I'm not so sure they will need to price it at $40. They could just as easily make some free to start games that get people hooked. Or offer in game purchases until the full game is unlocked at $30, or offer to unlock the full version for free with a purchase of the console version. There are options for it though. Plus being on hundreds of millions of devices at launch will go a long way towards evening out costs.

Nah.  NX is going to be hardware.  No reason to think otherwise.

This image also suggests NX is a system in the same way Wii U and 3DS are.

I hope you don't actually think the NX would launch with that many form factors. What you talk about here is either a 10 year plan of hardware releases, or a disaster. No.

It'll launch with only the NXDS and the NX (what you call 'Pro') console at first. Then once those two have settled in for about a year or two, they might come out with a cheaper single-screen handheld for regions with a lower standard of living only cheaper games would be available on the system. Mostly VC and indie games. Don't see a "family console" happening at all. Nintendo doesn't simply make "wacky controllers" for the family. That's not their philosophy. If they're making a new gimmick, it'll be on every console because, in their heads, it'll benefit everyone.

So much debate on what the NX is! I'm personally just gonna wait until the official reveal.

I would imagine it would be phased out over 18 months or so. 

"Wacky controller" comes with both console configs, pro variant would likely just also ship with a regular controller too. Wii was a "wacky controller for the family" though, lol. That's Nintendo's life and blood, they value the "family at play" concept, their entire business is based on something called the FAMICOM, heh. 

Not 10 years. I think we need to get out of this 1989 vein of thinking. The world has changed, consumers accept different form factors all the time, we're used to it today. It's not like the 80s where you bought one VCR and the damn thing better work for the next decade or else. That mentality is outdated. 

Today it's about choice. I want an iPhone 6 Plus, I like the bigger screen. My brother doesn't, he just wants the regular iPad. My friend has an Android phone, but Apple still gets his money because he has an iPad. His wife prefers the iPad mini. 

Consumers understand choice, it's not confusing to them. 

Also "different" at this stage may as well be good for Nintendo. The current setup for traditional hardware releases is not working for them at all, in fact it works against them. So change the rules. 

Consumers really don't understand choice as much as anybody might think. They tend to gravitate towards the latest/most well advertised product. Only a small subset of consumers could be considered well informed. People are only okay with choice, and even then, that choice has to come with someone basically telling them what's best to get. Having a small circle that seems to at least represent the potentially well informed consumer subset does not mean everybody who wanders into Walmart looking to buy a piece of tech knows what's available, knows what they want, and won't be overwhelmed with choices if there's too much and it's too confusing.

Buying an iPhone? People just look for the latest number. Buying an Android phone? You just go to a phone stand, the person tells you "the Galaxy series is popular", and you end up getting a Galaxy S6. Now imagine that NX line. Everything will likely be named similarly because Nintendo can't seem to name a console anymore to save their lives. Let's return to the Wii/Wii U example of persistent consumer confusion. Now multiply that by seven. Suddenly people are gravitating towards the competition because the competition is clear cut. Even when people can understand options, they don't always like them. You may think consumers want choice, but what they really desire is someone giving them an obvious answer, that x product is assuredly better than y product.

Well clearly you are talking about massively successful products. The iPhone. Samsung Galaxy. They dwarf the PS4 in sales. 

Consumers today are more savvy about electronics, electronics are not just appliances anymore, they are personal companions, almost like fashion statements. People want a device that tailors to their needs. Forcing everyone to have to buy one kind of console is a limited and IMO outdated concept. 

I don't want a console that only consumes 33 watts of electricity. That is about no.15 on my list of important things in a console. Yet Nintendo spent a ton of time/effort/money making sure the Wii U runs at that electical output, at the expense of hardware power and several other factors. 

I say ... enough with this nonsense. Let the consumer choose what they want. 

STEAM is a good example of this, STEAM is just the game ecosystem. You can choose whatever PC floats your boat. A laptop even, if that's what you want. IMO that's the future. Valve doesn't care, as long as you're buying games through their store -- it's all good. In a way STEAM probably represents the future moreso than even the PS4 does. 

You can't dictate and talk down to consumers about this stuff anymore or they will simply just take their business elsewhere. Even the mighty Apple, which has the greatest marketing machine behind them in the consumerism was losing momentum by forcing people to have no choice in the iPhone (one model, you buy it, no we won't make a bigger screen one). They finally offer choice, and voila, sales explode past records and now Samsung is on the defensive. 

Wii was "wacky controller for everyone." IT wasn't just a family console. That doesn't mean that is was a good core console, but it definitely wasn't positioned in Nintendo's mind as solely a console for the family.

Yes 10 years. I wasn't even alive in 89. I'm in no danger of falling for that vain of thinking. The idevices were rolled out slowly over the last decade. It didn't just start out like this. Apple did follow a 10-year-plan, so that point is moot.

Consumers understand all of Apples options because they were introduced to them slowely, one by one. Apple didn't bust out the gate with the ipod, iphone, itouch, AppleTV, Apple Watch, ipad, etc within a few short years. All these devices took over a decade to all come out, each getting a year or so to soak up the limelight. If Apple threw them all out at once, it would have been a disaster, because consumers would have been confused and overwhelmed.

It's not working for them because they're doing it wrong, not because it can't work for them. It's not working against them; they're working against it. With the NX, they'll work with it.

I'm not sure anymore.. so will just wait and see what it is next year

Yeah, we'll look and see.