If its not going to be the same specs, then can't make games for one and sell it on both cause then they will be bottlenecked by the handheld which will make people not get the console cause if its 2-3 times more powerful than the handheld, that means it will cost more than the handheld and if the console has the graphics of the handheld, then people will just buy the handheld.

You don't seem to know much about hardware and how it all works now do you...? The handheld will most likely be weaker than the wiiU because it will have to be priced less than $200... And it is bottlenecked by the battery... The handheld won't run on magic to provide as much power as the wiiU while costing less than $200 plus having all the stuff like a screen and etc

And thats not a good thing if a "next gen" console is still weaker than the weakest of the two leading current gen consoles... The bad press will be all over it

I am not expecting a ps5 killer... I am hoping for a console that is close enough to a x2 but a bit weaker and lower priced that is made to be third party friendly and they will pay some like Rockstar to port their games onto the NX. If this is going to be similar to the Wii, then the whole concept that you are arguing is heavely flawed because the wii brought the casuals a new way to entertain themselves... If all this does is have the same games on both platforms, then guess what? Thats not even close to being the samething as what the wii did...

Actually we've had many discussions about the state of mobile tech here. Look up my Tegra X1 thread. I think that'll be an eye opener for you that mobile chip can run Crysis 3 already and is shipping in a microconsole in a couple of months for $199.99 (with 3GB of RAM to boot). This is a chip that will be in tablets and phones even too. 

The home version could have 2-3x the grunt power but because it doesn't need to have an LCD touch panel or battery, that more than offsets the cost of having more RAM + triple the chip. LCDs and even batteries are more expensive than chipsets. The home and portable version will probably be about the same price. 

I don't think Nintendo is neccessarily hamstrung by the 'portable must be $199!' rule anymore either ... iOS/Android and New 3DS give them plenty of options now to get their content to kids/cheapo parents. The new handheld could be more like $229-$250 even to start with and aim at a more upmarket audience initially (so long as they don't launch with only Nintendogs, lol). 

Games scale 3:1 fairly easily too, many PC GPUs do it all the time, developers make the same game run on various different GPU targets all the time, having two fixed scales will be easy for them. 

I think will share games. The portable versions will run at 960x540 to 1280x720 and the home versions will be at 1080p. It will could be a nice sized upgrade on the Wii U too, probably close to the XBox One in a very small form factor at only about 15-16 watts power consumption. 

And paying Rockstar ... not happening. Just get a XB2/PS5 dude if that's what you want. Rockstar will never support Nintendo in a big way. Content wise their games are just too far removed from Nintendo's family friendly schtick to ever motivate Rockstar to take a Nintendo platform seriously even if all other things were equal. 

Yea, just by that statement, its pretty obvious that you don't know much... The thing with the whole Nvidia Shield is that Nvidia makes all of the parts where as with Nintendo, they have to get the licenses in order to use those parts in their systems and pay a royalty... Nvidia shield doesn't need a royalty or anything because Nvidia makes everything... And not to mention that it doesn't need a screen and etc

And yes but while it won't have the screen and etc, it won't be able to have 3 times the power or triple the chip because its not that cost effective

And heres the thing... Developers have to put extra amount of effort to make sure that PCs are capable of doing that and the reasons PCs are capable of doing that is because they have a wide range of specs. It won't be a fixed scale when it comes to the NX because while the hardware itself is the same, that doesn't mean all games will have the same res because its game dependent.. You can't expect the same res from a game like xenoblade to a game like Smash Bros

Just exactly how do you expect... A console that is weaker than the x1... To do 1080p... When the x1 can't even do 1080p...? And how do you expect it to do 1080p with 16 watts of power...?

Ya they kinda do, 3DS+Wii U have sold about 40 million outside of Japan and 60 million total on the strength of Nintendo games+Japanese games+indies+child friendly games. The big AAA western audience already has a home, PS/XB/PC, there is no point for Nintendo to invest heavily on a large audience that has no want or need for a Nintendo console. And ya look at Monster Hunter, it's grown in the West with each successive entry.

What do u mean handheld experience? Do MK7/8 or Smash3D/U have completely different play styles or something? No, they play very much the same and the biggest difference is the visual aspect. The next handheld will likely be producing visuals similar to Wii U, perhaps at a lower resolution and the console will be a beefed-up version of that, able to display those games at a higher resolution with some extra graphical effects.

If these devices aren't overly expensive ($150-200) they can easily get people to buy both, perhaps u get the handheld to play the more handheld-centric titles like Pokemon or Animal Crossing and console to play the more console-centric titles Zelda or Metroid Prime and maybe even have some extra features when both devices are linked together like the GBA-GC or use the handheld as the Gamepad.

3DS+Wii U are on track to selling 80-90 million units combined, so a unified approach could easily sell 70-80 million when u take into account the overlap in their handheld and console consumers.

Dude relax for starters. Take a deep breath. Nintendo won't be using Nvidia obviously, I'm just using them as an example of what modern mobile SoCs can do right now (let alone where they'll be at in 2 years time). Wii U level graphics on a mobile processor in even a low cost $200 price point is possible *today*. That's all I'm saying. Nintendo will like work with their traditional vendor partners in ARM and AMD, but they should be able to get a chip similar/even better especially if we're talking a spring 2017 launch for the handheld variant or so. 

16 watts I'm getting from the NX SOC being about 5 watts for a single SOC. That's about the top end power envelop you can have for a chip and still put it into a mobile form factor and have decent battery life. So if Nintendo has a SOC of about 5 watts, lets say, putting 3 of those into a box gets you 15 watts or so. 

Again I don't think Nintendo really cares about matching the X1, for their OWN games, that would be enough to hit 1080p though I would think most of the time. The other issue that the X1 has is its eSRAM buffer at 32MB isn't big enough to do 1080p easily I think. Who knows. Nintendo could have something like 48MB or 64MB of eDRAM for their home NX version, that makes 1080p a helluva lot easier. 

The A8x Apple processor drives a display that's 2028x1536 resolution (iPad Air 2) ... that's far higher than 1080p. Put three of those A8 SOCs into a console like box and you would have a pretty damn powerful console even right now and that would only consume about 15 watts of electricity. Give it some eDRAM and it would outperform a Wii U. By 2017 Nintendo will be able to get themselves a SoC far better than the A8x (it will be ancient by then). 

The reason why it sold so much outside of Japan isn't because of its third party games, it sold that much because of the Nintendo games and that is proven by the sales of Japanese third party games in the west compared to Nintendo IPs in the west. And people do have a need for a Nintendo console, they just aren't willing to give up third party for Nintendo exclusives. MH's growth is laughable because of how slowly its growing and how long it took...

Actually, there are various differences between the handheld and console versions in terms of gameplay and other things... For one, the online is better on the console version on both platforms, then you have local multiplayer which you can't do unless the console is signicantly stronger than the handheld and ssb has 8 players. And of course, the graphics is like night and day which is where the true console experience lies... And not to mention that you can have bigger worlds and bigger games in the console compared to the handheld such has XCX and Zelda... So yes, it is the handheld experience... And if its the same system, then how on earth do you expect higher res and extra graphical effects? And if its a stronger system, that means that it will get extra development time and resources in order to get those effects in there and since both systems will have the same games according to you, doing this will simply waste money... Specially since its mostly just the handheld experience on a console with slightly better graphics and res and no one would buy that because it will be weaker than the x1/ps4 and it will be shunned by everyone that is not a Nintendo fan (the console that is)

People won't buy both because why spend extra when you can just spend half and get all the games on there? The reason why people bought the handheld and console traditionally because they offer seperate experiences, not the same experience... And this will be even more so the case here. Sure, some people will buy both but majority wont because of that simple logic...

Yes, 70-80 milion may seem doable but then you realize the rise of smartphones which continue to take market share from dedicated handhelds... So realistically, it will be 60 million or less. And of course, it will have less revenue since most people won't be buying both hardware and not to mention that they will be exiting the console market because the console will be the one that will flop. People will see this "next gen" console as a last gen one and the third parties that matter out side of Japan will simply skip it and gamers that aren't Nintendo fans won't bat an eye on the NX console. And the handheld will also sell less due to smartphones

Nintendo hardware was likely going to decline no matter what next cycle anyway I think. The only thing that's going to stop that is if they can come up with some new type of hit IP equivalent to what Pokemon was in the 90s.

Now that they have basically four business pillars coming

- iOS and Android Games

- NX/"traditional" Nintendo platform

- Quality Of Life products

- Movie/Television licensing (Mario CG movie, Zelda Netflix TV series, more to come?).

I suspect a deal with Nintendo and either Disney or Universal will be forthcoming to have Nintendo based attractions at theme parks soon too. It's a natural fit.

NX doesn't have to carry the company. It just has to be make a nice sized profit. I think Nintendo already knows their dedicated hardware could likely continue to decline in the next 5 years. That's why they are branching out aggressively into other areas like iOS/Android development, allowing for movies/TV shows to be made of their IP, and making a new division for QoL. 

Well, you are saying it but you aren't providing any proof as to how they can do it... If the lastest and greatest $200 micro console made by Nvidia that requires no royalties sells for $200... How on earth do you expect a royalty based method to match similar performance even if its Amd/Arm...? Yes, they will be cheaper than Nvidia but they won't be so cheap that they can provide a wiiU like power so efficiently for that low of a price... And the NX is set to launch either late 2016 or early 2017 and be shown sometime in 2016 which means that the hardware designs have been finalized a long time ago

How do you expect a 5 watt SoC to deliver the same performance as the wiiU while being cheaper than $200?

You do realize that putting eDRAM or eSRAM increases the cost of the console significantly right? Fast memory like that will increase the cost of the console by a lot hence why the ps4 can do it easily with being similarly priced as the X1... Edram/Esram is a bad idea... And even with their own games, it won't be enough to hit 1080p and not to mention, trying to optomize games to hit 1080p which = increased development time from games which = money that they won't be making back beause according to your concept, they will be giving 2 for the price of 1... And as I have said why the console will flop due to bad press and etc

Yes, the Apple A8x process drivers displays at that resolution but that doesn't mean anything. My family computer's integrated intel video card is capable of displaying at 4k but as soon as you play games, it will shit its pants... Most games on mobile upscale like crazy but since the screens are so tiny, its not very noticable at all where as if you upscale on a big screen like a TV, it is very noticable... And having more eDRAM doesn't actually make it out perform anything if its not used correctly and eDRAM can also be a bottleneck for many things as experienced by the x1... They need GDDR5 ram which should be freakishly cheap at this point since GPU ram is going to HBM and if they can do that, it will run at 1080p perfectly fine but again, both ways, its not going to happen at that price point

Another good aspect of the unified approach is that they have a much higher chance of finding that next big Pokemon/Skylanders/Minecraft type craze now that they don't have to make 2 seperate versions of all their major franchises.

Also, some other television licensing I could see happening are Pikmin & Fire Emblem series on Nickelodeon. We already saw the Pikmin shorts which could be expanded on, Nick already has a shoe similar to that, Rabbids Invasion and a Legend of Korea-style Fire Emblem series could probably be pretty popular as well. This could really help expose these lesser known Nintendo ip to new people.

This is the $199.99 Nvidia Shield mini-console running native games. IMO these graphics match maybe even exceed what the Wii U does today using a mobile chip for $199.99 (3GB of RAM), these are games that have only have a few months of optimization too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE0Q06q4V6A

eDRAM adds to cost, but little known fact ... even the little ol' New 3DS has 10MB of eDRAM (the original 3DS has 6MB of eDRAM, New 3DS bumps it up to 10MB). So it's not impossible to have eDRAM in a portable. Nintendo's already been doing it for years. 

Though that may be why they are waiting a little longer until 2017 perhaps. Maybe they are waiting for something like the 14nm manufacturing process to mature or for stackable RAM or something. Just a theory though. 

My point remains though three A8xs in a box + some eDRAM would outperform a Wii U today. I don't have much doubt about that either. And in two years time Nintendo should be able to quite easily get a mobile SOC better than the A8x. 

My understanding is Nintendo loathes high latency RAM too, so GDDR5 probably would never be something they'd willingly choose anyway. They like low latency RAM with a fast eDRAM buffer, that's basically been their MO since the GameCube era.