of software assets.

There could still be a gimmick like AR or Free Form LCD there, but the primary gimmick will be the merged library under the Nintendo account system.

 

[BRiT]

What I meant was if it's only doing 540p, it won't be doing that much more work or need to be more powerful than the original Wii. Granted it will need to have more ram and perhaps storage, but cpu and gpu wise it won't be that powerful.

 

[east of eastside]

What I meant was if it's only doing 540p, it won't be doing that much more work or need to be more powerful than the original Wii. Granted it will need to have more ram and perhaps storage, but cpu and gpu wise it won't be that powerful.

I'm talking about NX handheld, 3DS successor. I believe Wii U graphics running 540p (maybe 720p) is an exact fit for $199 handheld w/ a 4 watt mobile SoC to replace 3DS.

NX console will be a different deal, it will be a high efficiency 8th gen console...ARM based paired either to Carrizo or low power Polaris.

 

[Globalisateur]

I could see 480p max (well stereoscopic 1600x480) for 3DS successor. But I feel 4x higher res than 3DS is really optimistic if we consider Nintendo history.

 

[Esrever]

Right,the next gen version codenamed parker is thought to be running @ 1TF FP32 but with a higher TDP,it might show up in an upgraded Nvidia shield tv unit later this year.

It will still have abysmal memory bandwidth unless they change something substantially. Mobile SoCs just can't make use of the compute performance until they get to stacked ram.

 

[jason90]

It will still have abysmal memory bandwidth unless they change something substantially. Mobile SoCs just can't make use of the compute performance until they get to stacked ram.

They will double memory bandwidth with quad channel ddr4 just like A8X-A9X.50GB/s with nvidias memory compression will be plenty for that particular soc,doubt it will beat Apples A9X on pure efficiency but the car and console space don't need to worry about that so much.

Seeing as the K1 only shipped in 2 tablets and the X1 shipped in just 1 (Nexus pixel C) by the looks of it the tegra line is going to move away from being mobile centric to power centric.

 

[jason90]

NX handheld will come out this Fall for $199 and merge and rehash 3DS and Wii U software w/ only the minimum tech required to run Wii U games at 540p @ 4 watts.

Nintendo will rehash Wii U software and all new games will be long in coming. I fully expect NX handheld to launch w/ ports of Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros, and Zelda Wii U.

It only makes perfect business sense for Nintendo to focus on rehashing software on a cost basis and also for the fact that millions of gamers ignored Wii U and 3DS and haven't played these games.

NX will be, at least initially, about repackaging, merging, and unifying the delivery of what Wii U and 3DS have already done.

Sorry but this is the worst idea I've heard yet ,Nintendo will still bring the old titles and wii/wii u titles over at some point either through the VC or re-releases ,developing and shipping out new hardware purely to play old titles ,unless they want it to sell as well as the vita

 

[Shoujoboy]

I agree with east of eastside, I even think I made a similar post much earlier in the thread.

They've merged their handheld and console studio's into one building.
They've already tested the waters with titles that are released simultaneously on handheld
and console AND they're probably looking to bank on their lucrative handheld business.

I can see it as a win/win if they manage to move their best Wii U titles to the NX for on the go
gameplay while still pushing out their pokemon's and mario's for the handheld fans.
On top of that, we could see more cross platform releases until their true "next gen" console
launches which might give the Wii U some more life before they snuff it out.

I mean Sm4sh did pretty damn good on Handheld if memory serves me correctly and if they had
a more powerful handheld on the market they might have inched much closer to delivering the
exact same game across both platforms. I wouldn't be surprised if they were looking to duplicate
the success Sm4sh had with their next handheld especially if their next console begins to fail as
bad as the Wii U has.

I'm not exactly sure how far mobile technology has moved since the Vita/3DS launches so I'll let the
more knowledgeable posters determine if it's actually feasible to get a handheld out in 2016 or 2017
that offers performance close to or on par with the Wii U

 

[shredenvain]

I agree with east of eastside, I even think I made a similar post much earlier in the thread.

They've merged their handheld and console studio's into one building.
They've already tested the waters with titles that are released simultaneously on handheld
and console AND they're probably looking to bank on their lucrative handheld business.

I can see it as a win/win if they manage to move their best Wii U titles to the NX for on the go
gameplay while still pushing out their pokemon's and mario's for the handheld fans.
On top of that, we could see more cross platform releases until their true "next gen" console
launches which might give the Wii U some more life before they snuff it out.

I mean Sm4sh did pretty damn good on Handheld if memory serves me correctly and if they had
a more powerful handheld on the market they might have inched much closer to delivering the
exact same game across both platforms. I wouldn't be surprised if they were looking to duplicate
the success Sm4sh had with their next handheld especially if their next console begins to fail as
bad as the Wii U has.

I'm not exactly sure how far mobile technology has moved since the Vita/3DS launches so I'll let the
more knowledgeable posters determine if it's actually feasible to get a handheld out in 2016 or 2017
that offers performance close to or on par with the Wii U

I'm no expert, but Nvidia has tech in the shield tablets that beat PsVita.
I highly doubt Nintendo will go with Nvidia though.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

I'm not exactly sure how far mobile technology has moved since the Vita/3DS launches so I'll let the
more knowledgeable posters determine if it's actually feasible to get a handheld out in 2016 or 2017 that offers performance close to or on par with the Wii U

If the Wii U has only 160 VLIW5 shaders (unlike popular belief of 320), it's feasible to get a handheld that easily beats the Wii U's performance by 3x or more.
However, that would require a level of investment in GPU/CPU tech and manufacturing process that Nintendo isn't known to have. On the contrary.

 

[Entropy]

If the Wii U has only 160 VLIW5 shaders (unlike popular belief of 320), it's feasible to get a handheld that easily beats the Wii U's performance by 3x or more.
However, that would require a level of investment in GPU/CPU tech and manufacturing process that Nintendo isn't known to have. On the contrary.

A Qualcomm 820 should be within spitting distance of that. Off the shelf, does the job, decent price. Too much radio capabilities, obviously, but it probably doesn't pay off to make a special version. , but if so it should obviously get cheaper still.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

A Qualcomm 820 should be within spitting distance of that.

Yes, but as you stated there's a lot of stuff not needed like radio capabilities, DSP blocks for 4k H265 encoding, ISPs for taking >50MPix pictures and big cores optimized for short bursts of high performance (whereas a gaming system needs sustained performance).

That's probably a substantial amount of transistors / die space that would be much better spent on stuff like large amounts of LITTLE cores, caches, eDRAM and beefier GPU.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

http://dualpixels.com/2016/03/17/dual-pixels-exclusive-nintendo-nx-controller-leaked-photos/

Anyone remembers this patent by Nintendo?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

First impression is that's an expensive gimmick. Dual screen gaming where you take your eyes off the TV to see your controller isn't particularly wonderful, which is part of the reason Wii U didn't sell gangbusters. If it's just a screen for inventory etc., a small, rectangular touch screen in the centre would be just as functional and a load cheaper. There's also a distinct lack of buttons, so how is this thing supposed to support XBPS type games?

Second impression though is, if true, Nintendo's actually trying something swish rather than kiddie! Trying to produce something with a bit of class and sophistication. That bodes well for doing other things in a less Nintendo-y fashion.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

First impression is that's an expensive gimmick. Dual screen gaming where you take your eyes off the TV to see your controller isn't particularly wonderful, which is part of the reason Wii U didn't sell gangbusters.

Unless it's an actual handheld on its own, which would be part of the rumors so far.
Looking at the pen at the side (attached to some kind of tablet?), I get the impression that the thing is rather big. A lot wider than a Vita but just as tall and probably a bit thicker too given the shadows projected on the table.

There's also a distinct lack of buttons, so how is this thing supposed to support XBPS type games?

You can see there are on-screen buttons around the right analog stick. There's a "B" below and directional arrows on the top and right.
That would cover the buttons accessible by the thumbs, and you can see some triggers on the top too.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Unless it's an actual handheld on its own, which would be part of the rumors so far.

That'd be served by a rectangular screen. Adding screen around the thumbsticks that's mostly occluded by the thumbs and fingers is a waste of money, no matter how fancy it looks.

You can see there are on-screen buttons around the right analog stick. There's a "B" below and directional arrows on the top and right.
That would cover the buttons accessible by the thumbs, and you can see some triggers on the top too.

Tap screens aren't the same as physical controls. If they were, there wouldn't be thumbstick as you could use virtual thumbpads and D-pads on the screen. I also don't see triggers. How do you map COD or FIFA to this controller?