What benefits does Nintendo gets releasing the NX a year and a half after announcement?

[outlawauron]

Mummelmann said:

superchunk said:

Narrowed down to this one topic.

No it doesn't. That's the beauty of how the WiiU and others launched. NX can launch in 2016 and then still be replaced in 2019 or so when MSony go to their next hardware (should they come).

I see the hardware cycle of one console for 5~6 years is gone now. If they build the platform well (pc based) with solid software that is more like OS revisions, then there is a better opportunity to have a 3~4 year hardware cycle.

- Continued hardware advancement
- Lower up-front game costs as SDKs don't have to be recreated at each iteration - minor continuous revisions
- better backwards compatibility and longer life per game
- Lower game dev costs as ports largely become obselete - never a last/gen next/gen build again - build once and software scales
- brings consoles more in-line with mobile and pc environments as well.

Times are changing.

I agree somewhat with this, the time of 7-10 year lives for consoles has passed. The consumer electronics industry is becoming really fast-paced and consoles become static products in a turbocharged overall environment.

Times are indeed changing, I believe I've said as much in the UNITY thread as well.

What makes you say that? PS3 games still get made and it's unlikely we'll see a PS5 for another 3-5 years. Console lifecycles are getting longer, not shorter.