By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Nintendo Discussion - More hints of AMD's Potential Partnership with Nintendo on the NX

Dusk on 18 July 2015
haqqaton said:
WolfpackN64 said:

They say they could make use of software-based, rather than hardware based emulation, meaning the new chip could very well be x86.

That and no, PS Now is not backwards compatability, it's a paid streaming service.

Software emulation is unlikely. Currently you need a strong i5 to properly emulate an Wii.

Wii U is too strong to emulate via software for the time being.

 


The X1 is emulating the 360 with it's backwards compatibilty. That's the difference between open source reverse engineering and using the proprietary code and designing software to run it closed source without the need for reverse engineering. BTW, you don't need an i5 to properly emulate the Wii on Dolphin, Dolphin is restricted far more with the GPU than the CPU, but even then it's not that high of a requirement. 



Gotta figure out how to set these up lol.

Around the Network
Proxy-Pie on 19 July 2015

9th Gen console with 7th Gen power :|



darkcreap on 19 July 2015
Miyamotoo said:
bunchanumbers said:
Soundwave said:


Except Nintendo has had these types of games before with the GameCube and again early on with the Wii U and they sold a fraction of what they sold on the PS/XBox. Nintendo lost the audience for those types of games a long time ago and Sony/MS will never give them back as that is their bread & butter audience that they market to 24/7. 

At this point they're probably better off just trying something different. Nintendo's role in the industry has changed, their role now is to try and change up the status quo and be different. Sometimes it will work, sometimes not so much. That comes with taking the path less traveled. 

Besides honestly there's nothing wrong with embracing the family side of the market. The game industry is too obsessed with hyper-violent games, families should have a platform they can go to and play together. After all, pretty much everyone who is a Nintendo fan here became a fan when they were a kid. 


But there is a difference between catering to 3rd party and completely ignoring them. I'm not saying that Nintendo abandons the family market. That would be a bad idea. But making their hardware so that 3rd parties can easily port their games to their system is smart. If Nintendo decides to completely abandon 3rd party, then most likely they will never come back. This will make it so Nintendo ends up on their own again, and then we will be back in the Wii U area again.

NX will certainly have much more 3rd party friendly architecture, they will have better devs kits and better communication with them than when they launch Wii U, we already have that information that Nintendo showed hardware to 3rd party at E3. I think Nintendo will do what they can to bring 3rd party on NX (expect strong hardware and to give them money), will that be enough we will see, but certainly dont expect full 3rd party support but at least it will be better support than on Wii U.


Although this is my preferred scenario I don't know for sure if Nintendo is going to do this right. They already tried this with the WiiU and failed. I hope they try harder to bring third parties in.



numberwang on 19 July 2015

AMD uses Globalfoundries to manufacture their chips if I am no mistaken. So are we going with 32/28nm for the CPU/GPU in 2016. What are the implications?



darkcreap on 19 July 2015
Soundwave said:
UncleScrooge said:

It's comforting to know you are always here to educate me, Soundwave :P It's funny you act like I don't get Nintendo needs to save resources: Of course they do and that's exactly why I think they'll do what I said in my original post. So to clarify I will list some ways in which Nintendo can save resources (and not have to "increase their workforce by 2x-3x") by having two architectually similar platforms - only in my humble opinion, of course:

- Virtual Console games will run on both platforms with one programming effort (resources needed cut by almost 50%) 

- Game engines that can be modified and used between both platforms

- Not having to learn coding "from scratch" twice (this is what Iwata has been saying multiple times)

- Cross-Releases for some games (when it makes sense. Some games are better suited for a home console only, etc.)

- Maximising productivity of their workforce: Programmers can code for both platforms without needing special training

They can even use some sort of framework for less demanding games: Program it once and use the framework to make it run on both platforms, instead of having to develop two native versions. Couple that with a unified account system and Nintendo's plans to integrate their software teams instead of having them do stuff seperately and that's a lot of resources saved. They also talked a lot about "collaborations" and I assume that means partnering up with external development studios to increase game output. 

I don't claim I know the truth, I'm just speculating. I assume your solution would be a Fusion console, right? But Nintendo never talked about a "Fusion" console and they don't have any plans to kill off either their home console or handheld line, so I assume they are going to maximise their game output by taking the aforementioned steps. It's perfectly fine if you disagree and think I have no idea what I'm talking about. But I distinctly remember when Nintendo talked openly about "Blue Ocean Strategy" and "Disruptive Products" and "Fun and motion in our next home console like you've never seen before" and instead of taking Nintendo's words at face value the internet speculated about all kinds of crazy things. In the end Nintendo was hiding its strategy in plain sight. 

Actually the quote on this from the late Iwata-san is fairly vague. He mentions there could be multiple SKUs, but then he mentions in the same quote that they may only need one singular device. We have no idea which direction they ultimately landed on. 


I remember Iwata-san giving numerous clues on architecture integration on Q&A meetings. Besides, they already have this Nintendo Web Framework. They used it to develop the latest Mario vs Donkey Kong game, which is available on WiiU and 3DS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Web_Framework

I think that Nintendo's strategy is going to be:

-Provinding middleware frameworks to help developers develop a game with little to no changes from one platform to another. See the Nintendo Web Framework. Of course, being some kind of middleware I expect that only games with low requirements will fit here. It seems clear by now that they are targetting to offer a common framework to make it easy to publish on Smart devices and port to dedicated systems and vice versa.

-Provide a similar API and architecture for both the handheld and the home console. This is not some crazy rumour, it was said by Iwata-san at an investors meeting. See Q5:

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/140130qa/02.html

I quote:

It of course does not mean that we are going to use exactly the same architecture as Wii U, but we are going to create a system that can absorb the Wii U architecture adequately. When this happens, home consoles and handheld devices will no longer be completely different, and they will become like brothers in a family of systems.

Still, I am not sure if the form factor (the size and configuration of the hardware) will be integrated. In contrast, the number of form factors might increase. 

Furthermore, given that the New 3DS has the same button layout, has two "joysticks", a touch screen and an NFC reader, the only feature I see left out for now is being able to receive a video stream from a console. If those similarities don't speak about Nintendo's handheld incorporating WiiU gamepad functionality, what does?

-Giving sinergies to users by being present in several platforms. I think this is what they are thinking with the new membership service, which will cover not only Nintendo platforms but also smart devices:

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/release/en/2015/150317/03.html



Around the Network
Miyamotoo on 19 July 2015
darkcreap said:
Miyamotoo said:
bunchanumbers said:
Soundwave said:


Except Nintendo has had these types of games before with the GameCube and again early on with the Wii U and they sold a fraction of what they sold on the PS/XBox. Nintendo lost the audience for those types of games a long time ago and Sony/MS will never give them back as that is their bread & butter audience that they market to 24/7. 

At this point they're probably better off just trying something different. Nintendo's role in the industry has changed, their role now is to try and change up the status quo and be different. Sometimes it will work, sometimes not so much. That comes with taking the path less traveled. 

Besides honestly there's nothing wrong with embracing the family side of the market. The game industry is too obsessed with hyper-violent games, families should have a platform they can go to and play together. After all, pretty much everyone who is a Nintendo fan here became a fan when they were a kid. 


But there is a difference between catering to 3rd party and completely ignoring them. I'm not saying that Nintendo abandons the family market. That would be a bad idea. But making their hardware so that 3rd parties can easily port their games to their system is smart. If Nintendo decides to completely abandon 3rd party, then most likely they will never come back. This will make it so Nintendo ends up on their own again, and then we will be back in the Wii U area again.

NX will certainly have much more 3rd party friendly architecture, they will have better devs kits and better communication with them than when they launch Wii U, we already have that information that Nintendo showed hardware to 3rd party at E3. I think Nintendo will do what they can to bring 3rd party on NX (expect strong hardware and to give them money), will that be enough we will see, but certainly dont expect full 3rd party support but at least it will be better support than on Wii U.


Although this is my preferred scenario I don't know for sure if Nintendo is going to do this right. They already tried this with the WiiU and failed. I hope they try harder to bring third parties in.

Nintendo didnt have 3rd party friendly architecture with Wii U, also devs kits and communication with 3rd party were bad on Wii U launch, Wii U had some third party support on launch, but after terrible sales of console all abandoned theme in first year.



ghost_of_fazz on 19 July 2015

They should hire the developers of the Dolphin emulator and call it a day.



JEMC on 19 July 2015
numberwang said:
AMD uses Globalfoundries to manufacture their chips if I am no mistaken. So are we going with 32/28nm for the CPU/GPU in 2016. What are the implications?

AMD works with GloFo and TSMC, and while TSMC will have 16nm late this year or early 2016, GloFo will have its 14nm process ready around the same time.

But with that said, if Nintendo launches its product (handheld, home console, hybrid or whatever it is) in 2016, it will be based on a 28nm chip.



Please excuse my bad English.

Currently gaming on a PC with an i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.

Alby_da_Wolf on 19 July 2015
JEMC said:
numberwang said:
AMD uses Globalfoundries to manufacture their chips if I am no mistaken. So are we going with 32/28nm for the CPU/GPU in 2016. What are the implications?

AMD works with GloFo and TSMC, and while TSMC will have 16nm late this year or early 2016, GloFo will have its 14nm process ready around the same time.

But with that said, if Nintendo launches its product (handheld, home console, hybrid or whatever it is) in 2016, it will be based on a 28nm chip.


So NX could launch no sooner than 2017, after all.
BTW, I don't know why someone said a partnership with AMD would exclude an Android-based system, NX CPU or APU could be one of the first AMD K12 ARM chips, but even if it weren't, Android already runs on x86, although its main HW platform is ARM.



Stwike him, Centuwion. Stwike him vewy wuffly! (Pontius Pilate, "Life of Brian")
A fart without stink is like a sky without stars.
TGS, Third Grade Shooter: brand new genre invented by Kevin Butler exclusively for Natal WiiToo Kinect. PEW! PEW-PEW-PEW!   


JEMC on 19 July 2015
Alby_da_Wolf said:
JEMC said:
numberwang said:
AMD uses Globalfoundries to manufacture their chips if I am no mistaken. So are we going with 32/28nm for the CPU/GPU in 2016. What are the implications?

AMD works with GloFo and TSMC, and while TSMC will have 16nm late this year or early 2016, GloFo will have its 14nm process ready around the same time.

But with that said, if Nintendo launches its product (handheld, home console, hybrid or whatever it is) in 2016, it will be based on a 28nm chip.


So NX could launch no sooner than 2017, after all.
BTW, I don't know why someone said a partnership with AMD would exclude an Android-based system, NX CPU or APU could be one of the first AMD K12 ARM chips, but even if it weren't, Android already runs on x86, although its main HW platform is ARM.

To be fair, how long it will take to jump to the next node has little to do with Nintendo and its next console.

Nintendo usually goes with tried and tested hardware, not the newest and most cutting edge, so whatever hardware they have planned to use, it's most likely already on use and produced at 28nm.



Please excuse my bad English.

Currently gaming on a PC with an i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.