EricHiggin said:
1. All Intel products ever? 2. Consoles typically do not come with extra ports unless deemed necessary to the core functionality. The fact that the NUC is this close to having the kitchen sink thrown in, says it's not aimed at being a bare bones cheap consumer item. It's mostly being targeted at people with more money than brains, but sure, anyone can buy one if that's what floats your boat. 3. 14nm Raven Ridge would be tough to make happen with all other components considered in 2018. Not only would the performance vs battery life vs physical size be questionable, but the price at this time just doesn't seem to be doable without a subsidy. 7nm makes more sense in every way, when 7nm is truly ready, and when that would be is unknown. Odds are your talking late 2019 at the earliest, maybe, if you want even a ballpark consumer friendly price. How can you say it doesn't sell if the product doesn't even exist yet as far as we know? Vita wasn't exactly a hit, but Switch has been so far, and looks to continue to be, so why if PS creates a similar product, could it not succeed? By succeed, I don't mean match Switch sales either, but it does have to make money. Just because PS would create another portable, that in no way means they hope the market will go that way, it more than likely means either they simply want some of Switch's mobile crowd, or they simply want to keep their existing 'mobile consoles seem awesome' customers from going to Switch, or heaven forbid a mobile XB eventually. If you were XB right now, wouldn't you be thinking about how a Switch type device could potentially expand your ecosystem, considering PS4 dominance and no more gens regardless of the hardware going forward? XB admitted they've been more than just tempted. As for trying to sell a PS4 Portable while trying to hype up a next gen PS5, you have a point to a certain degree, but it would depend on when that PS5 is going to launch. The more time the PS4 Portable had on the market, the easier the transition to PS5 would be. Then again, what would be much much easier, if they could make it happen without holding PS5 back, would be to have a PS5 Portable with PS4 digital BC. This would also allow them more time to see how Switch plays out over a few years before jumping in if they have cold feet. While in terms of pure profits, doubling down on dedicated home consoles, even if that means more SKU's, makes more sense. In terms of future customer and industry growth, allowing Nin to have the portable and hybrid market completely to itself seems like asking for trouble eventually. Looking at just the here and now, the way forward is obvious, but looking to the future changes that perspective. Building yourself a giant wall is only useful if you have an army to defend it. Many stationary archers are a must, but men at arms are also necessary, regardless the pennies lost. |
1. Eh. Maybe that's the case. Claims like this are easily supported. Since KBG almost never supports any of his points, so I'm not about to take his word on it. A simple link to a cost breakdown of a similar intel NUC would have sufficed.
2. You're right, consoles are about as streamlined as possible. My point was the extra ports of the NUC are not the kinds of things that add meaningful cost to the device. The physical themselves add almost no cost, and unless they had to change to a noticably more expensive chipset or add other required additional supporting hardware, shielding, etc. it's a non issue. Besides, he's advocating adding simcard and cell phone network support to a PS4 Portable, because obviously everyone needs that, right?. That is far more expensive to add to a system that an additional USB port or two.
3. Who said anything about 14 nm Raven Ridge? There's a gap between 14 nm and 7 nm that no one's bothering discussing. But besides that, I'm not saying such a device wouldn't sell. KBG was arguing that it's not really a question of tech or pricing, when that's obviously nonsense. I would definitely, totally buy a PS4 portable if it had the right features and the right price. But what if it doesn't have the right features? What if Sony releases a PS4 portable at $599 and only plays PS4 games at 720p? What if it sells less than 2 million over a 2 year period and they never make the initial investment back? What good does that do for Sony? For what it's worth, there's other ways for Sony to put fingers in Nintendo's pie that do not involve releasing new SKUs. You can claim that Nintendo has "the mobile crowd" but the truth is, there's no denying Nintendo is competing with Apple and Google for that part of the market. There's plenty of parents that are going to decide between getting their kid a Switch or an iPad or an android tablet. As well as the Switch is selling, Apple and Google haven't yet responded to it, and sales could quickly flat line as they did with the Wii.
The way I see it, the only way Sony releases another handheld is if they do what they haven't done before, and that's if they can go toe to toe with Nintendo in every way. That includes price. Nintendo just released their most expensive handheld ever, but unlike they Wii U, they also built it in such a way that it lends itself to cheaper manufacturing processes. It will be a huge struggle, and for what exactly? The ability to say they're competing in the mobile space. I just don't think they're willing to put the time, money and effort into doing that when they're kicking so much ass under the television, and they know how much attention that requires to maintain. I think Sony is going to sit and wait it out, and see how the Switch performs long term before he seriously considers putting it's hat back in that ring. Sony can let Nintendo take the gamble and dive in if the market proves its willing to support such a device before they throw any bit of effort into it..
