Portable != Home Console Controller!

Last I checked the Wii U gamepad doesn't fit in my pocket.

Last I checked the 3DS isn't perfectly ergonomic.

The problem with these ideas is that the controller has to be gimped. It has to be portable or comfy, not both. Beyond that you have problems of graphics and powar! Their is only one solution, but I have it patent pending*.

*LSD patches.

Still skeptical about this "hybrid".

Part of the reason why I think 9th gen really might topple Nintendo. Whole other market they're going into here and if they screw it up it might be devastating.

A handheld console hybrid is pretty much just a overpowered handheld. Unless they can firmly differentiate the 2 aspect of it, the thing won't sell well.

What I mean is that it plays a certain kind of games on the "go" (handheld) but maybe have like a docking station (the console component) that increases the power like a peripheral and allows it to play some new kinds of games I guess.

But yeah still really skeptical. Some people just like a box under the TV. It sounds cool in theory but really hard to market/apply right. But as always, games will sell the system, and this is just the type of system for a Pokemon open world RPG. (Traditional experience on the go with your own world and then you dock it to access the connected world or something like that. Imagine a battle subway with actual trainers lol.)

They could already do that with 3DS/WiiU for the most part.

It could never be a fully contained single system as to do each correctly, they'd have to be sold seperately to be profitable or both at a price far higher than Nintendo would be comfortable with as a single system.

However, they do need to follow Sony's lead in this arena and have a fully unified system.

There is no reason VC games need to be sold separated between 3DS and WiiU and likely no reason nearly all 3DS digital content shouldn't be shared with WiiU.

I hope that as Nintendo begins to merge their online structure (eShop is already one large shop, miiverse is coming, etc) that they realize the great benefit in having it all essentially one big portal.

They need to focus on allow content to easily flow between the devices where applicable. However, the reason Sony is able to do it for Vita after the PS4 launches is because they bought Gaikai and are essentially streaming the content from your PS4 to your Vita, making the weaker Vita hardware a non-issue. Nintendo doesn't have that capability at the moment. Maybe they are building up to it considering WiiU is heavily web-service based already.

Though with the merging of their hardware business into a single entity, its clear Nintendo is working towards a lot of inter-connectivity between the hardware branches.

A 6 inch tablet, with plug in controls ala razer edge, by Nintendo, with an hardware capable of dx11 goods ? That you can hook up to your TV ala Wii U ?

By xmas 2015 ?

Sounds good to me. It just needs to run on android or something capable, not a crippled console OS.

We're already in an age where smartphones will allow games to be played on the go and on your TV. Right now that's Angry Birds and Real Racing 3 but as Smartphones/tablets become more powerful so will the games.

Considering Nintendo's (non-core) group is more casual this is their competition more immediately than Sony's/MS. To that end, I don't see them having any other choice but to follow this trend, in fact WiiU should have been there already and is a horrible missed opportunity to lead the charge instead of following years later.

How well it'll sell will depend on a lot of variables that we could only wildly speculate at now. However, combining their game development resources would help avoid these momentum crushing gaps that GC/Wii/3DS/WiiU have all suffered with.

If it's out in 4-5 years and they can make an underpowered PS4 that goes anywhere and plays on basically any screen (gamepad/tv/tablet/PC) that gets all the PS4/720 ports and the full bore of Nintendo's games for $299 (possible in 4 years) it could be a hit.

The Wii U is something like that.

The problem is cutting edge gaming usually doesn't fit in a handheld console.

Maybe when they perfect cloud gaming.

Since Nintendo tends to fare much better on the handheld front, I would say so. I suspect they will give this idea a try, perhaps even for the next console. Especially if Wii U continues their mediocre sales for years to come, I'm almost positive Nintendo would try this as a sort of desperation move to use their handheld success as leverage for their home console success, sort of the reverse of what Sony is now attempting with the Vita streaming PS4 games.

Wii U already shows some flashes of it, but quickly ceases to be a portable once you leave the room. Not much point in that.. Perhaps for their next console, they can pull a Sony and allow their games to be streamed everywhere, with a Nintendo-dedicated tablet device similar to the Wii U gamepad. The idea of streaming the Wii U from a tablet is nice, but Sony has already hugely one-uped them in this regard by allowing their PS4 games to be streamed everywhere. Nintendo needs to get on board with this.

You know, you're right.   

It'll be four years too late.    Android is doing this already (Galaxy S4) and Apple is rumoured to announce in April.   Four years from now there would be little value proposition in such a dedicated gaming device when all phones/tablets do the same thing.   

No. I'm pretty sure Nintendo will continue the 2-system strategy. The problem i see now is that Nintendo has for a very long time now had to stretch their overall resources thin by supporting two systems. This has resulted in gamedroughts at times.

I suspect the solution they're going to introduce 5 years from now is a unified operating system for both portable and home console, handheld hardware that use the same architecture to their home console hardware but still a vast difference in overall power.

What does it mean for games you ask? Imagine this: All future games releasing simultaneous on both handheld and console using a single developments studio, without having to spend extra development time. We'd have, as an example, Luigi's Mansion 2 released on both WiiU and 3DS this month.

There are tons other possibilities touched upon in other posts. I believe a system like that would be much easier to sell to 3rd party developers.

Putting all your eggs in one basket is usually a bad idea.