Mbolibombo on 28 July 2016
| Asriel said: This leak came 16 months away from 3DS's launch, and two years away from Vita's eventual launch, so there was a much bigger margin for error. Plus, in the time since EG have broken their NX story, other websites (as varied as the Wall Street Journal, Nintendo Life and the UK based, trade focused MCV) have all claimed that their own sources corroborate what Eurogamer are saying. Besides, there are valid reasons as to why Nintendo would go with a Tegra powered hybrid device. It allows them to use existing technology and components, fulfilling the lateral thinking with withered technology mantra often though not always employed in their hardware. Secondly, it would allow Nintendo to focus most of their development resources on one system, allowing their development partners to do the same, theoretically (and I stress that) eliminating the development bottlenecks and software droughts that have so damaged their system. Thirdly, it means Nintendo are hunkering down more on their core markets: Japan, families, and portable console players, rather than fighting it out in the home console space dominated by Sony, Microsoft and Western publishers that have never had a meaningful presence on a Nintendo device. By extension, the lack of a replacement for Vita and the dilemma faced by Japanese publishers--who, as Vita and 3DS die out, have no middle ground between mobile and expensive home console development--suggests to me Nintendo listened more to what Sega, Atlus, Namco, Capcom etc had to say than they did EA or Activision. I think NX has the potential to sell similar numbers to 3DS, but with higher software and digital sales, resulting in a higher margin business for Nintendo. However, I definitely think there are obvious problems and risks, not least pricing, branding and clearly communicating their devices, all three issues which hamstrung 3DS and helped to sink Wii U. There's also form factor, battery life and memory storage to think about. In the last case I think Nintendo might sidestep it by keeping a chunk of solid state memory in the portable (perhaps as much as 128GB), whilst keeping an SDHC/XC slot in the device to allow you to expand the memory. They could then include either more memory (perhaps a 500GB or 1TB HDD) in the TV docking unit, as well as either USB or SD card slots to allow for expandable memory without falling into the trap of proprietary memory. Whether or not the market exists for a hybrid device remains up in the air until after NX is on the market. If the price is good, the software line up consistent, the branding clear, the functionality both clearly communicated and well executed, and the marketing vibrant and visibile, then they may have a successful idea on their hands. That's a lot of factors to get right, though. |
That right there, good points. I think the idea itself has potential to be awesome. And all those things mentioned are probably key for it to succeed. I just hope that the power is higher than the X1 chip.
