spemanig said:
Soundwave said:
I just don't see it. I think unless there is something dramatically new/different about the console (like the Wii was for 2006), then the console NX is just going to be a niche product for a small group of Nintendo hardcore that just must play their Nintendo games on the TV.
People used to say the GameCube was going to do great because it fixed a lot of the major problems of the N64 -- no cartridges meant great third party support, very easy to program for unlike the N64, we got Resident Evil exclusivity, it's on Sony, bring it! etc. etc. etc.
Sony beat the living snot out of the GameCube on the strength of basically only a year head start (18 months in Japan). Now you're going to give them a 3 year head start? Good night and good luck.
Beyond that I think the other issue for Nintendo home consoles is fewer and fewer people need a Nintendo home console ... because the handhelds are closing the gap every successive generation in being able to offer pretty much all the main stay Nintendo franchises at a lower cost with the bonus of portability.
15 years ago, the Game Boy couldn't do a 3D Mario of any kind. It couldn't do a 3D Zelda. Mario Kart only appeared nine years after it had been on the SNES. But nowadays? Every generation, the handheld adds a new big Nintendo IP or two that it didn't have before (this gen most notably Smash Brothers has gone portable and the first original 3D Mario has been on a portable).
With the portable NX that will likely close even further. The portable NX and smartphone apps (which will make Nintendo a fortune) will become the new no.1/2 pillars for Nintendo as a business, that's what I see happening.
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There will be. It will be all digital with a unified ecosystem. That is dratically new and different. Nothing like that has ever been done on consoles before, ever. There has never been a console that has even remotely tried to take advantage of the clear advantages a digital only platform has over a physical one.
Home consoles are more popular in the West than handhelds. Nintendo isn't going to ignore that market just because the handhelds do well. There isn't "less of a reason" to own Nintendo consoles because of the handheld. There's less of a reason to buy Nintendo consoles because they haven't been as good as the handhelds have been. All it takes is one good home console to change that. People don't want to only play their big 3D Zelda on their handheld. They don't want to forgoe Smash or Kart on the TV for the games on the TV. Their either want both, or they want those experiences on a big screen. Just because the games will be playable on the NXDS doesn't mean that will be the prefered platform for those kinds of games, because it definitely won't be. Not in the west.
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Spemanig, I love how you are speaking in cryptic future-tense like it is some kind of conspiracy theory haha. Although I think a lot of your theory holds water, the all digital portion completely loses me. Nintendo would not push it's audience away like that. They were last to the HD party, last to the online party, last to the disc party, and last to the DLC party. Why would they be first to the all digital party? Nintendo is a leader in console innovation, but usually pertaining to hardware changes on the console - namely the controller. They won't be the first to alienate their fans with an all digital console. The reason this is possible with iPhones as well as other mobile devices is because they are linked to some other form of internet (the "G" network), and unless the NX is going to have a contract with a wireless provider to link to their network, I do not see all digital as a possibility this time around. Maybe next time around, maybe, but I have to say in my mind it is a small possibility, not a certainty.
