Mr Khan said:
Soundwave said:
spemanig said:
When Iwata said that it would take two years, I'm very sure he was talking more in general terms. You do have a point about the software, though. They could release a Metroid and a new Pokemon, but that's basically it. I mean, there's F-Zero, but let's be realistic; there's no F-Zero. I'm suprised it's even getting another Fire Emblem. I'm sure we all were.
I used to also think that the handheld would come out in Spring of next year, but as more news came to light, it seemed like pushing that back a few months seemed like the more intelligent prediction. But now that I think about it again, I guess a late May/early June release can make a lot of sense.
I don't think the timetable to release the 3DS successor is as strict as it was to release the DS. The biggest thing is, again, the launch software. If their selling point is the unified platform this time around, they need compelling software to launch it with as well as something during the holiday to sell it with. Maybe they'll have the Gen 7 Pokemon game ready by then. They absolutely can not release that game on the 3DS like they did Gen 5 on the DS.
I don't care what anyone says, that absolutely stupid decision has to be one of the biggest reasons the 3DS didn't launch with a vengance. It was absolutely stupid to launch two games in your biggest franchise on older hardware. It's the sole reason I personally didn't upgrade, and I remember being frustrated that Nintendo forced me to play the newest Pokemon games on older hardware. I can imagine it was much the same for the other 10m+ people who bought those games. Either Pokemon takes 2016 off, or they release it on the successor that year. Releasing it on the 3DS would be the dumbest move they could make. They need those systems flying early.
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I think they have the software thing figured out. Wii U isn't going to get the next 3D Mario or the next Animal Crossing. Those two games are being held off for the next Nintendo portable launch window.
The Animal Crossing producer had this sort of odd statement from last year where he said the Animal Crossing franchise as is was better suited for portables but they were considering the next one to be either on Wii U or "some other platform". That mystery platform that he was talking about is the 3DS successor I have to think.
Architecturally too if the 3DS successor shares several things with the Wii U, it means development will be relatively snappy for Nintendo's dev teams already accustomed to Wii U development. If the 3DS successor is relatively comparable to the Wii U in hardware power and even design philosophy on the GPU side, for example the Mario 3D World team could transition to it for Mario Galaxy 3 with not a whole lot of issues.
Theoretically really a new Animal Crossing and a new 3D Mario are overdue for 2016, the Animal Crossing team has been free for several years, even the spun-off portion of it doing Splatoon will wrap on that game in spring 2015. The main EAD Tokyo group responsible for the 3D Mario games has been free since fall 2013 when 3D World wrapped. Some worked on Captain Toad, but the bulk of the team has been working on something else -- IMO this will be a 3D Mario for the new Nintendo handheld.
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But then Nintendo's stuck with the Wii U architecture moving forward. They want to forget the Wii U as quickly as they "safely" can (which is to say, soon enough that Wii U owners don't feel burned by early abandonment, but no later). The next handheld will lead the next console's structure.
Unless they match GPU, which is more possible.
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I think Nintendo's designers like the Wii U architecture. It probably is tailor made to their design principals and they know it inside out. So I suspect the GPU at least will be heavily influenced by the Wii U GPU design, probably why AMD is heavily rumored to have scored the contract for the next Nintendo handheld. It won't be the same literal GPU, but AMD will be able to give them a 'mobilized' version of that GPU with similar architecture principals just at a power envelope comparable to a smartphone/tablet GPU. Though I think IBM is out (too old of an architecture, not cost/power efficient enough).
