burninmylight said:
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Either that, or they are tech savy enough to know that with current technologies you can't go much further than the PS4 without consoming too much power and thus producing too much heat. A Console has a max TDP of something around 150W without creating too much cooling problems (RROD anyone?)
To answer the OPs Question: It would be too soon to decide right now, but I'll give it a try anyway
I would continue with the Gamepad idea, but with a more advanced Pad. 720p or 1080p capacitive Screen (possibly with multitouch) and better batteries would be the Main changes here though, besides allowing to connect one per Player (Max 5). Using a "normal" game controller in Games not needing the gamepads Features should however still be possible. And watching different shows on every screen with Netflix and other Videostreaming sites should also be possible.
Now to the Main Event, the hardware of the console itself. First, the main processor:
Nintendo had a long run since the N64 with IBM POWER Processors and ATi (now AMD) Graphics Chips, so I think this cooperation should be continued. Modern IBM processors however are designed for high power servers, which makes them pretty useless in a Console unless heavy modifications are applied. A modern POWER 8 would need to be severly stripped down in many functions extremly useful in servers but virtually, if not absolutely, useless in a console. But I'm confident taht Nintendo could make something like a 6-core @ 3Ghz out of it (8-core could be pushing it since the POWER 8 cores are much more powerful and thus consuming also much more than the Low Power AMD Jaguar cores used in the PS4/XBox ONE). Should the modern POWER Architecture prove too troublesome, I would suggest adapting the upcoming AMD Zen processors (completly new architecture from AMD for Desktop/mobile processors announced for 2016)
It's still too soon to argue about the graphics, since AMD ist still using pretty much the exact same architecture as they are using in the PS4/Xbox ONE Consoles. Which means if they would create a console right now it couldn't be any stronger then a PS4 in the graphics department no matter what. Guess I'll have to wait until the Pirate Islands (codename of the Radeon 3xx Chips) comes out.
As for the Data storage, I would stick to the Flash Memory. Hard Discs are on the way out and are beginning to get irrelevant in sizes below 1TB because the price tags of SSD (who consists of Flash Memory) are plumetting and will continue to do so while HDD are getting more costly because of the diminishing number of producers and ever more complex production (models above 4TB for instance need to be filled with helium to reduce friction). One can get a 250GB SSD for less than 100€/$ nowadays, and I'm pretty sure in 2 years the price tag for such a drive will be less than 50 and terabyte SSDs will be approaching the 100€/$ mark very fast. Plus, SSDs are way faster than HDDs ever could posibly get.
More revolutionary on my part would be that I would switch back to cartridges, albeit much smaller ones (think somewhat enlarged GBA cartridges). The reasoning behind this is that Blu-Ray has too many limitations. It is already beginning to become too small, on PC some games already take +50GB of hard disc space, more than twice a single layer Blu Ray disc can handle. One could increase its storage by adding some more layers but then the transfer speed of just around 40MB/s will begin to cause serious problems, as loading times would get endlessy long. A cartridge however is scalable in storage size and has very fast transfer speeds (in the GB/s region), shattering the limitations of optical discs. They do have a drawback however, and that is the fact that they are more expensive than any optical disc and more difficult to produce, so games might get a bit more expensive due to this.
As for connections, I would add 6 USB 3.1 up front to load the gamepad's batteries and connection of a USB 3.1 compatible stick (3.1 is physically different to its predecessors and thus not compatible without an adapter), and 2 3.0 in the back for external devices like hard drives. And a connection for an internet cable, Wi-Fi can be VERY troublesome sometimes.
And finally, install dust filters!
Phew, turned out to become a much longer post than I expected for my very first post here. So, hi everybody ;)
