Nintendo announce: Nintendo NX

[Silent_Buddha]

I would think some people would just play the NX in handheld mode, with the TV on showing some TV content, rather than dock the NX to play in console mode.

People are used to looking at their phones and tablets while watching TV now.

I keep wishing I could hook up my Nintendo 3DS to my TV or at least a larger display. Why? I need to use reading glasses to play on it now. I don't like using reading glasses. There's a LOT of games on the 3DS that I really like, but I don't play them as much now purely because I have to put on my reading glasses to play them.

Additionally I wouldn't mind being able to connect a different controller. While the control compromises are decent for a handheld, I've always found handheld controls uncomfortable when used over a long period of time. The PSP had a pretty good layout, and even that was uncomfortable to use over long periods. And this isn't just due to the control layout but the weight of the device itself.

Second additionally, sometimes I don't want to be looking down at the device while I'm playing. Again something that becomes uncomfortable for an extended play session.

All of those are reasons I'd love to be able to just connect my 3DS (or PSP when I still used it) to a standard display like a TV.

The handhelds are great on a bus, or in a car, or for short gaming sessions. But, IMO, they are clunky when you're at home wanting to have a long play session (some of those RPGs are super long). We put up with the discomfort because that's the only way to play the games. Buy why should we have to put up with those discomforts if you could have the option to connect the device to a standard display?

Yeah, I've been wanting to have the ability to connect my handheld gaming devices to a TV or monitor ever since I picked up my PSP many years ago. Although I didn't need reading glasses back then.

I'd love to be able to play Monster Hunter and the Etrian Odyssey series without having to constantly look down at my 3DS for hours on end and end up having a sore neck afterwards.

Regards,
SB

 

[Megadrive1988]

I don't think it makes financial sense to use 2 different GPU SOC providers for handheld and stationary consoles especially when your message is a unified platform. IF there is a console only model it will have the same cpu and gpu hardware setup as the handheld, only differing in unit counts or clockspeeds. I'm not convinced there will be a stationary console in 2017 for Nintendo.

I hope you're wrong. If NX is what Eurogamer is saying it is, it'll be the beginning of Nintendo's permanent withdrawal from the home console market.

 

[Rangers]

They (Nintendo) already dont seem THAT excited about it (NX)...

But then again, what is their business then? Whatever happened to that QX/quality of life business. If there anything Nintendo seemed excited about it wasn't video games at all, it was that.

Reminds me a bit of Carmack, you could tell in his later interviews he was just tired of core gaming and GPU's. He got re energized by the VR thing.

 

[CSI PC]

A boring technicality : Tegra 3, K1 and X1 do support an external GPU, simply using - you might guess it - PCIe.
Nowadays, the UEFI standard might even allow to hook up most vanilla graphics cards, you avoid the need of something like the graphics cards with a Macintosh BIOS, used in the 2000s.

Ah I thought that was the Jetson board design, my mistake then.
Cheers

 

[Esrever]

What if they sell the nx with the option of an external gpu dock as well as a normal dock?

 

[BRiT]

A 32 GB cart is a lot isn't it? It actually seems like almost overkill for this amount of power, if anything. It's approaching Blu Ray size.
.

Not when the current top XBox One and PS4 games are an entire 70GB - 75GB with DLC and around 50GB without.

 

[orangpelupa]

Not when the current top XBox One and PS4 games are an entire 70GB - 75GB with DLC and around 50GB without.

But those usually filled with assets thst can be lowered I'm quality right?

Lower texture resolution. Lower audio bit rate using ogg vorbis and speex. Hevc video instead of the Hella popular bink.

 

[orangpelupa]

Second additionally, sometimes I don't want to be looking down at the device while I'm playing. Again something that becomes uncomfortable for an extended play session.

Play while lying on a bed

But it gives closer distance, so maybe it is more uncomfortable for you eyes...

 

[BRiT]

But those usually filled with assets thst can be lowered I'm quality right?

Lower texture resolution. Lower audio bit rate using ogg vorbis and speex. Hevc video instead of the Hella popular bink.

Those games don't use bink videos, they use in game engine rendering and already use compressed audio.

If the game ships on cartridge with lower quality assets then it won't be able to hit even current Xbox One graphics fidelity regardless of what hardware it uses.

 

[orangpelupa]

isnt pre rendered video still popular in PS4?
also NX probably runs at lower resolution. So lower res textures should be fine.

as for audio, isnt many pc and console games till use wav or mendium bitrate MP3? Its android games that often use uber low bitrate ogg vorbis.

 

[Blazkowicz]

Ogg vorbis has been used for a long time, at least in PC games. No royalty and no incompatiblity since you're bundling the decoder if needed.
Perhaps the Opus codec will see some use : it's surprisingly usable at only 32 kbps (needless to say 96 will sound a lot better for music). But Tegra (X1, X2, P1, whatever it is?) would better decode it to save a very few milliwatts?

 

[Blazkowicz]

The handhelds are great on a bus, or in a car, or for short gaming sessions. But, IMO, they are clunky when you're at home wanting to have a long play session (some of those RPGs are super long). We put up with the discomfort because that's the only way to play the games. Buy why should we have to put up with those discomforts if you could have the option to connect the device to a standard display?

Yeah, I've been wanting to have the ability to connect my handheld gaming devices to a TV or monitor ever since I picked up my PSP many years ago. Although I didn't need reading glasses back then.

I'd love to be able to play Monster Hunter and the Etrian Odyssey series without having to constantly look down at my 3DS for hours on end and end up having a sore neck afterwards.

Regards,
SB

Didn't PSP have miniature optical discs which were used to sell movies too, but you had no way to play them on a TV?

Sony used to play expensive practical jokes.

 

[DieH@rd]

also NX probably runs at lower resolution. So lower res textures should be fine.

NX will be playable on TV, where lower res textures will not be fine.

 

[Entropy]

32GB of compressed assets can't look good on TV?!?
Yeah. Right.
Besides, where is the source for this 32GB hard limit rumour?

 

[Blazkowicz]

Use of flash memory (the cartridges) allows easier streaming of data?
E.g. you walk into a room or area, and make a hundred read requests to load assets and textures. With a cartridge you can just do that without caring for seek time ; with mechanical media you might waste quite a lot of time on physical movement of the heads. Caching (huge memory on home consoles), reordering of reads and loading ahead of time will help tremendously, but you might have to pack some assets together and eventually have redundant copies of data you want to reuse in another part of the game. That was customary with games on CD/DVD etc. (before mandatory hard drive installation) but I wonder if it's still happening on aforementioned 70GB games run from the HDD?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

NX will be playable on TV, where lower res textures will not be fine.

I'm guessing you must hate how Dark Souls 3 looks like on TV then? That game takes up less than 20 GB. The Witcher 3 must be pretty bad as well. It's only 33 GB in size.

Oh and The Order 1886 has to look pretty bad on TV at only 30 GB, right?

Should I go on?

Regards,
SB

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Didn't PSP have miniature optical discs which were used to sell movies too, but you had no way to play them on a TV?

Sony used to play expensive practical jokes.

Yup I still have 3 UMD movies as well. Worthless.

Regards,
SB

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Didn't PSP have miniature optical discs which were used to sell movies too, but you had no way to play them on a TV?

PSP had TV out.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

PSP had TV out.

Not the original PSPs (1000 series) which is what I have. The 2000 (slim) and 3000 (brite) series have video out.

Regards,
SB

 

[Entropy]

For those who question why Nintendo may be justified in not simply making another "me too" console.
From Rangers in the NPD thread (3ds numbers added):
June 2016
PS4 234.5k
XBO 211.9k
3DS 124k
Wii U 34.6k
360 15.9k
PS3 8.2k
Total number of dedicated game systems sold - 629.1k
June 2007
DS 561,000
Wii 381,780
PSP 290,100
PS2 270,760
360 198,440
GBA 113,870
PS3 98,470
Total number of dedicated game systems sold - 1914.5k

Of course the numbers can be quibbled about. But I think most reasonable people will acknowledge that it may be in everyones best interests if Nintendo doesn't release a cookie cutter product that only adresses the audience that is already catered to.