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Soundwave on 17 March 2015
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Nuvendil said:
Soundwave said:
Shadow1980 said:
Nuvendil said:

Good point on the redefining aspect.  That could mean a lot.  One thing I think all three companies (or two if Microsoft leaves) will do next gen is focus on the idea of game consoles as specialized gaming devices.  For the latter half of last gen and then this gen, consoles have tried to be all things to all people to a degree, with a large emphasis on multitasking in the living room.  But with smart devices - especially smart TVs - absorbing those functions, the greatest market for consoles is them being just that - consoles, targeting that enthusiast market who really wants that dedicated device, turn-key experience for gaming.  I expect each will try it their own way, but I think that this is fairly guaranteed.  Nintendo branching into mobile could help them do this, as they can bump a lot of casual or non-gaming/pseudo-gaming apps and functions to those devices. 

Taking consoles back to their roots would technically be "redefining" them, and I'd be fine with a redefinition being a reversion back to a previous definition. Nintendo should go back to their roots with what put them on the map in the first place. An NES for the modern age, so to speak.


That exists. It's called a Playstation 4. 

It's not like that is any new type of product category, Sony/MS basically still adhere to the same business model (1st party games + royalty licensed third party games) established by the NES even in inflationary terms $200 for an NES in 1985 would be close to the PS4s price today. 

They just took the concept and today market it to adults/teenagers first and foremost, but even that was simply a natural evolution of the NES formula. 

Well, somewhat.  Playstation 4 still suffers some issues of this focus on multitasking.  It has a bloated PC-esque OS that takes up 3.5 gigs of it's RAM; if it took up, say 1 gig similar to Wii U's, it would give them 7 gigs of GDDR5 to use for games rather than 4.5 gigs (yes, the 3.5 are reserved).  The PS4 and Xbox One also use what are not so far from off the shelf parts rather than more custom made hardware designed for maximum gaming efficiency.  Compare this to PS3, Xbox 360 and of course the GameCube in the sixth and seventh gen where all of those used proprietary, unique hardware with every aspect focused on gaming to allow for devs to get right down to the metal and get the absolute max out of the hardware in question.  That's at least a part of what I am saying.  Interface and input efforts are also other areas where you can look into providing a console-only experience. 


People don't want a game console that does nothing but play games anymore. The GameCube tried that and Nintendo was forced to cry daddy after getting beat by both Sony and even newcomer MS. 

All game systems now have allotments for non-gaming functionality, but even that really is not out of line with the original Famicom concept. Yamauchi had the Famicom do many things, a lot of people don't know this but the Famicom could was a networked machine, Nintendo had a deal with a Japanese telecom company that allowed the system to use a modem and go online. 

I think they wanted people to be able to do things like buy/sell stocks, check the news/weather, etc. on it. This is way back in 1987 or so. 

The PS4 may actually have more in common with the NES than the Wii U does in a lot of other ways too. The NES was largely made off off-the-shelf components, just like the PS4 is, whereas the modern Wii U is a fairly propietary design.