Copy and pasted from NeoGaf
Nintendo's European R&D outfit, aptly named NERD, is apparently working on something similar to Microsoft's cloud approach/ promise:
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The developers at Nintendo headquarters need to spend their time developing the actual platform, so I think we’d like to explore areas that they don’t have time for. For example the possibilities which are opened up by the combination of cloud technologies and new software paradigms like general purpose GPU programming.
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http://www.nintendo.co.uk/Iwata-Asks...ms-759323.html
It should be noted that while the statement seems rather vague, NERD has indeed hired, and is still hiring, researchers in the field of cloud technology, heterogenous computing, and GPGPU development. Doesn't mean we'll see some results any time soon if ever, but I don't think Nintendo would publish this piece if they didn't believe they were on the right track. Especially considering this Iwata Asks seems to be mostly aimed at potential future NERD employees.
So this apparently isn't about trivial cloud applications like storing save games and profiles on a server or something, it's seemingly about stuffing some servers with a couple of Nvidia Titans or Intel Knights Corner accelerators and using those things to provide additional computational performance over the internet. And there might actually be a practical application for something like this in gaming (same thing is true for Microsoft of course). To quote myself from a different thread:
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Let's say you want to accurately compute destruction physics based on the point and angle of impact and the energy transferred. A game can tell with a very high probability what will happen long before it actually happens, sends a request to some Titan powered cloud server, the server computes the actual physics and sends back animation data. The computation is long done and transferred even before the impact actually happens, and the game just needs to play back the animation once triggered. And if there's no internet connection, you'll get a simpler simulation or just a pre-canned animation, so there wouldn't even necessarily be an online requirement.
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http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=568133
