Solid-Stark said:
Soundwave said:
Solid-Stark said:
Soundwave said:
Solid-Stark said:
I think the next Nintendo consoles will feature a unified platform (architecture, online and so on), but still a home and handheld console. The only issue would be that Nintendo will likely go with only one physical media type. So this would mean a cartridge (for the sake of making it easy for the portable). Then should the home console feature a disc drive? If it did it would only be there for the sake of backwards compatibility of disc based Wii and WiiU software. Of course BC isn't a requirement but has been a nice feature for both the WiiU and Wii in the past, and consoles of other companies. |
Discs suck. The disc drive is an unneccessary cost and one of the most annoying things about the Wii U is how damn loud the disc drive is. It sounds like its having a seizure when trying to load Bayonetta cutscenes for example.
They can use 3DS style carts next time for both the portable and home variants. Nowadays 4GB-16GB storage is cheap is 32GB is even getting dirt cheap, so 4-32GB carts should be good enough for most any game.
The next Nintendo "console" will be tiny, like PlaystationTV size I think. No disc drive at all IMO. You'll be able to fit the console in your pocket if you really wanted to because it'll just be the handheld chip with more CPU/GPU cores and extra RAM, but that's it. The chipset even in an iPhone 6s is tiny, especially when you remove the battery which is what takes up like 70% of the space in an iPhone. I expect Nintendo to use similar sized components, even for the console variant.
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I doubt it would be as small as the PSTV size or near the size. Perhaps only if they axe backwards compatibility, and they opt for hardware thats weaker than XOne. That's assuming wonders for mobile chip advancement in the next year or so. Really depends what type of power is envisioned for console, and who can supply those chips.
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Backwards compatibility is out, not enough people own a Wii U for that to be a significant factor anyway, besides I think Nintendo will want people to rebuy some of the Wii U games via ports because they didn't exactly make a ton of money this gen off them (they can double dip on titles like Pikmin 3, DKC, Captain Toad, Bayonetta, Xenoblade, etc. this way ... games that likely won't sell on the Wii U what they should've).
PSTV size is actually ginormous if you're using mobile parts. The new iPhone's chip is fairly close in horsepower to a PS3/360 (which isn't far off from a Wii U), but actually the chip itself inside an iPhone is maybe only 25% of the size ... the rest is the battery, which you don't need for a home version obviously.
You could fit 3-4 of the iPhone CPUs + GPUs + RAM (the A8 processor) into a very small casing and that would be more powerful than a Wii U probably quite easily at that.
That's more or less the power I think they're going for too ... Wii U quality for the handheld at 540p-720p; 1080p for the "home variant", same games otherwise. Will be very easy/simple for devs to make games that work on both, same chip, just variable resolutions, maybe a few more effects on the console side.
It also means the console version can be cheap as sh*t ... no disc drive, no fan, no expensive motherboard, the same CPU/GPU/RAM as the handheld ... means Nintendo will be able to get a killer price on the chip since they'll be ordering them in huge numbers. Nintendo will save a ton in R&D costs too by not having to invest in two seperate chipsets.
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Perhaps so, but we can't assume Nintendo would apply so much on it's resources to make ports. The only way to keep legs on software strong, like most Nintendo games do, is to sell platforms that can still play them.
Don't be fooled by what you are seeing being done on a phone. It's the same illsuion of the PSV looking near PS3 quality in games. In this case, its much tougher to render the visuals natively that we are seeing on the WiiU and XOne today. This would work on a handheld with a particular resolution(s) but most likely not on the home console. As an example, perhaps the best ULP GPU we have on the market is the Tegra K1 by Nvidia which applies Kepler architecture to the ULP GPU. Yes it's powering 1080p and 2K screens with some app games being rendered at those resolutions, but if they try to render console like games it only achieves >= PS3/360 level visuals. Again perfectly fine for the handheld, but not for the home console; even in multiple clusters.
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Actually I don't think we're adequetely seeing what the chips in more modern phones can do because developers don't take advantage of the newer chips because they want compatibility with older models. No one is going to make an app that only works on the iPad Air 2, because they want people who have an iPad mini 1 to be able to run it too.
Beyond that the business model of free/$1 games doesn't lend itself to a developer trying to make a game that looks as good as a PS3 game. They would never be able to recoup their money.
But the Vita is basically an ancient (by now) iPad 3 chipset the PowerVR SGX543MP4+. This is what that chip can do when a dev actually focuses their resources solely on it:
The new iPad Air 2 or iPhone 6s is several times more powerful than this, Nintendo could have a chip by 2016 even more powerful than both of those.
I think one other way Nintendo will "cheat" is for their handheld they will use a more modest resolution display (say 1280x720). Not only will that save costs but it will let the chipset not have to work so hard by rendering games at like Retina resolutions like Apple pushes or what most phone/tablet makers are pushing for.
A multiple cluster A8 with say 4GB of RAM would be a decent upgrade on the Wii U (moreso than the GCN to Wii at least) while also allowing for a handheld variant that could run the same games at a lower resolution. Mario Kart 8 looks pretty great, I think Nintendo will be happy with that level of graphics with maybe some more modern shader/lighting effects + more RAM + 1080P resolution for a cleaner image (perhaps better AA too). I don't think Nintendo really wants anything more than that.
