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Soundwave on 09 January 2016
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zorg1000 said:
Soundwave said:
I think there is one silly notion that has to kind end and I suspect the NX will "kill it".

The notion is that portable/handheld is the "kid brother". The modern Nintendo portable IS basically a console. It can now run basically all the main Nintendo IP and the graphics are getting good enough that it can tangiably be the main Nintendo platform.

That's basically what I think will happen with the NX, the portable will become effectively the lead platform even from a development POV ... meaning it will have ALL the main Nintendo games, not just "spin-off/side" versions any longer.

Nintendo can't support basically two consoles simultaneously, that's basically what would be the issue and why the NX has to unify its library.

The day where the handheld was just this cute little device that was trying its damndest to run a 2D Mario game are long over.

Today they are basically full fledged and require as much resources as a Nintendo console would.

Especially once you get past GameCube level graphics and start to get into PS3/360 type visuals and the scope afforded by such large processing power, your development costs increase big time.

Even in the Wii/DS area, Nintendo was really able to support two because they Wii still had relatively low end graphics and DS even moreso (N64/Playstation 1 range 3D). And even then we saw towards the end of the Wii's lifecycle they were unable to support the Wii any longer as they were really making 3DS games behind the scenes.

And this gen, trying to support both the Wii U and 3DS has been a total and complete disaster.

 

This is a major reason why I believe the console portion won't be a huge leap over Wii U, it will essentially be an extension of the portable that plays games at a higher resolution, more stable frame rate, faster load times. Basically the portable is N64, the console is N64+RAM Pak.

 

I agree with you there, but I think in this scenario there should be an even more fundamental rethink of what both platforms do. Once you make this change, it's a radical change for Nintendo, it's like not having Turkey on Christmas Dinner ... well I mean everything else becomes a question too ... do you need stuffing? bread rolls? Doesn't make sense if you're having Chinese food. 

To me going *too* cheap with the portable is problematic in that the technology first needs to be decent in order to run the main Nintendo games. That's for one. But the other is, I think when you are competing for relevance against cheap games (free on smartphone) and tablets that are going to be $50-$75 soon (with good sized HD displays) ... you can't win on price. 

So you need to redefine the portable gaming experience, to me they should make the portable more like a "travelling hub" that can also become like a console and stream to devices around it. Powerful *but* affordable, like the N64/GCN/SNES were. Whatever ideas your R&D have to differniate it from tablets from a value perspective jump all over that and encourage those ideas. 

The console then in a way, you have freedom now to maybe do some things you wouldn't otherwise since the main portable essentially covers the needs of a "standard" Nintendo console. 

I'd go upmarket with the dedicated home console too and make it quite powerful. Reason being is lets face it they're not selling many consoles as is, even though their console is the cheapest. If you get more hardcore hardware fetishists with the console, these people tend to buy a shit-ton of games, so at least you boost your attach rate there.

Honestly I'd like to see them really embrace the "multi-tier" hardware strategy if that's what they're going to do. Don't just adhere to the rules of the 1980s then, make some hardware models you wouldn't normally make I say, because it doesn't matter so much then if one model doesn't sell like gangbusters, every one brings it a different audience, and every bit of marketshare/audience share is valuable going forward. 

You don't want a cheap console and cheap portable that basically are aimed at the same exact market. Different NXes should be aimed at different markets, I think that'd be a smarter way to go.