If Nintendo repeats the Wii hardware strategy ...

[Soundwave]

HappySqurriel said:

Soundwave said:

Why doesn't Nintendo just take a page from the hardware designs of the Famicom (NES), Super Famicom (SNES), N64, and even GameCube?

Add an Expansion Slot on rear of the Wii U, with a AMD style CrossFire port that leads to the main motherboard (should be no problem for AMD as this is pretty much standard for them).

When late 2014 rolls around and devs are actually starting to get the hang of "Next Gen" processing (provided they don't go bankrupt) first and if it's shown the PS4/720 are actually impacting Wii U sales/developers are fleeing ... release a processor upgrade for $70-$80 (be nice Nintendo, sell it for cost at first to make it easy to upgrade, as months go on it'll drop in manufacturing cost like all chipsets do and you can cash in then). Hell, include a short game with it with some fancy graphics.

By late 2014, small GPUs will smoke the 6670 even (the GPU reportedly powering the 720 and similar to the one in the PS4) for dirt cheap, so this wouldn't have to be some bulky add-on, it could be something small slides underneath the Wii U, like the GBA Player on the GameCube (added about 2 inches to the thickness).

So if you're a casual Wii U player who's just having fun with Nintendo games + party games ... you can just ignore this, but if you're that hardcore player that wants the same games the PS4/720 are getting + Wii U software ... well for $70-$80 more, you could get that without having to pay $400 for another platform.

I don't think it is necessary to have expansion slots at this point in time ...

My expectation is that any processing power improvement beyond the 4 times XBox 360 processing power level will mostly be used for technical features, not meaningful improvements. Certainly, Microsoft and Sony could produce a super high performance system but they would (probably) still play the exact same games at similar levels of graphical detail; and the Wii U would play these games at 720p@30fps with the more powerful console having higher-resolution, better frame-rate, and/or in 3D.

I suspect that the number of people who would spend $100 to $150 more to play a game at 1080p@60fps rather than 720p@30fps is actually pretty small; and the number of people who would pay $200 to $250 more to play that game at 1080p@60fps in 3D is almost non-existent.

I don't think it would cost $150. Projecting to late 2014, AMD will likely be able to give Nintendo a small, cool-running 2+ TFLOP GPU + more RAM for $60 (manufacturing cost is a lot different from the price you or I pay for a AMD GPU at the store), that they could turn around and sell at retail for say $79.99. Hell, you can buy the 6670 GPU reported to be in the XBox 720 for $70 from the store *today* (lol).

Then devs can make all those fancy-schmancy Unreal 4 engine games with the same fidelity on the Wii U. And if you are a more casual gamer who doesn't have the add-on, the game as you say can just scale down.

And I mean it's not some radical idea, pretty much all Nintendo consoles have had an Expansion Slot in the past, even if the Wii didn't, the Wiimote did which allowed for the addition of WM+.

It's a reasonable compromise with third parties that lets them put the Wii U in the same bracket as the PS4/720/PC, without Nintendo having to build a risky/expensive system for 2012.

I don't even think a Crossfire style port/slot costs much either ... even the cheapest of the cheap AMD GPUs have them nowadays.