Nintendo Fusion - Will you play?

[JoeTheBro]

superchunk said:

JoeTheBro said:
The concept is great, but it works much better ala cross-buy like with Vita and PS3/4.

Unless the handheld and home console had very similar architectures, it would crazy to expect the same code to run on both systems. This isn't like a PC in which a lower spec'd machine can run the game at a lower resolution. In the hypothetical situation that physical carts can be swapped between the two, the most likely thing to happen is that each cart has two versions of the game on it. Not the biggest issue, but it does mean devs still need to make two versions of the game.

Also as I said in padib's thread, each system has different inputs. A wiimote/gamepad centric game just can't be played on the portable. What does Nintendo do in these cases? Not allow those games to be made?

1) game engines are very scalable now. If you had a high end portable with a non-high end home console... the game would look better and maybe have some additional features on home but still play fine on portable. Its all in the SDK between the two systems where it can be done.

2) Definitely NOT two versions of game... but one version that is scalable.

3) wiimote (using pointer/motion) is only issue. But I only included that for Wii and some WiiU BC. The new games would all utilize the gamepad/3ds button types. They would be identical in the new portable/gampad.

But it doesn't work that way. This is nothing like a PC game playing on a beefy desktop and a wimpy laptop, unless Nintendo gave each system similar architecture or essentially emulated the games. The scalability of engines makes it a lot simpler to down port, but you still need to compile separate code. Unless you plan to have both devices themselves compiling as a form of install, the cart would need two copies of the game. There's practically no reason except cart size to have one version instead of two optimized ones.

Asymmetric gameplay wouldn't work on the handheld. Neither would Wii Fit or any of the other potential add ons. I just view this as limiting the home console to make the portable on par.