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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Nintendo NX: Hardware Specs, Games, Third Party Support And Everything You Need To Know

Soundwave said:
nuckles87 said:

This article's constant mischaracterizations of Nintendo's past hardware, combined with it confusion rampant speculation for things they "know", has made this a difficult read. The former is especially disappointing since without it this would at least be fun. So I need to get this of my chest now:

The specs of Nintendo's consoles have had very little to do with its success. The Wii did not "make them a non-factor in the industry's larger ecosystem", it WAS a part of the industry's larger ecosystem. The DS WAS the larger ecosystem of handhelds, and the Wii was by far the biggest seller in game consoles for most of its lifespan.

The Wii U's specs were not the obstacle for third parties either, lest everyone somehow forget that the vast majority of major releases since the Wii U came out have been cross-generational so far. The Wii U has missed out on LOADS of games being released for 360 and PS3 that it could have easily handled, and this had nothing to do with specs

3DS, likewise, is not exactly underpowered in a portable ecosystem that favors low spec games, and the Vita has certainly not been helped by its far superior specs in that regard.

And let's also not forget the failure that was the Gamecube, a system that was more than capable of handling anything the PS2 threw at it.

Nintendo's issues cannot be simplified to something as basic as "specs". If anything, Wii and DS should prove that specs are a non-factor when it comes to mass market success. What matters is price, branding, marketing, and the yes, the "gimmick".

Wii and DS were accompanied by great marketing and innovative software that caught the interest of the public, and built on that. Wii launched with Wii Sports for the masses and major Nintendo releases for the gamer crowd. The massive success of the DS was built on the popularity of Nintendogs and various Nintendo franchises that catered to all manner of gamer from grandma to a NeoGaf forum-goer (Mario Kart, New Super Mario Bros)

The Wii U's biggest problem is that it was designed to appeal to every kind of gamer, and ended up appealing to no one. The game pad is a poorly defined gimmick that even Nintendo has been struggling to figure out what to do with. It's too complicated for the mass market, which latched onto the Wiimote due to its simplicity, and it offered no real benefits for the hardcore gamer, who are perfectly happy with controllers as they are now. The Gamepad's cost out weighed the benefits it provided (easier access to game menus, off-TV play, touchscreen interface and game play). This resulted in the Wii U not only being underspecced, but also OVER PRICED, with a gimmick that appealed to no one.

3DS is, frankly, doing fine, but stumbled horribly out of the gate for a similar reason: over-priced at release, for a gimmick NO ONE CARED ABOUT.

Of course, even this isn't the whole story. There's Nintendo's inability to attract gamers who would buy third party software, and Nintendo gamer's general refusal to buy third party software (with some exceptions of course) which is a problem that's existed at least since the Gamecube, if not N64. This, again, had nothing to do with specs, and while the Wii's specs may have exacerbated the problem somewhat, they were not the cause. In fact, the Wii actually had very healthy third party support compared to Gamecube and Wii U. Unfortunately, the great third party games were ignored by most, and the rest were games that gamers like us (and the guy who wrote this article) don't care about or tend to acknowledge whenever they talk about the industry's "larger ecosystem".

Alright, rant over.


Wii and DS show you can have success with low powered consoles if you have a novelty attached to them which is a legitimate game changer to a clear and unchallenged audience base. 

But that doesn't mean that concept works as a blanket strategy either. The Virtual Boy and Wii U were underpowered too and we saw how those two turned out. 

You can't have success with that formula though unless you have something incredibly special as an interface going for you and a completely unchallenged audience (today this is far from the case, as millions of casuals play smartphone/tablet games on a regular basis). 

It's kind of like if you have a female friend and she says "well I don't need to go to school or get a job, I'm just going to be a Victoria Secret model, because that girl on the billboard didn't need to finish college". 

Well yeah, ok great, but you better damn well be incredibly good looking if that's your philosophy. Because that whole thing don't work if you look like an average person. So yeah if they're going to bet the farm on the "we're using hardware 1-2 generations behind what anyone would!" philosophy can work, but they better have one incredible, unbelievable novelty to go with it and even then I don't think they can replicate the Wii/DS because casual gamers today have smartphone games for free in their pocket 24/7, something that didn't exist in 2004-2006. 

I think one problem is that Nintendo felt they needed to "redefine" gaming again when there was no need to. Wii U didn't need a brand new controller, it needed a simple to understand controller that was accessible to everyone, so an upgraded Wii Remote would have done the trick. The Gamepad went right back to the complex control scheme that Nintendo abandoned with the Wii, that's taking a step backwards.



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.

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zorg1000 said:
Soundwave said:


Wii and DS show you can have success with low powered consoles if you have a novelty attached to them which is a legitimate game changer to a clear and unchallenged audience base. 

But that doesn't mean that concept works as a blanket strategy either. The Virtual Boy and Wii U were underpowered too and we saw how those two turned out. 

You can't have success with that formula though unless you have something incredibly special as an interface going for you and a completely unchallenged audience (today this is far from the case, as millions of casuals play smartphone/tablet games on a regular basis). 

It's kind of like if you have a female friend and she says "well I don't need to go to school or get a job, I'm just going to be a Victoria Secret model, because that girl on the billboard didn't need to finish college". 

Well yeah, ok great, but you better damn well be incredibly good looking if that's your philosophy. Because that whole thing don't work if you look like an average person. So yeah if they're going to bet the farm on the "we're using hardware 1-2 generations behind what anyone would!" philosophy can work, but they better have one incredible, unbelievable novelty to go with it and even then I don't think they can replicate the Wii/DS because casual gamers today have smartphone games for free in their pocket 24/7, something that didn't exist in 2004-2006. 

I think one problem is that Nintendo felt they needed to "redefine" gaming again when there was no need to. Wii U didn't need a brand new controller, it needed a simple to understand controller that was accessible to everyone, so an upgraded Wii Remote would have done the trick. The Gamepad went right back to the complex control scheme that Nintendo abandoned with the Wii, that's taking a step backwards.

Upgraded Wiimote would not have done the trick. 

It doesn't address anything with regards to casual players and many kids preferring smartphones/tablets. 

The Wii U comes with a Wiimote bundled as standard in Japan for example, and that's the worst selling market for the system. Wiimote was showing signs of feeling old/outdated by around 2010, so that whole gravy train was slowing down years before the Wii U even came out. 

If I'm a casual gamer .. explain to me why I should pay $30-$50 for a game period today. That's your central problem. A controller isn't changing that, because a multitouch screen is as intuitive or even moreso than a wand controller is. So the whole "barrier to entry" issue has been taken away ages ago, no one really cares about that anymore, today anyone can play simple video games if that's what they want. 

Truth be told a touchscreen is probably easier/more intuitive to use than a wand controller is. I have to constantly explain to my 5-year-old niece that she needs to point the Wiimote at the sensor bar for it to register, or she has to re-sync the controller, or that she needs to press B or A or whatever, but with an iPad, she just jumps in and can use it by herself and can play games on her own. 

The Wii was successful with casuals but in a time period where it basically had no competitor to worry about. Once things like the iOS app store and Kinect and the iPad starting arriving, it's sales start to decline (circa 2010). And I don't buy that it's because Nintendo stopped releasing "big games" the Wii sold even during periods with weak releases (ie: holiday 2008 with just Animal Crossing and Wii Music which didn't really even take off), and the Wii was never really dependant on franchises like Metroid or even 3D Mario to sell well in the first place. A "big" game for the Wii was Just Dance, which it was still getting. 



Soundwave said:

...


Everyone should check this new patent out:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1099932

"An example system includes an internal hard disk drive storing a program and/or data, a communication unit transmitting/receiving a program and/or data via a network, and a processor executing a program stored in the hard disk drive to perform game processing. The example system is not provided with an optical disk drive for reading out a program and/or data from an optical disk.

A controller with a screen is also mentioned."



Wyrdness said:
Soundwave said:

...


Everyone should check this new patent out:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1099932

"An example system includes an internal hard disk drive storing a program and/or data, a communication unit transmitting/receiving a program and/or data via a network, and a processor executing a program stored in the hard disk drive to perform game processing. The example system is not provided with an optical disk drive for reading out a program and/or data from an optical disk.

A controller with a screen is also mentioned."


I wonder if the screen on the controller might be the answer to the riddle of why Nintendo signed a deal with Sharp for free-form LCD displays ... maybe a GameCube-ish shaped controller with a screen underlay?

The no disc drive I expected for a while, but the patent makes it sound like game data is loaded from the HDD ... so uh ... digital only?



Soundwave said:


I wonder if the screen on the controller might be the answer to the riddle of why Nintendo signed a deal with Sharp for free-form LCD displays ... maybe a GameCube-ish shaped controller with a screen underlay?

The no disc drive I expected for a while, but the patent makes it sound like game data is loaded from the HDD ... so uh ... digital only?


Looks so if this is NX or one of the devices then it points to a Wii U like console which makes sense as they did mention Wii U is the basic template for NX and the unification, check all this out in the Patent.

 

Claims

1. A stationary game apparatus, comprising: an internal hard disk drive storing a program and/or data; a communication unit transmitting/receiving a program and/or data via a network; and a processor executing a program stored in the hard disk drive to perform game processing, wherein the game apparatus is not provided with an optical disk drive. 

2. The stationary game apparatus according to claim 1, comprising a first storage configured of a non-volatile memory, wherein the first storage stores a first program starting to be executed when the game apparatus is started, and the hard disk drive stores a second program starting to be executed after the first program starts to be executed. 

3. The stationary game apparatus according to claim 2, comprising a second storage configured of a non-volatile memory, wherein the second storage stores the second program. 

4. The stationary game apparatus according to claim 3, comprising: a corruption determination unit determining presence/absence of corruption in the second program stored in the hard disk drive; and a program restoration unit causing the hard disk drive to store the second program stored in the second storage, if the corruption determination unit determines that corruption is present. 

5. The stationary game apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a program and/or data concerning a game received through the communication unit is stored in the hard disk drive and is not stored in the first storage. 

6. The stationary game apparatus according to claim 1, comprising a connection unit to which an external hard disk drive is detachably connected, wherein the program and/or data concerning a game received through the communication unit is stored in the internal hard disk drive or the external hard disk drive connected to the connection unit. 

7. The stationary game apparatus according to claim 1, comprising a speed control unit controlling a speed of reading and/or writing of data with respect to the hard disk drive. 

8. The stationary game apparatus according to claim 7, comprising an obtaining unit obtaining identification information of a program to be executed by the processor, wherein the speed control unit controls a speed of reading and/or writing of data in accordance with the identification information obtained by the obtaining unit. 

9. The stationary game apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the speed control unit controls a speed of reading and/or writing of data in response to a command from a program being executed by the processor. 

10. The stationary game apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the processor is able to execute a program which operates by using a different hard disk drive different from the internal hard disk drive, and the speed control unit emulates a speed of reading and/or writing of data with respect to the different hard disk drive when the processor executes the program. 

11. The stationary game apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the speed control unit switches a mode for reading and/or writing of data with respect to the hard disk drive to either one of two modes with different speeds. 

12. The stationary game apparatus according to claim 11, wherein at least one of the two modes is a mode for emulating a speed of reading and/or writing of data with respect to a storage device other than the hard disk drive. 

13. The stationary game apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the game apparatus is compatible with another game apparatus comprising an optical disk drive for reading out a program and/or data from an optical disk, and a processor for executing the program read out from the optical disk to perform game processing, and an interface for the hard disk drive is same as an interface for the optical disk drive in said another game apparatus. 

14. The stationary game apparatus according to claim 1, comprising: a wireless communication unit performing wireless communication with a wireless communication device having an operation unit and a battery, and wirelessly transmitting/receiving information concerning an operation accepted by the operation unit; and a power supply unit to which the wireless operation device is detachably connected via a power supply line, and supplying power to the battery of the wireless operation device via the power supply line. 

15. The stationary game apparatus according to claim 1, comprising a wireless communication unit performing wireless communication with a wireless operation device wirelessly transmitting/receiving information concerning an operation accepted by an operation unit, wherein the wireless communication unit performs wireless communication with a dedicated communication protocol. 

16. The stationary game apparatus according to claim 1, comprising a wireless communication unit performing wireless communication with a wireless operation device having an operation unit and a display unit, and wirelessly transmitting/receiving information concerning an operation accepted by the operation unit and information concerning an image to be displayed on the display unit. 

17. A non-transitory recording medium recording a computer program executed by the processor of the stationary game apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the computer program includes a processing routine for the stationary game apparatus, and one or more processing routines for a game apparatus having a hardware configuration different from the stationary game apparatus, and the computer program causes the processor to operate as an identification information obtaining unit obtaining identification information of a game apparatus, and a selection unit selecting a processing routine in accordance with the identification information obtained by the identification information obtaining unit. 

18. A game system, comprising: an internal hard disk drive storing a program and/or data; a communication unit transmitting/receiving a program and/or data via a network; and a processor executing a program stored in the hard disk drive to perform game processing, wherein the game system is not provided with an optical disk drive. 

19. A game apparatus, comprising: an internal hard disk drive; and a storage configured of a non-volatile memory, wherein the storage stores a first program starting to be executed when a game apparatus is started, and the hard disk drive stores a second program starting to be executed after the first program starts to be executed. 

20. A game apparatus, comprising: an internal hard disk drive storing a program and/or data; a processor executing a program stored in the hard disk drive to perform game processing; and a speed control unit controlling a speed of reading or writing of data with respect to the hard disk drive, wherein the speed control unit switches a mode for reading and/or writing data with respect to the hard disk drive to either one of two modes with different speeds, and at least one of the two modes is a mode for emulating a speed of reading and/or writing of data with respect to a storage device other than the hard disk drive. 

21. The game apparatus according to claim 20, comprising a connection unit to which an external hard disk drive is detachably connected, wherein the speed control unit emulates a speed of reading and/or writing of data with respect to the external hard disk drive in the mode for emulating. 

22. The game apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the processor is able to execute in parallel a plurality of programs including a program concerning a game and/or a program other than the program concerning a game, and the speed control unit switches the mode for reading and/or writing of data, for each program being executed by the processor. 

23. A speed control method of controlling, in a game apparatus including an internal hard disk drive storing a program and/or data, a speed of reading or writing of data with respect to the hard disk drive, comprising: obtaining identification information of a program to be executed; and switching a mode for reading and/or writing of data with respect to the hard disk drive to either one of two modes with different speeds in accordance with the obtained identification information. 

24. A non-transitory recording medium recording a computer program, causing a processor of a game apparatus including an internal hard disk drive storing a program and/or data to operate as a speed control unit switching a mode for reading and/or writing of data with respect to the hard disk drive to either one of two modes with different speeds in response to a command from a program being executed. 

25. A game apparatus, comprising: a wireless communication unit performing wireless communication with a wireless operation device having an operation unit, a display unit and a battery, and wirelessly transmitting/receiving information concerning an operation accepted by the operation unit and information concerning an image to be displayed on the display unit; and a power supply unit to which the wireless operation device is detachably connected via a power supply line and supplying power to the battery of the wireless operation device via the power supply line. 

26. A non-transitory recording medium recording a computer program executed by processors of a plurality of types of game apparatuses with different hardware configurations, wherein the computer program includes a plurality of processing routines for each of the plurality of types of game apparatuses, and the computer program causes the processor to operate as an identification information obtaining unit obtaining identification information of a game apparatus; and a selection unit selecting a processing routine in accordance with the identification information obtained by the identification information obtaining unit.



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Just realized that patent is highlighting a possible cartridge or solid state like format, anyone remember that rumour a few months back saying something like that.



 

The "screen controller" may not be like the Wii U though as we would expect. 

It could be more like imagine removing the Home/Start/Select buttons and imagine a screen underlay on a controller like this:

If that's the case, then the Sharp free form LCD display deal that Nintendo signed starts to make sense



Miyamotoo said:
JEMC said:
Miyamotoo said:

In case that @Soundwave mentioned, itins simple portable, its something between home and handheld console, home and handheld in one device, portable that can stream games wirelessly to the TV, that definitely would worth around $250 price point.

A handheld that connects to the TV to play games on it is not a home console. Otherwise, the PSP, which you could connect to the TV with a simple components cable, could also be called a home console... and it wasn't.

And the device you both mention is maninly a handheld console, so its capabilities (like battery life) and price will be judged accordingly. At then, the $250 price point will make it fail like it did with the 3DS.

Also, both you and Soundwave don't remember or ignore that not so long ago Nintendo said (unfortunately, I could not find a link to the exact statement) that while in Japan the handheld market is still viable unlike the home consoles market that has shrunk a lot, in the west the situation is the complete opposite and is very home console orientated. Therefore, the most logical approach would be to only launch the NX handheld in Japan and the NX home console in the west, as that's what the market demands.

Will Nintendo do it? Of course not! It's ridiculous! It's almost as ridiculous as to think that Nintendo will launch a device to work as a portable and home console, but gives a gimped experience to one or both group of users: handheld gamers could get an overpowered (to get higher than Wii U level of graphics) machine that as a result has a low battery life or home console gamers could end with a weak machine (because it will have improved graphics compared to the 3DS, but they will still be far, far away from the competition).

PSP could connect to TV and played game only on small part of TV and game looked pretty bad. NX could basicly do what Wii U doing, 720p on TV and 720p on device itself.

Like I wrote, that wouldn't be just handheld, handheld that can act like home console, so you really can't compare that with 3DS and 3DS price point.

Define home console, whats a main point of home console!? Playing games on your TV and staying at home, this will be some sort of mobile home console or if you like handheld that acts like home console.

That is probably main reason why Nintendo will be probably do this, because in Japan people can use this device like classic handheld and at West like clasisic home console, this is a device for handheld and home console users, it will targeting both in same time.

Like Soundwave mentioned, maybe there will be some optional device, dock or some sort of addon for 1080p and reacher graphic.

PSP games looked bad because of the resolution, just like Wii games looked bad (with a lot of jaggies) on big screens. That doesn't go against my point.

Yes, I can compare NX and 3DS if NX ends up being a handheld that connects to the TV. It's just another handheld feature.

I'll be honest, I no longer can define what a home console is. Since the PS2 era, the line between a home console and a multimedia device started to blurry. With the PS3/Xbox360 that line became even more blurrier and in this gen... well, remember the discussions about the back then xbox720? Oh, 2014. Well, you could be here as a lurker, there were a lot of people and analysts (what a surprise) that believed that it would be a media center that played videogames rather than a videoconsole with media capabilities. And then with Wii U having a screen that makes TVs unnecessary...

Your last two points lead to me to my final point: price, audience and resources management. If it's a 2 on 1 kind of device, Nintendo will have to sell them the whole package, not only the "console" but also a controller and a docking station. Because of course there will be something to connect the console to the TV, not all TVs have wifi and even then, Nintendo used propietary chips to send the data between the WiiU and the GamePad, so they weren't confident on regular wifi connections to work properly. That increases the price.

Also. there won't be an addon to increase the power. Just think about it, to do that you need to go two ways:

1-The handheld has powerful enough specs to run the games on TV at higher resolution or with extra visuals. It runs at full speed when docked and at 50-60% when used as a handheld.

That means means that instead of buying 15 millions of low spec and cheap chips for the handheld and 5 millions of higher specs and more expensive chips for the home console, Nintendo will be forced to buy the whole 20 millions chips of the more expensive kind because they won't know who will use it only as a handheld or who will the 100% of it. More expensive chips make a more expensive machine.

2-The station or addon has its own hardware. That can work two ways: A-The station has the hardware used to run the games on TV, making the handheld little less than a storage device; or B-The station has a set of hardware that, when you connect the machine, works with the hardware of the handheld and together have enough power to run the games at high/very high (to use PC nomenclature).

The problem with that is that going any of those routes is ridiculous. If the station has the hardware tu run the games, there is no need at all for the handheld, so it can be sold separately as a true home console. And I won't even talk about sharing hardware to run games, I can't even imagine how hard it would be to develop any kind of game for a system with two CPUs (not CPU cores, but two individual and not directly connected CPUs) and two GPUs in the same situation. It's not only that third parties would stay away from that monster, it's that even for Nintendo that would be too expensive to even consider it.

None of those options is a good or even intelligent approach. 

 

And now, think about this: if you start to add all those extra expenses (the complete package and the expensive or the extra hardware included), you end with a machine that is far from cheap.



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.

Digital only? Oh, boy... I really hope Nintendo won't go in that direction with the NX.. :/



                
       ---Member of the official Squeezol Fanclub---

AZWification said:

Digital only? Oh, boy... I really hope Nintendo won't go in that direction with the NX.. :/


It's not saying digital only it's saying digital with some kind of non disc format as a memory card of some sort is indicated in the patent something a digital only device doesn't need.