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Miyamotoo on 11 September 2015
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Soundwave said:
Miyamotoo said:

I am not sure that Nintendo will go for x86, better chances are for ARM, maybe quad-core Cortex-A53 for handheld and maybe Cortex-A57 or A72 for home console.

Like I said, Nintendo will certainly will not use same Vita chip, I was referring more to similar graphics.

If you look all previous Nintendo handhelds you will see that every man was very small upgrade to new handheld console, going from 3DS to Vita similar graphics would biggest leap for Nintendo handheld.


I think NX will throw a lot of pre-existing "rules" out the window, since many of them no longer serve any positive benefit to Nintendo. 

Handheld hardware was slow to evolve in the past because there was no massive push from vendors to have high powered mobile CPUs/GPUs ... smartphones and tablets changed everything. Now the rate of technological change is massive, and the cost of these components has become dirt cheap.  A8X is an ARM CPU by the way. 

In a way I think Wii U and 3DS represent the end of their hardware lines. NX is will take the company in a different direction and are part of a new lineage that isn't beholden to any of the past "rules". 

Also I think there is a danger is going too cheap ... now that Nintendo has smartphone apps to tap into the low budget/no budget gamer and entry level kids, I think you run the risk of those kids not really being interested in a dedicated Nintendo console if its honestly a cheap piece of junk. They can get enough of a fix of Pokemon or Mario for free on the iPhone and if the Nintendo dedicated hardware is underwhelming or even (sadly) less powerful than a lot of tablets/phones, You need to draw a bigger distinction between those low end games, so I think a higher end portable is probably the better play for Nintendo right now. 

"Cheap" is not helping Nintendo right now as the lower cost 2DS and regular 3DS models are not selling that great either. The people who are interested in 3DS choose the most expensive model. The problem becomes if you're asking for $40+ for a game ... you better damn well be bringing something really impressive to the table nowadays, or people will just stick to their phone/tablet and free games. 

That's what Nintendo needs to accept now. What the GBA or even DS were is irrelevant now, it's a completely different game with different rules. Nintendo did not have to justify the price of their games because they set all the rules in the past. They don't anymore. So if the arguement is, well you should want to play "real" games away from the house ... well ok ... but you undermine this arguement today if your hardware is (relatively) crap. 

Of Course, unified platform is totally new direction for Nintendo.

I still dont see Nintendo needs much stronger hardver than Vita for next handheld.

That doesn't make sense, bigger chances are if very hooked to smartphone games are that they will not pay high price for only gaming device, than consider cheap piece of junk. Because it not only about hardware, it's about totally different experience playing game on gaming only dedicated device and of course great Nintendo games. Also, Nintendo is making smartphone/tablet games specifically for those devices, and they cant compare with their console games in any way, like Nintendo said, they will use smartphones/tablets like bridge for their consoles.

2DS have completely different form factor than 3DS, its not just about price there, 3DS start to selling only after big price cut and new games, so yes, price of handheld today in world of smartphones/tablets is very important.

Nintendo accept new situation, that's why they unifing their platforms and that's why there are releasing mobile games. But realising expensive gaming handheld in era of cheap smartphones/tablets would be disaster. Vita is proof of that.