If I wasn't confident in my predictions, I wouldn't make them lol. None of the other NX stuff makes sense without being all digital. Phyisical media is a road block to concepts like a unified platform. It makes the whole thing slow and clunky when it's supposed to be simple and streamlined. Nintendo isn't pushing anything away because most people would deal with it. Everything they've been doing and saying since January of 2013 has been pointing to this. Nintendo wants you to look at a library of digital games on your system and be attached to those, picking and chosing what you want to play the same way you open and close apps. If my predictions are correct, they will have an extremely impressive OS, being able to have multiple games open at once. Tired of playing Smash? Just press the home button, go to another game, and play that. Then do the same thing again, and again, and again. All your games are suspended until you click them again, so you never have to boot them up again as long as you don't turn off your system, which you won't need to, since it'll have that sleep mode they just patented so we know it'll be apart of the console. That's what they're selling you. Not a clunky system of the past where you swap out discs and carts from one system to another and boot up every game every time you swap a disk. That kind of streamlined, optimised experience is absolutely impossible with physical media.

Why wouldn't they be first to the digital party? It's not like they haven't been aggressive in learning the digital age. They've been testing the waters for years now, and they've been talking about it too. The DeNA purchase is the final indicator. Any remaining lack of understanding of that space is being worked on with those guys. You keep saying that it will alienate their fans, but it won't. You're acting like all digital lowers the quality of the console, when it does the exact opposite, and when Nintendo comes out with the actual hardware that proves that and people get it in their hands and love it, and they will because it's an expertly excecuted modern idea, people will immediately understand why it's a good idea, just like they're doing now with Nintendo going mobile already, and they will jump in head first. Last year those same Nintendo fans, including me, were screaming up the wall about how Nintendo going mobile would be suicide, and now most of those very same people, including me, are gung ho for it now that Nintendo has presented how they'll accomplish it and it actually makes proper sense.

Steam doesn't use a data plan. Netflix and Hulu don't use data plans. Kindle uses one, but it's free and integrated into the price of all ebooks. The NX console doesn't need a data plan to be successful because it will just be docked into your home network or wifi. The NXDS frankly does because as it's a portable device it will need to be able to connect anywher, but as I mentioned with the Kindle example, there is a way to give handheld gamers that data for free by integrating that cost into the price of their games and the hardware.

And that's exactly what they'll do, as the idea was specifically mentioned by Iwata in an interview a few years ago in which he specifically mentioned including data into the costs of games/the hardware as an example of Nintendo handhelds in the future, specifically referencing Kindle. "I'm interested because it's a new business model in which the user doesn't bear the communications cost," he told the Financial Times. Like he literally said that it's an option for the future of their handhelds. The NXDS will not get away with not having a persistant online connection when smart devices all around the world have been doing it for so long, and adding a small invisible "data tax" on their games and/or hardware is the most Nintendo way of accomplishing this.

But yeah, that's only for the handhelds. Like I said, the console won't have, and won't need a data plan. So yeah, all digital is still entirely viable and is happening full steam ahead.

Based on that they will fix Wii U mistakes, affordable console with good marketing and better gimmick or "new concept of playing".

I don't know if you know this, but you and I wouldn't consider 90% of people who buy any console a "gamer." Regular people buy games, not just "gamers," and regular people are already accustom to all digital on literally every other form of media. None of them would care if the same thing happened with game consoles. Like I keep saying, the amount of people who will, come launch, never consider the NX as a viable buying option solely on the basis that it won't have physical media and nothing else is so insignificant it's laughable. The amount of people who will see the NX, want all the games that the NX, like the price of the NX, like everything else about the NX, but then say "no physical, no buy" will be so tiny, it isn't worth talking about. Most people who say they prefer physical will buy the NX as soon as their favorite franchise shows up on it. What, are 10m+ people just going to stop wanting Pokemon because they have to download it? No, they'll just shut up any buy it because they love Pokemon. Same with Mario, and Zelda, and Metroid, and everything else. Smash 5 comes out, and competitive Smash players are just gonna gonna say "fuck that. No disc, right?" Sure they will. /s

They aren't trying to gain a newly existing audience, and they aren't trying to specifically get back the Wii Sports audience, if that's what you think I'm getting at. They are simply improving on the concept of what a video game platform is, and are sure that that modernization with draw people to the NX. Just like the iPhone did and just like the iPod did. They didn't go after any blue oceans. They changed the langscape of the red ocean.

When you say wider audience, what do you mean? The Wii U was targeting kids, casuals, and core gamers. What's wider than that? Or do you mean that they will successfully capture a wider audience than what the Wii U captured, in which case I don't think that any of what you just mentioned, by itself, will do that much to improve the NX over the Wii U audience wise.

Like, good marketing is obvious, but good marketing at who? Better gimmick as in what? Another hardware gimmick, because that's not happening. At least nothing as drastic as the gamepad and the Wii Remote. I think the new system will have a new gimmick that will help make it a success, but it will be a firmware gimmick, selling the idea of a family of systems and the membership program rather than a specific hardware quirk.

If Nintendo wants a wider content audience, though, they need a wider array of exclusive content. I always say this, the best Nintendo is like Apple with hardware and firmware, and like Disney with software and multimedia presence. They'll have the Apple part down with the NX, but my worry is that they will be slow to be like Disney. On the multimedia side, they are doing everything I've said they should. They have announced a theme park, and they are in talks with various companies with various deal involving their IP in TV and movies. That's all great. What's not great is how they handle their software. Not the quality, but the variety. It's the equivilant of if Disney only made their animated movies and nothing else. They have ABC, they have Marvel, they have Star Wars. They have Pirates. Disney can appeal to multible demographics with all those acquisitions. They were big before, but are a monolithe now. Nintendo needs to do the same things.

I'll say it again, they either need to buy Capcom outright, or they need to purchase a controlling stake in them/sign a major exclusivity deal with them for games like with the Capcom Five, only this time with bigger IP and this time actually go through with it 100%. That handles the Marvel aspect. They need to invest in some major western studios. Either build their own like they did with Retro or buy a bunch like Square did with Eidos. They will never be able to retain good third party support if their isn't an audience on NX willing to buy the types of games that 3rd parties make, and Nintendo doesn't provide any incentive for anyone who likes those types of games to play on Nintendo platforms. Sony does with its IP and Microsoft does with its IP. It's high time Nintendo does the same. Square and Eidos are the literal ideal situation for Nintendo to replicate. Buy a full blown studio like that and get them to make first party western IP like Eidos does with Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Hitman, and Thief.

Nintendo as the Apple and the Disney of video games would make them the force. Only one makes them merely a force. Far less potential to dominate. I also think it would be wise to open Nintendo World Stores in malls across the world, not just NYC, as that would severely cut dependance on retailers, but that's for another day.

Tagging for later, I see Soundwave and Spemanpig are spouting their usual agendas. Another hardware gimmick isn't happening because some random guy says so lol, thanks for that Spemanpig. Sound wave is already in full belief of that patent lol, like Ninty showed this thing off yesterday.

In theory but not in practice, in actual practice the Wii U is more core centric with few titles aimed at casuals and wider markets. The price alone cut out a large chunk of the wider market and looking at the library it isn't very kid centric either if you're just looking to buy something only for kids, this highlights a fundmental problem in the library where if you're looking for just one thing it won't appeal to you, your taste has to be highly varied.

Rumor has it that spemanig owns a time machine. Where he comes from, people don't sleep.

Not really. If Nintendo is smart.

Becasue they don't need to, they just go back in time to a time where they felt most awake. An endless loop of no sleep and spewing Nintendo conspiracies, which I enjoy very much by the way, so thank you Spemanig!

I don't notice it on my PC. Nintendo can use very fast flash memory for the virtual memory/OS and an HDD for everything else. Or one of those fancy SSD/HDD hybrid drives. That should make the pause much less notable.