First handheld and home console hardwares are very different, they offering different experiences, on home console you play games only at home on TV with rich graphic, while handheld is basically mobile console that is using on go and playing on small screen. So some people will still buy NX home console and handheld console even majority of games are same on bouth devaices, especially if they have heavy integration. Also I don't think every single game will be on both devices, you will still have some exclusives because some games doesnt soot on handheld and same game are better on handheld only, but majority of games will be on both devices.

Yes, some people have Wii U and 3DS (but that relatively isn't big number of people), and have Mario 3D Land and Mario 3D Worlds games, but whole point is if this gen we had two 3D Mario games (1 per each platform), next gen we could easily had two 3D Mario games for same platform, that practically means again sales of two Mario games, but better support because consumers will now have two Mario games instead one.

You assuming that NX handheld will have less support than 3DS!? But that isnt true at all, with unified platform handheld and home console will have better support than they had this gen.

On contrary, its hard to predict sales of hardware bacuse Wii U is selling terible and I am sure NX home console will sell much better, but NX platform will have much better suport then two platforms seperate like before.

You don't realise that whole point of unified platform is because Nintendo can't support effectively any more two different platforms, Wii U has terrible droughts, 3DS also terrible droughts, it require too much time, effort and money to support two different platforms and again you doing bad job. That's why Nintendo is going with unified platform, that's why they said Nintendo platform needs to be like Android or iOS, think about like iPad and iPhone.

Now look numbers this gen, Wii U at 12.5m and 3DS and 58m, theoretically only around 1/5 of 3DS owners have Wii U too, but its possible that every 3DS owner has Wii U too especially because they handhelds and home console are very different, so that number is much smaller. And now imagine that majority of 3DS games are available for Wii U owners too, and majority of Wii U games are available on 3DS too, do you realise how better support 3DS and Wii U would be have in that case and how better sales of games Nintendo would have!?

(1st bolded) The post I made was refering to a device that had no integration, instead the home console and handheld were two completely seperate devices.

(2nd bolded) This isn't about having one or two mario games, it's about having as many Mario games as two completely seperate Nintendo consoles could provide. The short answer is no due to the development time every game would need to support a home console and handheld with the same performance Nintendo is known for. Well that and several other things such as better geometry, better textures, ect.

(3rd bolded) Agreed, but if they jump ship this time, it isn't just one device they jump from. Developing games for handheld is a lot less risky as you don't need nearly the numbers to make a profit. This could go either way. (But yes, a unified platform would also not change this. This is simply a risk Nintendo is going to HAVE to take and hopefully it pays off.)

(4th bolded) I do understand the point of a unified platform completely (you take the sales of the handheld and use it to boost your home console numbers). I don't understand the point of having two seperate devices that have the same library (which is what Soundwave and I'm discussing).

(Last bolded) You are assuming they could make all Wii U games and 3DS games work with each other in the same time as they develop for just their one system. This isn't the case. WIth a unified library I see Wii U getting a bump in games, but 3DS not getting as many (1st party), and even third party games will take a hit for 3DS owners as development costs will rise. It's a win-lose to try to help their home console sales that keeping the two devices seperate will more than likely only backfire. They need to unify the systems.

Already was written earlier so I will answer only on bolded.

-But those separate devices are not same, its not like you having two handhelds or just two home console, handheld and home console give consumers totally different experience even with same games. "First handheld and home console hardwares are very different, they offering different experiences, on home console you play games only at home on TV with rich graphic, while handheld is basically mobile console that is using on go and playing on small screen."

-No, NX handheld will not have less support than 3DS because integrated platform.

Again, it seem you don't understand, Nintendo cannot support separate handheld and home consoles effectivly anymore (same like Sony cant support PS4 and Vita, and because of that they completely abandoned Vita), they would need to kill one of them or to go with integrated platform, they decided to go with integrated platform, it best choice for them and consumers, like I wrote win-win for everybody.

Okay. Yes handheld and home console gaming experiences are different.

And how does integrating platforms mean more games for handheld? I'm effectively telling you exactly where the problems will arise. Long story short, longer handheld game development times.

Okay. Yes handheld and home console gaming experiences are different.

And how does integrating platforms mean more games for handheld? I'm effectively telling you exactly where the problems will arise. Long story short, longer handheld game development times.

Easy answer. We have to take into account the approximate timeline of when affordable hardware seems to get strong enough to push out the equivalent on the competition. Next year would be around $250 based on what the PS4 Will likely be selling at. This is the benchmark that Nintendo has set for themselves for their console to cost.

Then let's get into software. Mario 3D World, Donkey Kong, Splatoon (which released Feb of the year after), and Smash (released early summer 2014) would all have launch window titles of their next games if the console launched in 2017 based on a 3 year development cycle that the Wii U set for games (Not to mention a year in development for the next Zelda).

A 2016 launch would have a 3D Worlds successor and the Retro game.... Maybe. Back to crossing our fingers with third party games and hoping that brings in customers (which worked amazing for Wii U).

Lets say we have 10 games for Wii U and 10 games for 3DS, on NX we could had 15 for home console and handheld in same time, thats 5 games more for handhelds and 5 games more home console then before, speaking theoretically. So I dont say if we had before for instance 5 games for handheld and 5 games on home console on NX we will have 10 games, but we could have 7-8 games instead only 5 for one platform.

And again, it seem you don't understand, Nintendo cannot support separate handheld and home consoles effectivly anymore (same like Sony cant support PS4 and Vita, and because of that they completely abandoned Vita), they would need to kill one of them or to go with integrated platform, they decided to go with integrated platform, it best choice for them and consumers, like I wrote win-win for everybody.

You are assuming a handheld component would take as long to develop games as a home console. It isn't 10 games for handheld and 10 for home console, and we can get 15 for both. The reality is more like in a year you can push out around 15 higher budget handheld, 10 higher budget Wii U and we could get around 12 with a unified library. So instead of 25 unique experieces, we get 12.

And I also get that Nintendo can't support a home console and handheld, I'm just looking at the best way to go about their hardware if their software is unified. If it is unified, then they also need to unify the hardware. As we can clearly see, unifying the software isn't in the best interest of gamers, and Nintendo can't support two seperate consoles, so in a sense, don't make two seperate consoles. Have a handheld that can link to any NX as a controller and you will essentially be GIVING the consumer something (multiple ways to buy the top teir console by breaking the cost up into parts), not taking something away.

Portable games are starting to take as much time and resources to develop that's why the whole possibilty of a unified library is a viable fix for that situation especially when handhelds enter the realm of HD we're no longer in the days of the GB brand, why do you think Sony dropped Vita quick. Unifying the library is the best way for the consumer as then people aren't required to buy both sets of hardware to enjoy most of the library I really don't get how you think this isn't good for the consumer.

A unified library across multiple devices also frees them from the typical time scale of a gen as well as makes BC easier for future devices as they're all built on the same ecosystem. The hardware it self will not be the platform it will be the account system that connects it all.

That's going to happen even if Nintendo just abandoned traditional consoles since the 3DS's successor is probably going to have an exponential boost in power as well as development cycles comparable to the average Wii U game due to the large advancements in mobile technology since early 2011.  At least it should.

I'm hoping that the NX has a unified library and is both a handheld and a console because if they could find a way to make it a realistic possibility to port over 3rd party games meant for the xbox one and PS4 to an NX handheld, then that's like the holy grail for Japanese 3rd parties since they'd have their cake and eat it too by being able to tap into the large handheld market with their big budget console  games without having to make games specifically for Nintendo's handhelds.