Well Nintendo's used ARM in the past, but I think they'd be open to whoever gives them the best deal/performance ratio. 

It will be interesting to see what the graphical performance of the iPhone 6 and next-gen iPads will be, I suspect they will be getting fairly close to PS3 and by 2016 that chip will be pretty old (a 2014 era chip). 

There's also Tegra. I wonder how cheap Nintendo could get those.

Hopefully being freed of having to make 2 versions of all their big franchises and making a centralized ecosystem that they support directly on their own could also spur Nintendo to provide a wider variety of games. 

I'd love to have them go back to arcadey racers like Wave Race and F-Zero or how about sports games like NBA Courtside and MLB Baseball? Or try new genres like RTS strategy games or a game like Raven Blade that they were willing to greenlight in the 90s at least. 

Really lessen the need for third parties at all. Time to expand Retro to 3 teams too IMO. 

phaedruss said: fatslob-:O said: Did you forget the negative impacts ? Anyways, other than the benefit of sharing the same pool of games it will most likely end up being a negative in the long term seeing as how systems need to be differentiated in software in order to give a selling point for one system over another. A lot of people aren't very fond of Nintendo consoles compared to their handhelds in general so this only hurts Nintendo's business in general as it only gives more incentives for people to not buy a Nintendo console. I'm not sure how. You either buy one or the other or if you really want to you buy both. If you want to have your Nintendo games on the go then you get the portable, if you want them at home you get the console, if you want both you get both. I assume there would be some kind of cross buy for both. I don't get the logic that having the same games on both platforms somehow cancels out each other or something.

What's not to get? People buy consoles for console games and handhelds for handheld games. It has nothing to do with portability. The Vita is failing because it's trying to be a portable console. 

spemanig said: phaedruss said: fatslob-:O said: Did you forget the negative impacts ? Anyways, other than the benefit of sharing the same pool of games it will most likely end up being a negative in the long term seeing as how systems need to be differentiated in software in order to give a selling point for one system over another. A lot of people aren't very fond of Nintendo consoles compared to their handhelds in general so this only hurts Nintendo's business in general as it only gives more incentives for people to not buy a Nintendo console. I'm not sure how. You either buy one or the other or if you really want to you buy both. If you want to have your Nintendo games on the go then you get the portable, if you want them at home you get the console, if you want both you get both. I assume there would be some kind of cross buy for both. I don't get the logic that having the same games on both platforms somehow cancels out each other or something.  What's not to get? People buy consoles for console games and handhelds for handheld games. It has nothing to do with portability. The Vita is failing because it's trying to be a portable console.

That's not why the Vita is failing.

This is the way Nintendo will go. Iwata has all but confirmed this on multiple occasions.

spemanig said: phaedruss said: fatslob-:O said: Did you forget the negative impacts ? Anyways, other than the benefit of sharing the same pool of games it will most likely end up being a negative in the long term seeing as how systems need to be differentiated in software in order to give a selling point for one system over another. A lot of people aren't very fond of Nintendo consoles compared to their handhelds in general so this only hurts Nintendo's business in general as it only gives more incentives for people to not buy a Nintendo console. I'm not sure how. You either buy one or the other or if you really want to you buy both. If you want to have your Nintendo games on the go then you get the portable, if you want them at home you get the console, if you want both you get both. I assume there would be some kind of cross buy for both. I don't get the logic that having the same games on both platforms somehow cancels out each other or something.  What's not to get? People buy consoles for console games and handhelds for handheld games. It has nothing to do with portability. The Vita is failing because it's trying to be a portable console.

I actually don't think so. 

Pokemon X/Y would be just as compelling on a console as it is on a handheld (another pro of the Fusion idea ... people will finally be able to play a "real" Pokemon RPG at home in glorious HD). 

There are plenty of 3DS games that are basically just "console" games ... Mario 3D Land, NSMB2, Mario Kart 7, Monster Hunter, Dragon Quest VII, Zelda: OoT 3D, Kid Icarus Uprising probably should've been a Wii/Wii U title actually, etc. etc.

If a game is good it should play well at home or on the go. 

The Vita is failing because there isn't much of a market for handhelds anymore, particularily ones that are aimed at teenagers/adults like Sony is trying to do. They all have smartphones/tablets, they wouldn't be caught dead with a Vita, nor is there any need in their day to day life to have to carry around a seperate device just to play 15 minutes worth of God of War on their work commute or school break. 

YES MONSTER HUNTER! lol, I hate playing Monster Hunter on a small screen, those games to me belong on a big screen with a controller.

Exactly! With more human resources being free - even with more being needed per project - Nintendo diversify their catalog with new franchises and even go back to games they haven`t done in ages and that they may feel it would be a loss of time and money.

That`s, from a SW point of view, the best option for Nintendo in the future.

They can even afford to, internally - be it 1st or 2nd party - try some genres they are not strong at.

So we can all agree that the possible benefits will far outweigh the negatives when Nintendo goes in this direction?