Nintendo announce: Nintendo NX

[liolio]

I like the simplicity of cardbridge, I wish it really it were doable but I wonder if it is. Cardbridge could be sound if if save you the expense for the optical drive and the hard-drive.
Nowadays games are making such a "play straight out of the box" experience nearly impossible. You need lot of patching, the content created for some games is simply enormous (it is clearer one the game is installed) even if you were to use lower quality asset I suspect that you will face issue for some open worlds gamers or games that have both an extensive single and multi players mode. There are DLC, etc.
Nintendo would have set extremely restrictive rules for the devs to follows (games, size, patch size, etc.) and that may not be enough for some games.

I wish it were doable but keeping in mind that Nintendo primary market is kids, I wonder if the simplest approach, the easiest, is simply for them to go Download distribution only, kids are used to that. It would lower the overall price from hardware to software by removing the physical media.
Physical media are no longer able to fulfill their function aka containing games, physical is no longer a complete mean of delivering content.

 

[rabidrabbit]

Maybe the cartridge would contain the game for the portable NX, then if you insert the cartridge in the NX home console, it loads higher res graphics from servers to show on big screen. MOst of the game code would come from the cartridge and installed to the home NX unit.
So the cartridge would basically be the same for home and portable NX., the cartridge basically just unlocks the "HD" version of the game. Without internet access the home console would play just the basic portable version.

...
The thing is, a cart cannot hold enough data for modern console games anyhow; upwards of 50 gigs of flash (or mask-programmed ROM) would be too expensive as a medium, assuming Nintendo aims to compete with current consoles for the home NX system.

They may as well go with just the one size of cart, and then have home users download additional data for high-rez assets.

That's what my crystal balls are telling me too.
NX with a 256 GB SSD where the HD assets are downloaded and stored. With some active storage management solution where old data that hasn't been used for a long time is deleted to make room for new installs. Of course the home console would require a reasonably fast internet connection. For folks who have not bought the Internet, there would be the handheld NX.

Also, I don't think Nintendo really cares about the multiplatform titles such as CoD, GTA etc.. their new model might be founded on in-house teams and third parties that make exclusive games for the NX handheld and home consoles.

Now I see another vision while I'm rubbing my crystal balls.. What if the handheld NX is also a cartridge!
You'd keep the base game in the handheld on a physical cartridge, slot in the handheld on a high speed port on top of the home unit like a cartridge (a cartridge inside a cartridge), the home unit would download the HD assets and at the same time recharge the handheld.

On second thought, not a lot of that makes much sense.

 

[Grall]

Now I see another vision while I'm rubbing my crystal balls.. What if the handheld NX is also a cartridge!

I see what you did there.

Also, Cartception? (Let's not go deeper here...) Heh. Well, hasn't it been established (*ahem*) that the portable NX is/can serve as the controller for stationary NX? Plugging it into the base station and perhaps have the two share processing loads seems complicated from an engineering point of view. Multiprocessor consoles with odd, asymmetrical hardware architectures are rarely successful, and even less liked by developers.

 

[Rangers]

A lot of NX news breaking today. Has the ring of truth to me. Because it's about time for hard leaks now that we have as firm early 2017 release date. Emily Rogers:

https://arcadegirl64.wordpress.com/2016/05/13/so-about-nx/

After speaking to seven different people this week, I can say with confidence that this is false. NX is not using x86 architecture like PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The NX has special, custom-made chips and the overall design of the hardware is very modern. The chips are industry leading because they are very modern chips, but having modern chips doesn’t necessarily mean Nintendo is aiming to create the most powerful hardware on the market. Furthermore, any NX rumors on “Polaris chips” and “Polaris architecture” are all wacky. There’s a good reason why those rumors are wacky.

In terms of raw power, numerous sources tell me that NX is much closer to Xbox One than PlayStation 4. Even that might be stretching it a tiny bit. Anyone who is claiming that NX is “two times the power of PS4 GPU” is being misled by their sources. Based on what I’ve heard, I don’t believe the NX will compete directly with PS4 (Neo) / PS4K in raw power.

There will be plenty of debates over the NX’s specs because it’s not simple to directly compare two apples (with x86 architecture) to an orange (that doesn’t use x86 architecture). But everything that I’ve heard (so far) indicates that NX isn’t going to blow away any of the consoles on the market today…except for Wii U.

This then appeared on Semiaccurate.com, behind a paywall, summarized

The article is available to subscribers only, however the gist of it is this:

• Though Nvidia downplayed console margins, their pride was hurt by the loss in console contracts. All the talk about "focusing on Shield" was a cover for the fact that MS and Sony had soured on them and would not enter negotiations.
  
• Nvidia team was told to get a console win or "go home." Enter Nintendo, who apparently made off very well in this deal. This to the point that SemiAccurate questions whether this is a "win" at all for Nvidia.
  
• SA has heard that Nvidia are promising software, support, and the whole shebang at a very low cost. According to one source, Nvidia may even be taking a loss on this deal.
  
• Not mentioned which generation of Tegra or process node will be used or when the handheld is scheduled for release.
  
• No mention of the home console, but we can speculate what that might be and who might provide the chipset for that one.

It sounds to me like a Shield level chipset. Probably with more bandwidth, but my guess is still hampered by bandwidth. Probably around 1TF Xbox One level...

In a way that's better than I was half expecting TBH.

Or perhaps this should go in the next gen speculation thread?

 

[BRiT]

This line here sounds like total bullshit to me ...

Nvidia team was told to get a console win or "go home." Enter Nintendo, who apparently made off very well in this deal. This to the point that SemiAccurate questions whether this is a "win" at all for Nvidia.

We know for a fact that AMD has 3 major console wins. I don't think there is any way in hell for Nvidia to get a contract given that.

 

[Rikimaru]

Maybe for a handheld. There was a 3DS devkit on Tegra.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Maybe for a handheld. There was a 3DS devkit on Tegra.

Also not possible, because the handheld will most probably be sharing at least GPU architecture with the home console.

Regarding Emily Rogers' blog entry, I won't take anything anyone who says "I've been hearing" at face value.

 

[Rikimaru]

Also not possible, because the handheld will most probably be sharing at least GPU architecture with the home console.

Why?

 

[Grall]

This is just me, but I've no idea why anyone would pay a subscription to hear an insane man rant and make shit up out of thin air. Has semi-accurate broken ANYTHING, EVER? When was that? I can't remember a god damn thing. The man's accuracy is so awful you might as well have a roomful of monkeys bang on keyboards for your tech news...

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Hence the name, semi accurate

 

[Razor1]

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/52119/nintendo-nx-powered-nvidia-tegra-processor-amd-chip/index.html

 

[BRiT]

Seems like it's the echo chamber effect, noise echoing off multiple websites where each uses the other as "sources".

 

[Shortbread]

This line here sounds like total bullshit to me ...



We know for a fact that AMD has 3 major console wins. I don't think there is any way in hell for Nvidia to get a contract given that.

Hum. Let's say for the sake of arguing that Nintendon't did go the Nvidia route. What if the second or third contract is for another Sony system. Yes, a portable system based around AMD's tech. Something that can scale well between PS4/Neo hardwares. I don't think Sony is totally done with portable gaming ...yet.

 

[BRiT]

Let's take this AMD design wins talk over to this thread: https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/amd-console-wins-for-2017.57823/

 

[Rootax]

I was kind of hoping a "big" Img Tech soc, based on a P6600 CPU and a PowerVR 7900 based GPU. Scaled down for the mobile version. Oh well...

 

[Deleted member 13524]

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/52119/nintendo-nx-powered-nvidia-tegra-processor-amd-chip/index.html

From this article:

NVIDIA's current Maxwell-powered Tegra X1 processor can handle 4K output, and 1080p 60FPS gaming without a problem.

Wow, this guy knows his stuff.
/s

 

[pjbliverpool]

From this article:


Wow, this guy knows his stuff.
/s

1080p 60FPS Angry Birds FTW!

 

[jiaolu]

we know wiiu fails several years after Nintendo introduce it. If Nintendo indeed use tegra, the nx will fail even before it introduced. The third party support would be abysmal

 

[Rootax]

Well, A57s are not that bad compared to jaguars in Xbone/PS4 , right ? And the gpu is good too. It all depends and the numbers ore "cores" and frequencies I guess. I'm only concerned about memory bandwidth. But nVidia could custom the SoC... Anyway, it's only rumors...

 

[Grall]

we know wiiu fails several years after Nintendo introduce it.

Wuu failed pretty much immediately after the initial sales spike at launch. First year sales was way below Nintendo's projections and it's only gone down further each year since then.

If Nintendo indeed use tegra, the nx will fail even before it introduced. The third party support would be abysmal

You base this on what industry experience/expertise exactly?

Anyone can make statements with random bullshit unfounded claims in them.