Cartridge-based console, yes. Full digital only console, no.  Many people have no problem spending 40-50€ in a physical game, way less people is comfortable paying those prices for a digital game.

Also, how is getting publishers away from the NX a good thing? Nintendo will multiply its output fusing HH and HC, but they need 3rd parties if they want to get people on board and avoid software droughts. Nintendo would be fine with 1/3 or 1/4 of the 3rd party support Sony has, but little to no support would axfixiate the NX.

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Well, getting publishers away isn't a good thing per se, it's just that the blockbuster model and big publishers dictate pretty much everything available on retail. In the same way the big publishers whine they can't compete Nintendo, the smaller can't compete the big ones. I don't think the AMD twins had physical media if wasn't for the big 3rd parties. MS have been putting everything the can online for the last 20 years, and Sony already released a handheld that's online only. Direct to customer model is disruptive to blockbuster model. Nobody wanted to distribute music online before they had to. Nobody wanted to distribute movies online before they had to. Nobody wants to distribute games online before they have to.

Yeah, I see what you mean. Big 3rd parties lose a decent amount of control in a fully digital market. On PC and mobile, they can afford that due to the massive instalbase and the fact they could just create their own distribution services (Origin, UPlay...). On consoles, however, they have to go through the service of the manufacturer, so they might want to keep their control over physical media, at least. For Sony, MS and Nintendo, a digital only service would give them more weight on their negotiations over mayor 3rd party publishers (minor 3rd party companies don't care about market control, they just want their games to keep them afloat).

Still, a digital-only console would be a nightmare for people with weak internet connections or no internet at all, and the smaller installbase can't guarantee Steam-like prices. And a Digital-only Nintendo console would give major publishers an excuse to not develop for the system, saying "it's too risky", despite the fact PC and mobile are almost fully digital now, and are the markets with the biggest growth rates on the industry.

@Darwinianevo: That too, but the blockbuster model works so, that you sell physical games to retail based on their preorders. If retail buys 10 million copies of your game, and your share is 30€ per game, that's 300 000 000€ revenue before a single game is sold to end user. And this first shipment is the only shipment you need to care about, the risk of being able to sell the games to end users is on retail.

Games like Modern Warfare that release on "all" the platforms and break records on box office, they likely ship 20 million copies and the price they sell is likely higher than 30.

Interesting, maybe Nintendo will talked to them about next year's NX launch.

I dont think they will show them anything because investors will probably leak very fast.

Yep. I think they will focus on the strategy for NX, combined with mobile, theme parks and maybe movies/tv shows (heavy licensing IP's, like amiibo). Basically, another strategy briefing but with more concrete info.

It's a bit lame that we can't make new threads, but anyway:
I think Nintendo will use the same game cards for both NX home and handheld console. Cards will work for both devices so you have to buy your physical games only once. 32GB and lower should be cheap enough to produce and prices for flash storage will go down over time. There'll be cloud storage for save files, of course. And it makes sense to have one single physical format for Nintendo, considering they just told stores to unify the 3DS and Wii U sections into a single "Nintendo" branded section.

Anybody else think it's possible we get a handheld and console that are pretty much the same in terms of hardware?

Something similar to what Apple has with the newest iPod & Apple TV? Both have the same SoC, although I believe Apple TV is at a higher clock rate, and the other main difference is Apple TV has 2gb RAM vs 1gb for iPod.

Is something like this possible for NX handheld and console?

I've done it before. Taking my mind off of the very reason I'm in the bathroom helps me relax my muscles and allow the bowel movement to take place more naturally.