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Soundwave on 22 August 2015
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fatslob-:O said:
Soundwave said:

I don't understand why it's so difficult to scale games up and down. PC developers do it all the time, even with completely seperate GPU manufacturers and CPU manufacturers and wildly differing RAM configs. 

Smash 4 is exactly an example of something Nintendo would want to get away from ... it's a tremendous development head ache to have to make two different versions of a game, a big waste of resources. 

Also I doubt Nintendo is going to give you two experiences for free out of their goodness of their hearts. 

That is because IHVs have industry standards to abide by such as graphics APIs like Microsoft DirectX and cross licensing x86 CPU patents. The same goes for memory standards as well since the industry agrees by JEDEC standards. That is why PC's are allowed to have such different configurations ... 

Until Nintendo can agree to ONLY one or similar GPU micro-architectures that type of scalability can't be easily achieved and even if they agree on a similar GPU micro-architecture as their basis there's still quite a rift between mobile and console when it comes to the power wall ... 

Despite vita been a much newer platform the PS3 is an order of magnitude more powerful than it ...

Since handhelds will never be able to match up consoles when it comes to power consumption, Nintendo has to either hold back their home platform in terms of power to make their games playable on their handhelds or forego that idea altogether for third potential third party support ... 

You simply can't have it both ways ... 

PS4 and X1 are a MINIMUM when it comes third party game performance, not a MAXIMUM ... 


Oh I don't think there's really much question that Nintendo is going to use basically the same family of CPU/GPU (likely mobile centric) for all NX types. 

The days of a completely different home console and handheld are over, and it's impossible to support that type of a setup anyway any longer ... there's no way Nintendo would be able to make 9-12 360/PS3/Wii U ish level portable games a year combined with another 9-12 distinct PS4 level home console projects. 

That's just impossible. So really the unified platform approach is really the only way they can keep making a handheld and a seperate console SKU, doing it the old way only worked because handheld games in the past required dramatically lower resources, but today when you're getting into handheld tech that is quite high end ... no way. Can't just crap out a handheld game with a team of 12 people anymore like the GBA days and we're seeing the 3DS + Wii U as is Nintendo is basically unable to support both at the same time. 

I think Nintendo basically came to this conclusion several years ago which is where the NX project stems from. They could not continue as is, just upgraded the Wii U + 3DS lines by a generation each time and still expect to have any software ready in time to satisfy either market.