What the Wii U hardware should have been?

[Gipsel]

As a side note looking at what can do a 79mm2 chip as the GK 208 using a single memory channel (though connected to fast gddr5) makes the WiiU looks really really bad, even more than looking at the "AMD side of the coin" which would be MARS mobile GPU.

Is there a large difference considering that Mars isn't much larger (85mm² is the number I have in mind) and is able to pull ahead especially in more demanding situations thanks to its 128Bit memory interface?

 

[liolio]

Is there a large difference considering that Mars isn't much larger (85mm² is the number I have in mind) and is able to pull ahead especially in more demanding situations thanks to its 128Bit memory interface?

I'm not saying that Mars is bad, just that its Nvidia counter part seems cheaper (at least to produce) and while it may do indeed better, it seems to me that GTX640 pretty much delivers "enough" performances.
Actually AMD has Mars parts using a 64bit bus, the HD 8690m and 8590m set-up seems to be comparable to Nvidia new GPU, though I can't find any review.
Mars is a tad tinier that GK208, I found 77mm2.

Anyway let say both GK208 and Mars GPUs makes the Wiuu looks bad.

 

[Grall]

Any new news regarding the renesas fab closure...? When is the shutdown supposed to take effect, and will nintendo order some additional wafer starts before then - to cover switching manufacturing to another facility (such as IBM perhaps)?

I'm having delirious imagery (running a slight fever at the moment) floating about my head right now about nintendo running out of chips and simply dropping wuu like it was radioactive and like they did the virtual boy, pretending it never even existed...

 

[liolio]

Any new news regarding the renesas fab closure...? When is the shutdown supposed to take effect, and will nintendo order some additional wafer starts before then - to cover switching manufacturing to another facility (such as IBM perhaps)?

I'm having delirious imagery (running a slight fever at the moment) floating about my head right now about nintendo running out of chips and simply dropping wuu like it was radioactive and like they did the virtual boy, pretending it never even existed...

They should though as time goes I wonder if will be too late.
It seems they are not considering the option now and they should do it now. Later be it a new business model that include both home and handheld consoles (or only the later) they will face a significantly tougher market, Nvidia release an high end handheld, Amazon works on something (home of handheld it is unknown), Google too, Apple we don't what they will in the face of diminishing market shares, etc.

They should react now, in two years, even if they decide to stick producing toys, good and cheap toys, it could prove pretty hard to gain any traction either on the handheld or home console market.
If manufacturers finds out there is a market for handheld, the market will saturated pretty fast with devices from many manufacturers running Android. Even cheap handhelds would offer more than what Nintendo can provide /be a lot more functional devices.
Now they could make interesting hardware but they won't undercut the Chinese product or even a company as Sansumg if android powered handheld were to gain traction.

On the home console market I believe that there is room for a cheap, simple (really a device that mostly run games) device, though I don't think they have that much time to take that slot.
Others could take that spot (and actually offer neat non-gaming functionality) and as 20nm is getting closer the price of the PS4 and Xbox 1 could done significantly, I think especially of the later as it cost should down nicely thanks to MSFT for the system (and if it doesn't help the system cutting kinect could help further).

If I were in their pants I would have shifted to emergency mode a while ago and the plan would be to release something asap while aiming for a really low price. If it fails I guess no investors would cry if Nintendo were to be kicked out of that market.

 

[DRS]

They should though as time goes I wonder if will be too late.
It seems they are not considering the option now and they should do it now. Later be it a new business model that include both home and handheld consoles (or only the later) they will face a significantly tougher market, Nvidia release an high end handheld, Amazon works on something (home of handheld it is unknown), Google too, Apple we don't what they will in the face of diminishing market shares, etc.

I wonder if even doing it on launch day would be a good option from financial aspect. They invested millions in Wii U software, hundreds of millions in R&D and who knows how much in producing stock. Then they'd need to do new R&D, new software, new stock, try to convince 3rd party devs that it's worth it even more this time. It would cost billions.

So if they'd loose such a big amount of money, they might just as well drop the price to compete with PS360 and try to increase userbase a bit that way.

I guess there is always a market for cheap consoles. There is a market for cheap anything I guess. A manufacturer that opts to enter that market should invest a lot in appealing games or reuse an existing platform (such as android, as you mentioned).

 

[Pixel]

What Nintendo needs is a really strong team of business & industry analysts assisting their top executives.