I don't know what to say if you seriously believe Nintendo is going digital only next year.

Not going to happen.

I was going to reply to him, but you did a pretty good job. And you're right. There will be differences between the two versions and they will be significant. It won't at all be like playing Killzone on Vita and then playing it on PS TV. It will be like playing Smash 3DS and then playing Smash Wii U. Only the NX will be designed and built from the ground up with hardware, software, and firmware specifically engineered to make that as easy as possible.

It will be so easy to do, that developers will want to do it. They'll be able to get one game running on both systems with very little effort, and then all they'd need to do, and they wouldn't even really be forced to, is add little exclusive features to incentivise playing on both devices, like Smash does with Smash run and that stupid party game. It wouldn't cost anything extra to do, as the process would just become a standard part of designing games on the platform the way Miiverse integration is for Wii U games now, and it would encourage people to own both systems instead of one.

"You might have to play DQXI at a lower resolution with lower graphical effects and lower polygon models, but the screen is smaller so it still looks plenty good, and you get to use the exclusive street pass feature when you play on the NXDS that allows you to blah blah blah and its really neat! Oh, and there an exclusive character/mini game who only appears on the NXDS version because blah blah and you get this exclusive item that blah blah and this exclusive mission that blah blah."

Buuuuut. "If you have the NX console version, you get a much better looking game with all the next gen bells and whistles. You get this mode that's only on the NX Home because blah blah, with this character that blah blah etc. Etc."

And if you own both hardware, you can have the some of the content cross over, like with the exclusive characters in Hyrule Warriors 3DS. Only with NX, everything will be cross buy/save/play, so you're only paying $60 once. There might even content locked unless you have both. That's what we'll see out of games from the NX. Literally nothing like anything he's mentioned.

As soon as Smash 3DS was announced, I knew exactly what they were doing. But at the bare mininum, you'll just see simple ports like with REvelations or SSFIV3D. Still plenty acceptable.

You can say "I want to pretend the detailed patent Nintendo filed for a digital only console is a lie." Because that's the only way to legitimately believe that it's not happening.

I don't play pretend. It is happening.

Yeah, patents like Wii Vitality Sensor are also happening. ;)

There are many more patents Nintendo has filed that we don't know anything about.

Call me back when the Vitality sensor is advertized as their next generation console instead of a minor experimental accessory to an existing console. Only then will the vitality sensor be relevant to this discussion.

There is one patent we do know about. A detailed one for a console that is all digital filed this year. The same year they announced the code name for their next genration console likely releasing next year. But sure. It's just some other next gen Nintendo console launching next year.

Where was this patent advertized as their next-gen console?

Consoles can't have different versions? One with an optical drive and a cheaper one without it?

Trust me, Nintendo filed patents for their next console long before this year. And their next console won't get leaked through a patent filing.

You're basically saying that Nintendo will abandon more than half of its current userbase.

A patent doesn't always translate to actual implementation, more often than not nothing is done with it.

It doesn't have to be. The details of the patent make it clear that its their next-gen console.

It wouldn't make sense to have two versions, and if there was a version with a disc, it'd be found already.

It just did with this patent.

No, because more than half their current userbase will happily buy the all digital NX.

This is not one of those patents. The timing, detail, and content within the patent are too relevant.

I'm done with this.

There's no need to argue the point, zorg and I have basically been saying what you said here for the last 12+ months. 

I was merely pointing out the concept of a shared format between a handheld and a console is nothing new or earth shattering in and of itself. NEC did it 25 years ago, Sony does it today. 

What evidence is there that this patent is for the NX?  It could just as easily be an idea for the console to follow the NX.  Or it could be for an idea that never makes it into production.  A patent is never going to give you full insight into what a company is planning on doing.

But when it comes down to it what Nintendo is possibly going to do here is still a unique concept in its' potential implementation. It's doing it from day one and supporting it with great first party software that makes it a game changer.  None of the previous implementations of the idea are as exciting to me as the idea of nintendo doing it from day one and fully supporting it with games and current technological advances like cloud saves.