Sony has the best solution for with, both with cross-buy and remote play.

Almost all home console games can be streamed to the handheld. This forces people to buy both systems, but also allows them to play graphically rich games on the go.

Then you have select games supporting cross-buy. This works better than a hybrid console since each version can be optomized for its system. Take PSASBR for example. It looks great on vita, but the ps3 version does more than render at a higher resolution. It's optomized for the platform.

It has "con" written all over it, the strongest "pro" would have to be the need to only have one Nintendo console and not two, because some people don't want to buy two consoles for Nintendo games.

Revenue streams. Nintendo will need to find a way to compensate for their lost revenue for console hardware, console games, software, accessories, etc. In other words, they'll need to pull off another Wii at double or triple the scale, this is an automatic no for Nintendo. Besides, a hybrid with a "dock" to the TV will not be very affordable, easily over $200 (for a handheld, over 200 for the average consumer is not a good price) if we want Wii U like performance for the hybrid, and the "dock" will likely be a failure, what reason would an average consumer have to purchase the dock?. " combining" chips when connecting the handheld to the dock to have more power also sounds like too much of a hassle to invest in, it just doesnt sound like something they have planned. Just release both a handheld and a console, both whom share a similar architecture, and develop games for them, have similar games maybe, but each working to each hardwares' strengths, it's that simple. With their combined handheld and console sectors, they can asist eachother with their own respective games. This hybrid has far too many hoops to jump through to be a success.

The dock is optional, you see, and upscales the games natively to run crisp on TVs. The dock could be sold with a local-multiplayer centric game (Mario Kart or Smash Bros) with two controllers packed in to help sell people on the experience.

$200 for the handheld, and Nintendo could get away with charging more if they worked with Google to make Droid OS work on the thing (because people will pay more if the device could effectively replace a tablet). $99-150 for the home dock, maybe $180 for a more inclusive home dock bundle, with game?

With the Wii U's performance and Nintendo spinning off quality-of-life to a nonconsole venture, we really have to question why people buy Nintendo consoles any more, unless Nintendo focuses future consoles on profitability.

I imagine it would be really hard to do a hybrid...
Some games provide an experience more suited to handhelds, while others are better suited to home consoles...

Not a fan, since I want more power in the next console and don't like handhelds. That said, the obvious pro would be all software teams working on the system and a guaranteed large install base to encourage software support.

See Smash Bros to all your con answers.

This SB game is the setup Nintendo is doing to see how the same yet clearly different games can be released on both consoles.

I think the hybrid option is not as black and white as some make it out to be. The portable won't be a 100% extension of the console. It won't be as powerful and thus capable of playing the home console games on its own.

So if you only buy the portable, the only the portable games will work. If you buy both then you get the added advantage of playing the games on either system.

Plus, I'd think this will be more realized once they finalize their upgrades to NNID and the overall eShop experience. Where VC games (at least) will now be bought once and played everywhere. Maybe a cheap upgrade price like Wii to WiiU transfers at worst.

Basically, my point is. I feel a possible hybrid device will essentially be an dramatic improvement on PSV/PS4 connectivity and dual usage.