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Forums - Nintendo - Will Nintendo's next handheld and console use Power PC like the Wii U?

Mnementh on 04 August 2014
spemanig said:
Mnementh said:
spemanig said:
Mnementh said:

Windows-PC are keeping only a limited BC. Try starting pograms for Win 3.11 in Win 8. Even with platforms that follow each other it is not always easy to keep using your programs. But not all PCs are Windows. Macs changed  CPU-architecture two times. From Motorolas 68K-CPUs to PowerPC and then from PowerPC to x86. That often involved that your old applications wouldn't run on your new Mac.

And Smartphones? How do they use BC? Do you copy your apps from your old phone to your new?


I'm talking app wise. When I have an app or a song on my iphone, I can take it with me on any idevice i buy after. When I buy an app or game on a game console, the only way to play that game in future consoles is through BC. Same with some apps and games on PC. Even if it takes come nudging, you can get them to run. When you buy a game on Steam and get a new PC or laptop, that game follows you as long as you have an account. That is BC to me.

You already mentioned in another post, that you mean BC digitally. So, let's assume next Nintendo-console has an eShop that keeps using NNID (and as I see it Nintendo intends to use it). So they can detect which games/apps youpurchased on Wiiu. They could make them available for redownload, if these are ported to the new console. Porting stuff to the new platform should be easy enough, even if hey switch the CPU-architecture. But still there is no guarantee that they do it, even less that 3rd-parties will do that. Look at virtual console. There is no echnical reason, why they didn't release all games for VC-platforms they have done already on WiiU, that there available on Wii-VC or 3DS-VC. There might be licensing issues, but that involves Nintendo-games too. The only reason might be, that they want to use VC-titles to fill the lineup.

So: technical possible, still probably not happening.


That's the thing; they shouldn't have to port it. Porting isn't backward compatability. It's just porting. You don't keep your progress with a port. What I'm talking about is like how on the 3DS, you can still buy DSi games. If you had DSiware on your DSi, all you need is your old SD card and those games are tranferred over. No issues at all with licencing because they aren't going anywhere. Nothing new is happening to those games. There are just more playforms that can access that store now.

How is there no technical reason? The Super Mario Bros. on the Wii U VC has different data than the 3DS one which has different data than the Wii one. They may look the same, but they are not the same. There obviously is a technical reason, because making three different identical versions of the same game when you could have just one is stupid. I there was no technical boundry, no indie game like shovel knight would have a Wii U and 3DS version. There would just be an eshop version, and that would be the end of it.

These ports worked pretty well for switching CPU-architecture on Macs. They work for ports between PS3 and Vita (you have crossbuy-games).

For VC: You need for each platform a new emulator-software, but once you done it for a platform (NES or SNES for instance) you could put down the same data for the original game to use it with the emulator.



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Mnementh on 04 August 2014
Dr.Henry_Killinger said:
zarx said:

On the topic of ARM vs x86 performance lets look at AMDs upcoming ARM Cortex A57 based low power server chip.

AMD Opteron A1100 vs. X2150
  CPU Core Configuration CPU Frequency SPECint_rate Estimate SPECint per Core Estimated TDP
AMD Opteron A1100 8 x ARM Cortex A57 >= 2GHz 80 10 25W
AMD Opteron X2150 4 x AMD Jaguar 1.9GHz 28.1 7 22W

Both the PS4 and XBOne have 8 Core Jaguar at a lower clock so that should give you an idea or the relative performance. In a few years a 8/16 Core customised ARM chip could beat the PS4/XBOne's CPUs easy. And then they could use a dual or quad core downclocked chip for the handheld.

But what about GPU which matters a whole lot more than CPU relative to gaming?

You can combine ARM and PowerPC with the same GPUs as x86. As far as I know all current video-game-consoles use Radeon. I don't see a particular reason to switch, but if someone decides to switch to Nvidia, that would involve more porting issues than switching the CPU-architecture.



3DS-FC: 4511-1768-7903 (Mii-Name: Mnementh), Nintendo-Network-ID: Mnementh, Switch: SW-7706-3819-9381 (Mnementh)

my greatest games: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 

10 years greatest game event!

bets: [GTA6]

HylianSwordsman on 04 August 2014

Yeah, the handheld will use whatever the home console does, so probably Power PC.



Frogger on 04 August 2014
Dr.Henry_Killinger said:

But here's the twist...you can. Its trivial to transfer save data between ports let alone games on different systems, its just not done out of "laziness" for lack of a better term


Oh... Well you can't port port everything. Eventually someone will own a game that wasn't ported and be left in the dust. Instead, making the console truly BC keeps everyone happy.



Frogger on 04 August 2014
Mnementh said:
spemanig said:
Mnementh said:

These ports worked pretty well for switching CPU-architecture on Macs. They work for ports between PS3 and Vita (you have crossbuy-games).

For VC: You need for each platform a new emulator-software, but once you done it for a platform (NES or SNES for instance) you could put down the same data for the original game to use it with the emulator.

But we're they cross save? Could you play one game on your PS3 and then play it on your Vita when you go out from where you left off? Same with the VC. If they could just do that, why didn't they with the Wii U?



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Frogger on 04 August 2014
HylianSwordsman said:
Yeah, the handheld will use whatever the home console does, so probably Power PC.


Why can the home console use what the handheld does instead, like people have suggested here?



Soundwave on 04 August 2014

I'd honestly bet money on the next "Nintendo console" basically using the same mobile CPU/GPU components the handheld does (read: cell phone components). Just perhaps overclocked with a maybe a doubling of the cores or something.

This would actually be smart too, because Nintendo will be able to get a cheaper price on their chips this way, they'll be able to order in much larger quantities. One of the reasons the Wii U is probably killing them on cost is they can't get mass production up on it, so they can't get the components at a lower cost. 



burninmylight on 04 August 2014
spemanig said:
burninmylight said:
I think Iwata will have to take a deep breath, swallow his spit, and step in front of the camera to tell us the Wii U's successor will not be BC with retail games and some digital titles. I love BC, but it's an anchor around a new console's neck.


I think it's the complete opposite. I think new consoles lose 60% of their value without it. It's a big reason why I can't stomach buying a PS4 or XBO.


By anchor, I meant from a technological progression standpoint, not necessarily a consumer value standpoint. I agree with you about consoles losing a ton of value without BC.



HylianSwordsman on 04 August 2014
spemanig said:
HylianSwordsman said:
Yeah, the handheld will use whatever the home console does, so probably Power PC.


Why can the home console use what the handheld does instead, like people have suggested here?


I don't see much difference between those two statements. I suppose if you're going to have similar architechture, the next step for the handheld would involve Power PC, so the console would have to have Power PC for the whole unified platform thing to happen right? So yeah, you could say the home console has what the handheld does, I guess. All I was trying to say is that they'll use the same thing. I dunno, whatever, point is, cross save and cross buy? Count me in! How awesome is that? Now that sounds like the future of gaming to me. Perhaps they'll go with the rumor and call them Fusion and Fusion DS? To promote the the concept of two consoles to a single unified platform under NNID? I like it. Whatever they use to make it happen, so long as they have that unified platform, I'm excited.



Frogger on 04 August 2014
burninmylight said:

By anchor, I meant from a technological progression standpoint, not necessarily a consumer value standpoint. I agree with you about consoles losing a ton of value without BC.


I guess I can agree there, though I don't see why it's so difficult to keep BC while making beefy hardware at an affordable price.