What If The NX Console Is Portable Too?

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forethought14 said:

zorg1000 said:

Here is a quote from Miyamoto from last year, I would post the whole article but my phone sucks at copying links.

"What I can say is, certainly, within Nintendo the fact that our development environment for our home console is different from the development environment for our portable system is certainly an area of stress or challenge for the development teams. So as we move forward, we're going to look at what we can do to unify the two development environments.

So, particularly with digital downloads now and the idea that you're downloading the right to play a game, that opens up the ability to have multiple platform digital downloads where you can download on one and download on another. Certainly from a development standpoint there is some challenge to it, because if you have two devices that have different specs and you're being told to design in a way that the game runs on both devices, then that can be challenging for the developer—but if you have a more unified development environment and you're able to make one game that runs on both systems instead of having to make a game for each system, that's an area of opportunity for us."

As for ur second paragraph, what makes u think Nintendo has any intention of competing with Sony/Microsoft in terms of power? If anything, the last decade or so should be a pretty good indicator that they care very little about going head to head in that aspect. It wouldn't be playing just handheld games at a higher resolution, it would simply be playing games.

The majority of Nintendo's IP play perfectly fine on either form factor. Mario platformers, Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Metroid, Zelda, Xenoblade, Kirby, Yoshi, Animal Crossing, Paper Mario, Luigi's Mansion, Donkey Kong, Mario & Luigi, Fire Emblem, Mario Party, etc. none of these series works on one but not the other.

You do realize that Miyamoto is referencing downloadable titles, right? I extremely doubt Nintendo is gonna do away with physical even with NX, so with Miyamoto referencing downloadable titles, I'd imagine stuff like smaller digital-only content, virtual console, some retail games, etc. Full retail games? He doesn't mention that, unless Nintendo plans to make NX fully digital, which is highly unlikely. 

I didn't say Nintendo needs to have hardware at the level of Sony or Microsoft hardware, you're putting those words in my mouth. And yes, it would be playing Handheld games in higher resolution because there are certain things consoles have that handhelds don't have: spec advantage. You will not see technologically ambitious games from Nintendo anymore because they must take the lowest denominator into consideration: the Handheld. Games cannot be very complex because the Handheld wouldn't be able to handle them, all games will need to be at the level of the Handheld with only minor tweaks for the Console. Mario Kart 8 for example at the same level of fidelity and complexity would not be possible on whatever Handheld they come up with next, neither will the next Zelda. You will also not see increases in complexity of their current games, Splatoon 2 for example wont see an increase in online players or gralhical fidelity, especially considering that Nintendo is conservative with hardware specs. Considering Nintendo's philosophy regarding the differences between handhelds and consoles, I doubt Nintendo will merely want Handheld games in higher resolution for the Console. I'm not expecting a powerful Console, but it needs to be powerful enough to even bother purchasing. With no notable difference between the Console and Handheld, people will just choose the cheaper option, there will be no point to the Console.

There are differences among those IPs on consoles vs the Handheld versions. Mario Kart for starters has more racers, and the complexity of that game is much higher. Plus, there are features in Mario Kart 8 that aren't in 7 for technological reasons. Super Mario 3D World's levels are much larger in scale than 3D Lands, and the ability to play 4 player multiplayer at once, on the TV is only possible due to being on a stronger system. Smash Bros. Wii U has not only larger stages, but also the characters can be more complex, more action can occur on the screen, and the CPU/AI is more intelligent because Wii U can handle it. Mario Maker wouldn't be friendly on the smaller screen of a Handheld. Xenoblade needed extra cores of CPU power to run at all, and at a severely reduced fidelity. It's these power differences that allow these major gameplay mechanics to even be possible. During 3D Worlds development for example, Motokura stated that with the increase in resolution, they were able to express different and new ideas that they never thought of before. Miyamoto also commented on 4K with Pikmin, and stated that being able to see more details would make the game more fun. It's increases in power that bring about new ideas and larger scope-concepts. If theres no notable difference in hardware power, these ambitions and new ideas wont come about. Until handhelds reach the ability to match consoles at a reasonable price, the differences will always be noticeable, and should be noted. 

If the portable is near/equal to the Wii U, I think will be fine for Nintendo if the console is basically just the same games in 1080P. If some devs want to go beyond that and add other effects, that would be their perrogative. 

Nintendo's consoles have dug their own grave, only the Wii has been truly a success in the past 15-20 years and that was again largely off the back of cheap casual games not big epic titles. Nintendo can't afford to keep their best franchises away from where 80% of their existing audience is, right now they're selling games like Splatoon and Mario Maker to a niche 10 million group of people that like playing Nintendo games on their TV, and that's an insanely stupid business model which they probably are very keen to change. 

I don't think Nintendo really has any huge interest in making today's "epic" games anyway, I don't think they're looking at Uncharted and saying "wow, we should be making games like that". 3D Zelda is really their only hugely epic franchise from a budget/scale POV and that looks great on existing Wii U tech as is. 

And no, I was never talking about two completely distinct architectures.