wombat123 said:
Soundwave said:
I think they need to be even bolder than that. They need to honestly redefine a lot of their incredibly outdated hardware/software philosophies. They need a top to bottom company rethink that is actually in touch with what the market is in 2016, not 2006 or 1996 or 1986. They need to wake up and make some real tangiable changes.
Mobile should become their main outlet for casuals/low cost kids market. Why keep banging your head against a wall for this audience when Apple/Google sell way more than the Wii ever could dream of. Nintendo's goal here should be to become more of the top 3-5 mobile game providers in the world. This will be earn them monstrous amounts of profit and take care of this lower cost demographic. Let Apple/Google do the leg work for a change, Nintendo has access to hundreds of millions of consumers here, more than any game system could allow them. So take advantage of it.
The portable IMO should take over the position the "traditional Nintendo console" has had in the past ... that is kind of the in-between device that is relatively affordable. Today mobile tech allows for XB360 or better visuals, this is enough for most/all Nintendo IP. With such a huge leap in mobile computing power for cheap, it's time to rethink what such a platform can be. Add the ability to actually use it as a console on top of being a portable (streams wirelessly to a TV). Now you have an affordable all-in-one portable that can double as a home device for the "family/Nintendo-only" gamer that can be played anywhere with "good enough" visuals even for a TV. $200-$250.
The dedicated console concept should change for 2016, consoles are no longer popular in Japan, and since your kids/low cost market is well served by the above two pillars, go upmarket with your home-only console. The console should be very high-end so that it can handle very high end Western PC/third party games with the ability to play the same Nintendo games from the portable, just at higher effects. This also frees Nintendo from the problem of having to make two discreet software libraries, which they clearly are unable to cope with. This product should be aimed for the US/Euro markets and pro players, no nonsense like it needs to be small enough to fit inside a hobbit's living room and only consume 30 watts or electricity. Americans/Europeans don't give a shit about that stuff, go big or go home. $350, 14nm/16nm Arctic Islands GPU that outperforms the PS4 by an undeniable gap and is upgradable to 4K down the line so Sony/MS cannot simply just make a stronger piece of kit and call it a day.
The POINT of hardware is to get people to simply have access to your games. That's all. So Stop acting like you need to go on a crusade as to why VR/HD/online/CD is "wrong" and just let people play the fucking games. Also making or obsessively focusing on any one demographic is stupid, your responsibility as a platform maker is to have a wide breadth of content that makes everyone happy, Sony understands this which is why in actuality, Playstation is far a more mainstream brand than "Nintendo" these days.
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This is all actually what I was thinking Nintendo's strategy was going to be with the NX and mobile; mobile as the replacement for their handheld market and the NX as their main platform. The only difference is that I think Nintendo should eventually introduce a 3rd device in the NX line; a budget console that's $125-150 and plays games on the big screen at the same resolution as the handheld. Essentially a model for people who want to use the NX as a companion platform to round out their gaming library and don't care about portability, great graphics/performance or local co-op. I'd also hope that Nintendo puts some kind of expansion slot on the console model to future-proof it against the PS5/Xbox2.
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I think they could simply just take the chip from the handheld and make a microconsole out this, but from the patent it seems like they may want the console controller to have a screen on it too (hence the deal with Sharp for free form LCDs). In which case it probably couldn't be quite that cheap, so if you're going to have a LCD there anyway ...
I guess they could still offer it, but what I'd say is just allow the handheld to then become the "base" Nintendo system. For $220-$250, something that replaces basically both the Wii U and 3DS (which costs $450 to buy today effectively). Mobile chips are becoming so advanced that they can do the job of low/mid-range console these days. This could actually be a bit more powerful than a Wii U while also being the successor to Nintendo's portable heritage. Japan would eat it up and as dual purpose device, it's a nice differniator from cheap tablet games that the consumer can easily understand ("oh I can use this as a console AND like a portable ... cool").
The "big box" home console that just sits under the TV, I would rethink that entire concept and make that more of a specialty high-end device. Lets face it, the modern console business is Western PC-style games made for American/European players. So the console should be made for that audience and the needs of the Western market. But Nintendo games are shared on both devices, so Nintendo themselves doesn't have to spend a ton of resources they can just take their portable Wii U-or slightly better-looking games from the portable and upscale them 1080p (or even 2K resolution), add in a few graphical effects and call it a day. High end third party games can really take use of that extra power though. Have at it guys.
