| Soundwave said: In January 2014 (this is after his Jan 2013 comments obviously) Iwata said this: “Still, I am not sure if the form factor (the size and configuration of the hardware) will be integrated. In contrast, the number of form factors mightincrease. Currently, we can only provide two form factors because if we had three or four different architectures, we would face serious shortages of software on every platform. Whether we will ultimately need just one device will be determined by what consumers demand in the future, and that is not something we know at the moment.
Sounds like between 2013 and 2014 they did a lot of experimentation, and by 2014 they were considering a hybrid device, because by Jan 2014 suddenly he doesn't know anymore if they need one device or multiple. My guess is over time Nintendo couldn't resist the hybrid idea, they probably fell in love with the design/possibilities once they prototyped a unit. |
You'll notice that IWata never once hinted that the number of devices that they were considering would be fewer than past generations of Nintendo hardware, why even bring up the point that numbers could increase?
It hints that Nintendo were considering an approach that allows them to be flexible and that they wanted the process of making games for their chosen devices to be as simple and cost effective as possible, working in a way that allowed them to put their games on more than one device or at least allow them to port portions of games over (like Assets) easily, so that the amount of work needed would be less than it has been in past generations.
Making a single device that does all things doesn't really do anything but limit you, this is a technical fact, because technology has it's limits.
Highlighting points is basically cherrypicking, we should take the whole post as fact, not tiny portions of it.
The Eurogamer, WSJ and Semi-Accurate claims are just that, when put under scrutiny they don't make much sense, least of all from the standpoint that matters most (which is business), Nvidia doesn't make money here or they make very little, which would go against the whole point of getting into a market.
It would actually make more sense if Nintendo had more options for different customers, because then NVidia could potentially make more money and dangling a loss leader at Nintendo's face would make sense over the long haul, because in the end they would make money, but that's not what the rumors even say is happening, not the ones relating to NVidia anyway.
A business world where only Nintendo makes out in this deal makes absolutely no sense, especially where they're the ones in need, NVidia certainly aren't desparate for business, they're selling their new GPUs ridiculously fast and now they're basically becoming known as the company that put desktop level graphics chips in mobile computers. It kind of makes Nintendo a pointless prospect in the grand scheme of things.
