I just never liked this idea. If the next Nintendo console offered cross play between the HDS and Nintendo 2020 I would not object to it, but I think the idea of making it the selling point is a bad one.

I don't think they will even bother with this at all. The Wii U showed many people don't give a crap about streaming (it isn't exactly selling Vitas either) and Iwata sorta implied already there will be more than one variant, just like the iPhone and iPad are seperate devices, even though they share the same OS, same apps. 

The consumer can choose which version they want or if indeed they want both (plenty of people have both an iPhone and iPad and a big part of the reason is they can share their apps between both). 

My guess is if you have both devices (the handheld and home variant) you'll be able to use the handheld as an optional (read: *optional*) controller at home if you want. 

That sounds really cool.   Would either mean an expensive handheld or cheap console then.  Playstation TV is half what the Vita is an plays same games, correct?

That would make games look subpar. It's the "close to the metal" programming that makes consoles punch above their weight and deliver a good performance for the hardware they have. Adding an abstraction layer to allow games to run independently of the hardware (basically, what DirectX does on PC) would make it way slower and would make the home console deliver 1/2 or 1/3 of the performance of another console with similar specs.

The second part is that it isn't easy to make games that run well on both, it isn't easy to downscale a game. In each area you may have to do different tweaks and that's a big issue. The gap between a top console and a top handheld is around 15x in power, it's too huge to surpass automatically. Unless you make your home console be a slouch (I mean, a real slouch, weaker than the Wii and the Wii U were compared to competitors).

Nintendo's own statements seem to indicate that they want two "brother" consoles that can share the same library, but are still different devices.

Our own Soundwave who has been a big advocate for this feels that the console should be like Vita TV but with better upscaling, able to render whatever the handheld puts out at 1080/60, but otherwise have no power of its own. Handheld would be around Wii U level power.

Master of the gaming handheld. I suspect it will blow the Vita's performance out of the water to allow for Nintendo to port Wii U engines/games. 

If people want the home variant, I think that will be just like a bonus to Nintendo. Right now selling consoles to consumers for Nintendo is like pulling teeth, at least in this scenario a game like Splatoon or Pikmin 3 or Bayonetta 2 doesn't get stuck on a dead beat platform where no one is buying much in the way of software and the user install base is tiny. 

All those games would sell better if you could sell them to both the 3DS and Wii U owner base, but obviously today you can't do that because the 3DS can't run those engines. The next Nintendo handheld however will bridge the gap because mobile chip tech is becoming far more powerful. 

Yeah i'm not as sure about that as you are. Unless you have a source and i've missed something? Nothing wrong with wanting these things though if that was what you were stating.

Actually just to clarify my stance, the home variant will have its own chips (just like the VitaTV has its own chip, it's not powered by a portable Vita or something). 

You won't need the handheld to run games. That's good for people who have no interest in a handheld and just want to play games at home on their TV. 

I've thought of the "dock" idea, but ultimately it just doesn't make a lot of sense in practise. The chip should be cheap anyway, it's the LCD screen/battery in the portable that eats up a lot of the hardware cost. So the home variant even if it has the same chip but with more hardware cores + RAM will still be cheaper to manufacture. 

I don't think Nintendo really gives two hoots about matching the PS4 in power anyway, I think that's a pissing match they moved away from getting involved in a long time ago.

Mario Kart 8 looks fantastic, it's clear the Wii U has enough power to make at least the games Nintendo wants to make look pretty nice.

If Fusion can run that level of graphics on a handheld at 540-720p and in full 1080p at home, I think Nintendo will be more than happy with that. Maybe throw in some more modern lighting/shader effects that give the impression of PS4/XB1-ish style graphics if a developer really wants to push it.

The whole point of Fusion in one sense is that Nintendo won't need third parties to have adequete software, it may actually be to their benefit to not have too much third party support in this scenario so all software sales are basically controlled directly by Nintendo. 

$219.99 for the handheld variant (at launch)

$179.99-$199.99 for the home TV version (VitaTV style microconsole). 

Is kinda what I see. Both use the same chipset like the iPhone-iPad use the same chips basically, just configured a little different (the iPad has a more powerful version of the chip with more RAM). 

could be good, if nintendo makes the thing powerful enough to run third parties and make it so its easy to develop for. I hated it when I saw a good Nintendo game only to learn it was for the gameboy. so having a 2-in-1 would be pretty cool