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Frogger on 03 October 2015
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BlueFalcon said:

Bingo. Some people are trying to pigeonhole the NX as one console - either a handheld or a home console or a hybrid but it can be another option you and I both discussed -- NX Home console and NX Portable console. Together, they start to form the NX eco-system.

The home console is the most powerful so it can play NX portable games, smartphone, tablet Nintendo games. The NX portable is a complementary device. Among the entire NX game eco-system, you get cross-buy and cross-play. If you buy a Nintendo game on an Android or their NX Portable, it's playable from your account on the NX home console. 

This is actually what the rumors have:

 

  • With NX, Nintendo wants to create a platform where they can develop software for multiple devices with ease, from the home console to the portable to smartphone and tablets. They'll have a big catalogue available for multiple platforms, with cross buy, cross saves and cross play, similar to what Microsoft is doing with Xbox One and PC thanks to Windows 10 (that allows to play many Xbox games on PC, which is also getting a bunch of ports from Xbone). Each platform will still have exclusive games
  • They'll show the portable in spring 2016, will be out for the end of the year or spring 2017 max. Specs will be higher than PS Vita but nothing mindblowing, screen resolution should be 540p, considering 720p if costs go down.
  • The home will be out 6-12 months after the portable, creating the "NX system" that will allow Nintendo to better use their resources in games development
  • They approached third parties during E3. Capcom, Square-Enix, Ubisoft and Electronic Arts already have devkits.
Why would Nintendo approach Ubisoft and Electronic Arts if their console wasn't close to the perfomrance of Xbox One and PS4? We already know that both of those game publishers/developers would NOT even consider a Nintendo console if it wasn't easy to port their cross-platform PC/Xbox One/PS4 x86 games.
Sounds like some people who keep pushing for Nintendo's home console to have a strictly underpowered ARM SOC (esp. from Apple - a firm that will NEVER sell their key competitive advantage in ARM SOCs to Nintendo) are spreading FUD. 


While I agree with almost everything you're saying, it stops at x86. Unless they can find an affordable way to get the NX BC with the Wii U and maybe even the 3DS eshop while also adopting x86 hardware, I don't see it happening. It's not just a unified platform Nintendo are going for, but a legacy platform. They want to be able to build from what they started with the Wii U, especially when it comes to the library. In order for that to happen, they absolutely need to be able to launch the NX with the full eshop library, so they don't have to spend rescources and time porting SMB3 for a 4th time. I genuinely think, if having to choose, Nintendo will choose weaker hardware over absolutely no digital BC with at least the Wii U eshop.

This isn't an issue of backwards compatability, but of legacy. I think Nintendo is shooting for a steam-like platform where games from every platform they've had is playable. From the NES to the Wii U. That's why they've been adding DS and Wii games. They're not going to send all that to die, especially after they had to do that with the Wii VC. They want to absorb the Wii U's architecture. While I hope they can get the both worlds, using the x86 while also absorbing the Wii U to keep BC with the eshop, I don't see any way that is feasable.

Also, the gamepad is staying. I don't know how anyone can think it isn't. Same with the two screen set up of the DS and 3DS for the handheld. That functionality will be imperitive for the NX, and we already have patents backing this up. Do I think the gamepad will go through a massive revision, making it much smaller, much more traditionally shaped, and much cheaper? Absolutely. But it's definitely not being dropped for a Pro Controller.

...Or something else.