| mutantsushi said: I don't see how the extreme modularity thing can work out. Devs would need to develop/test for each potential module combination. At max I can see them developing for a mobile mode and a TV/console mode. Which very well may be the same core hardware, just downclocked/ some cores disabled to save battery in mobile where screen res will be lower anyways. But if it is supposed to be the same game fundamentally, targetting dozens of module combos is crazy. |
False.
Middleware makes scaling a trivial issue for supported architectures thought it may lack special optimizations you'd find in more dedicated scenarios. But so long as the modularized chips are of the same family and supported by the middleware, then it would not be an issue for the dev.
it is entirely feasible that Nitendo would do a modular design. A base handheld as the core system that sits in a dock which provides more memory, storage and GPU capabities to push a TV to 4K. (Tegra X1 can already do that, its successor surely can) Then designed in such a manner that they can later out a minor upgrade toe the core unti that still gets benefit from the tv base or the ability to switch out the RAM or GPU of the tv base... or just entire TV base.
Game consoles are moving towards shorter iterations with constant incremental improvements. Just as phones are replaced each year, so shall we see incrementally better consoles every 2 years. MSony are doing it now with entire consoles that cost $400 to replace. What if Nintendo does it with $100 components that include free games?
