Soundwave said:
I agree they should just make a bunch of different hardware variants. Though seeing what's happening to the Western handheld market is alarming. I can't help but wonder if they need to be more radical in their hardware approach. I think it's going to be very hard to compete with the PS4, they will be 20-25 million units behind even the XBox One. I'd be happy with the console you're describing, don't get me wrong I'd be first in line to buy it. Logically I just don't know how many people would be in line behind me. It would probably be selling to the same 10 million Nintendo fans that buy every Nintendo console, I think PS4 will domiante through 2019, a "me too" console that's 3 years late starting from 0 games whereas the PS4 has hundreds by then is likely not going to be that well accepted by non-Nintendo fans. Unlike a lot of Nintendo fans who have selective amnesia about things, I remember how badly Sony beat up on Nintendo with just a 1 year headstart with the PS2 over GameCube ... this would be far, far worse, even MS would be at least past 20 million install base by then, meaning the NX would be gaurunteed to be the distant no.3 console for a couple of years in the best case scenario. But I guess Nintendo has to try and see how it goes. Nothing else they can do at this point but to let it ride I guess. I think we just have to hope that they can stop the bleeding in the portable market, because if they can't then, they probably are going to have to embrace the idea of going third party. |
You need to say what you mean, I get you meant 14nm now, though performance would probably be different as at 14nm it would probably use newer architecture.
The western handheld market is probably bigger than the east, the only issue is that it doesn't have the big 3rd party games, from a software perspective Nintendo just needs to release a decent stream of games targeted at that market, Project Steam, Splatoon and the like are a good step forward, if you can play both on either the new handheld or home console then Nintendo have basically opened up their prospective sales audience, getting big 3rd party games on top of that, which will run on all of their new systems would definitely help to boost the market for handhelds.
I'm not saying Nintendo should just make a bunch of different variations on hardware for the sake doing that, they should keep it simple in the beginning, like just have the handheld and the home console, then release a new piece of hardware as they need to for a new area of the market.
What I think NX is going to be is quite literally a new family of systems, Nintendo may as well just call it Nintendo Crossplay, you have the Crossplay Handheld and the Crossplay Home Console, neither is distinct from the other, it's that whole unified platform that is in competition with PS4 and XB1, because it's really one games platform for Nintendo to deliver their software to the market.
Crossplay wouldn't just be a "me too" platform, it has the potential to tap into an area of the market that is currently lacking, western focused games on a handheld platform. Having game development being unified Nintendo can definitely move more hardware and software in both areas that they target, if they can also gain the 3rd party games back, by dangling the handheld sales in the faces of 3rd party publishers they can potentially get themselves back in the game. Just because NX would be launching later that doesn't mean it will stay a distant 3rd, as a complete platform it has the potential to sell very fast and move a lot of software for Nintendo and even 3rd party publishers can boost things, while also gaining a big bit of the pie.
This all assumes that NX is the crossplay system that's being rumored, IMO it needs to provide options and not force one thing in gamer's faces, but be a logical option for people to take up as their platform of choice.
I hope this is what NX is, I think it can do really well, but it's got to be handled in the right way, if Nintendo just releases another system, that only has the same old Nintendo games, with very few new IPs that appeal to the west then it's not going to help grow Nintendo's user base for the future.
