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Adinnieken on 20 July 2013
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Disclaimer:  I'm not an owner of Nintendo consoles, I don't like or play the majority of the games Nintendo produces, but I recognize there are people who do.  This is not a troll post.  This is a serious post regarding the approach I believe Nintendo should take with the next generation of gaming.  I believe this because I believe mobile devices are where people are headed and where Nintendo's strength is.  With that in mind, for your consideration.

The strength of Nintendo is in mobile gaming systems and innovative hardware, but Nintendo still needs to maintain a market within the household to seriously compete with Microsoft and Sony.  Only the mobile gaming market available on smart phones can eclipse the success that Nintendo has had in this territory.  Therefore, with hardware becoming smaller and faster, combine the portable and home console into one.  Create a powerful mobile gaming device the size of a SmartPhone or PS Vita, possibly even a SmartPhone/Mobile Gaming Platform, that docks with and/or interacts with a base station. 

Much like a laptop and the docking stations widely used in the 1990’s, the docking station would provide connectivity to hand-held controllers, the TV, disc-drives, device storage, and the Internet.  A low-power CPU would also be in the base-station to allow for basic functionality, such as playing movies, music, or accessing online services, but the true gaming power would be in the mobile device. 

Using hand-held controllers, gamers can play games either on the mobile units storage or the local storage.  When in proximity to the base station, the mobile unit can access the base unit’s Internet connection to play network based games, or access online services. 

People don’t just want a gaming device that sits at home.  That is why, despite the popularity of SmartPhones, Nintendo still sells millions of 3DSes.  They want to be game on the go.   Consumers are moving toward mobile devices.  This is Nintendo's strength.  They need to exploit it.  If the technology allows Nintendo to provide the power of the Xbox One or PS4 in a mobile gaming device, even if it is the 9th Generation, it won't matter.  What Nintendo would be doing would be so different from what Microsoft and Sony will be doing that whether it is as powerful as their 8th Gen devices or their 9th Gen devices won't be relevant.  It's the fact that you can take your gaming anywhere and bring it all home again that will sell it.

If Nintendo abandons the concept of a home console and properly does a base station-connected, mobile gaming system, people will see everything they’ve done up until now as a lead-up to that system, not a flight from home consoles.  The base station is an acknowledgment that the living room is important, but the mobile unit is the acknowledgement that people are gaming mobile more and want the gap bridged between home gaming and mobile gaming.