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Soundwave on 17 May 2013
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RolStoppable said:
Soundwave said:

I think $350 would be reasonable, sure. By the time the PS4/720 come out, they could comfortably slide it down $299.99 and be probably $100, even $200 cheaper.

A 7770 AMD GPU is 1.2 TFLOP and is like $80-$90 retail. Slap 4 overclocked Broadway cores to that and you have a system that could basically run any PS4/720 game in 720p at least. It wouldn't be able to fit in a tiny little box like Nintendo would want (it would maybe have to be the size of the original NES for instance -- the horror!) and it would consume more electricity, but who cares. Power consumption could be brought down over the years anyway with die shrinks.

Any scenario is going to have some challenges, that's the nature of competetion. But I think this type of system would've secured Nintendo a much more comfortable future than where they're at now, where they're stuck with an expensive controller that the general public is not responding to in the same way as the Wiimote (which was a predictable result -- you're pushing your luck if you think you could win the lottery twice).

Yeah, but that's not really what we are discussing here. We aren't talking about what would be a better system than the Wii U (because that doesn't take much any way you slice it), but the best course of action that Nintendo could take with their home console. Competing head to head with slim profit margins (that is if it works) still isn't a viable long term plan for a company that only makes video games. As soon as third parties decide that it isn't worth it, you'll be looking at a ship that sinks like the GameCube.


Mmmm ... personally I think the Wii U and GameCube is the model that yields the slimmest profits. It's not like you magically make extra money for being different or saying "we are in our own market". 

Nintendo software is where Nintendo makes their money from along with licensing fees. A higher userbase resulting from a more mainstream system would give Nintendo a higher userbase to sell their own games to and more royalty fees to collect from third parties.

Nintendo is competing with Sony/MS whether they want to admit it or not as well.

The GameCube would've waxed the XBox if it launched a full year earlier and had a comfortable no.2 finish that generation too IMO. Launching so late and making some silly choices with the hardware (a purple lunchbox? seriously how far out of touch do you have to be to think people actually would want that? how many purple appliances do people keep in their home generally? Hello? Bueller?).

The Super NES was the last really traditional system that Nintendo made which wasn't hamstrung by poor design choices and launching later than the Genesis really didn't hurt them back then, because Sega initially had no third party support or brand mindshare really to hurt Nintendo with.