It'll be a crystal ball, you place your hands on either side of it and you can control the holographic world inside... Magic...

Never forget the GC, which aside from looking like a lunchbox was a powerhouse and had lots of 3rd party support yet sold like crap. It feels like Nintendo will never get their street cred back no matter what they do, so they might as well go with themselves instead of trying to please a mindless audience that just wants to play rehashes remasters of games in so-called cutting edge almighty consoles. I don't want a Nintendo Xbox, I'm sure nobody else does.

Isn't that called 3DS? I think it is time for a new handheld family. 

I'm hoping it's more like the move from DS to 3DS, where the "surprise" was just a stereoscopic 3D screen.

Not because I don't like the gamepad, but because I really don't want to see Nintendo fail again.

Please don't surprise me Iwata! Because that seems to be what people want...

They don't want surprises. They want a PS4 with the Nintendo logo slapped on it!

The GCN used minidiscs, which had a huge impact on its 3rd party support. It only had "lots of 3rd party support" compared to current Nintendo systems. You know which console sold more? The one with better 3rd party support because it actually used real DVDs.

The last time Nintendo had a system with real effort in supporting 3rd parties was with the SNES. Every system since has done something to disregard them from N64 karts, GCN minidiscs, Wii motion controls and power, and the Wii Us power and PPC.

The only ones damaging Nintendo's "street cred" is Nintendo.

Saying the GCN's mini-discs greatly affected its third-party support is silly. The Xbox 360's DVD's didn't influence its third party support compared to the PS3's Blu-Ray discs. This is obviously an example of selection bias. 

I tend to agree with this, which is why I get so frustrated with those who criticize their new direction and their plans of changing direction. I fondly remember the N64 era and how magical Nintendo were back then; I know what they're capable of in terms of quality and sheer entertainment factor and can't wait to see what they have to offer us in the next 4-5 years!

I just hope it is in the vein of augmentation (Wii U) as opposed to reinvention (Wii). While the Wii U has many issues, I think the principle idea of innovation on top of the conventional is a good one. The execution was just off this time.

But in reality, we know nothing. Nintendo has said this about every piece of hardware for as long as I can remember.

So, theres going to be a twist, just like the Wii and the Wii U. Its not unexpected. Nintendo systems are not the most technologically advanced so they have to diferentiate them in a different way.