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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - NX game price if the library is unified?

potato_hamster on 04 February 2016
Soundwave said:
potato_hamster said:

 Well yes and no. As I've said, there's only so much you can do with a slider.  But mentioning the Vita's power output reminded me of another thing, the PS3. Sure the PS3 was long in the tooth when the Vita came out, but the Vita's architecture was much more similar to the PS3's, not to mention in terms of performance the PSV outperformed the PS3 in many ways, could Sony have employed a similar strategy for porting PS3 games? I mean just think about it - AAA PS3 titles are still coming out to this day. Sure they're not made to the same graphical fidelity as the PS4 or the X1, but if Sony took the same approach that Nintendo is supposedly taking with the NX, then you theoetically, you could have games like MGSV, Fallout 4, etc. all coming out for the Vita this fall.

Yet they never did that, because in my opinion, there are still technological hurdles that make such things incredibly difficult that can't be solved with a handful of sliders, and I've dicussed a few of them previously.

In what ways did a Vita outperform a PS3? The Vita was good chip for its time but it was also woefully behind the PS3/XB360 at only 30 GFLOPS vs 250+ GFLOPS. The PS3 also had a fairly wonky architecture. 

The Vita chip is the same GPU that's in the Apple 5X chip, today's equivalent is the Apple 9X which is a 500-600 GFLOP part with a monstrous memory bandwidth too. The A9X is more than 1/3 of a XB1/PS4, the gap is shrinking because these mobile chips are exploding in performance these last 3 years in particular. 

A 550 GFLOP processor with a memory bandwidth of 512GB/sec (more than 1/3 the PS4's GDDR5) likely is enough to give you fairly comfortable PS4/XB1 ports at 960x540 resolution, some even at 1280x720. 

If Sony built a Vita for this year using the same equivalent processor for its time (what's in the Apple A9X instead of the Apple 5X) ... they absolutely I think would be able to have a unified platform today. 

You could be right, but if and only if the end result,  peceived quality of the game on the handheld is not detractingly inferior to the game on the home console, especially conidering, even with the performance drop of building a more resource hungry API, and possibly an OS that is more bloated than typically seen on handhelds. There's no way around it you will be losing performance taking this approach. If that can be overcome, and games are near identical on both handheld and console as a result, this becomes far more do-able, making it easier to port games.

However, I personally don't think Nintendo can get the performance of the NX high enough to overcome this given the pricepoint thresholds, battery life etc. But I still do not think the process of porting will be simple as a recomplie, nor do I think both consoles will take the same cartridge/disc format, nor do I think games will be cross compatible, but those are more business decisions than anything.

I must say, you've done a good job coninvincing me that the concept does have more merit than I originally thought. Well argued.



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Miyamotoo on 05 February 2016
Lawlight said:
Well, Nintendo charged for the WiiU and 3DS version of SSB4 separately.

Like people already wrote, they are separate games for separate platforms, they also have some unique things for each of versions.



Thunderbird77 on 05 February 2016
zorg1000 said:
Illusion said:

If the game will go from handheld graphics to PS4-level quallity with the $20.00 update, I think people might be more accepting of the cost.  I mean, you will be downloading hi-res texture packages and better shader support so it's not just a $20.00 fee to milk gamers.

My concern is that if they charge $69.99 just for the handheld game, it's going to turn off a lot of gamers who just want to play the handheld NX and not the home console.  Handheld gamers shouldn't have to pay for the HD graphics if they aren't going to be using them.

I honestly don't see the handheld & console being vastly different in terms of specs. I'm thinking it will be similar to the difference between N64 vs N64+RAM Pak or GC vs Wii or 3DS vs New 3DS.

The CPU/GPU running at a higher clock rate with 2x the RAM allowing for the game to play at a higher resolution/frame rate and faster load times.

Be prepared for a huge, monumental dissapointment.



zorg1000 on 05 February 2016
Thunderbird77 said:
zorg1000 said:
Illusion said:

If the game will go from handheld graphics to PS4-level quallity with the $20.00 update, I think people might be more accepting of the cost.  I mean, you will be downloading hi-res texture packages and better shader support so it's not just a $20.00 fee to milk gamers.

My concern is that if they charge $69.99 just for the handheld game, it's going to turn off a lot of gamers who just want to play the handheld NX and not the home console.  Handheld gamers shouldn't have to pay for the HD graphics if they aren't going to be using them.

I honestly don't see the handheld & console being vastly different in terms of specs. I'm thinking it will be similar to the difference between N64 vs N64+RAM Pak or GC vs Wii or 3DS vs New 3DS.

The CPU/GPU running at a higher clock rate with 2x the RAM allowing for the game to play at a higher resolution/frame rate and faster load times.

Be prepared for a huge, monumental dissapointment.

Cuz I'm going to be so upset if it's something different?



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.

Pavolink on 05 February 2016
Lawlight said:
Well, Nintendo charged for the WiiU and 3DS version of SSB4 separately.

The also did that for New Super Mario Bros and New Super Mario Bros Wii. Oh, and NSMB2 and NSMBU. And MK7/MK8, MKWii/MKDS. Damn!



Proud to be the first cool Nintendo fan ever

Number ONE Zelda fan in the Universe

DKCTF didn't move consoles

Prediction: No Zelda HD for Wii U, quietly moved to the succesor

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tbone51 on 05 February 2016
Lawlight said:
Well, Nintendo charged for the WiiU and 3DS version of SSB4 separately.

Sony does the same. How dare they? 



zorg1000 on 05 February 2016
tbone51 said:
Lawlight said:
Well, Nintendo charged for the WiiU and 3DS version of SSB4 separately.

Sony does the same. How dare they? 

What are you talking about? Uncharted: Golden Abyss came with a free copy of Uncharted 3. Killzone: Shadowfall came with a free copy of Killzone: Mercenary. LittleBigPlanet 3 came with a free copy of LittleBigPlanet Vita. The list goes on.



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.

Frogger on 05 February 2016
zorg1000 said:
Lawlight said:
Well, Nintendo charged for the WiiU and 3DS version of SSB4 separately.

Because they are separate games

For seperate platforms



zorg1000 on 05 February 2016
spemanig said:
zorg1000 said:

Because they are separate games

For seperate platforms

That released at separate times



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.

zorg1000 on 05 February 2016
RolStoppable said:
zorg1000 said:

What are you talking about? Uncharted: Golden Abyss came with a free copy of Uncharted 3. Killzone: Shadowfall came with a free copy of Killzone: Mercenary. LittleBigPlanet 3 came with a free copy of LittleBigPlanet Vita. The list goes on.

You are intellectually dishonest.

1. Nintendo charged for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS separately.
2. Sony gave people a free download code for the other system when purchasing either version of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

You see, it's not quite the same. Yes, in the end both companies are guilty of charging gamers one time too many, but your argument is still intellectually dishonest.

PS All-Stars on Vita/PS3 were the same game just ported to one another, Smash on 3DS/Wii U are completely separate games built from the ground up for each platform. Not the same thing.



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.