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Pillow on 05 February 2014
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Soundwave said:
Pillow said:
I really doubt the next portable will be released in 2015, unless they announce it this e3... while it's true the GBA had a 4 year lifespan, it was the only Nintendo handheld to die so young.
And there's no way a Wii U game could run on a handheld even it was ported, Aonuma said it was going to use the gamepad in unique ways : if the next Zelda somes to next handheld it means that they will have to make another DS + use all the other tech found in the gamepad.


I'm looking at 3DS' declining sales YoY in those Media Create threads ... something's gotta give there. 3DS would have had almost 5 year lifecycle if it launches in fall 2015 ... considerably longer than the 3 1/2 years the GBA got, and GBA was still around until well into 2006 at least, it's not like it just dissapeared because Nintendo launched the DS. 

Quite the contrary I think Nintendo's next portable will be more of a fusion device ... it will run Wii U ports and also first run 3DS titles too. So 3DS devleopment will continue for a while. Just like the iPhone model, software support of new games for say an iPhone 5 doesn't die the moment iPhone 5s comes out ... that's the model Nintendo is going to embrace long term and we'll see it starting with the new Nintendo portable. 

In fact, I don't think the Nintendo portable will initially have many original games for it ... it will largely just be a fusion player that lets you play an extremely wide variety of games from the Wii/Wii U/3DS and Virtual Console library from day 1. Over time as the Wii U/3DS naturally die out, then you'll see more original software. 

I see. I guess it could work that way, but I really don't know about that fusion handheld, is Nintendo willing to go in that direction? Iwata told us they were going to have similar architecture for both HH and HC, and that it will follow the Wii U's path, so maybe...

And from a business perspective it makes a lot of sense to put one of the biggest franchise at a handheld/console launch, but it's always hard to predict Nintendo's next move so I give your prediction the benefit of the doubt, until E3 2014 that is.