I'd be more worried about how this thing is supposed to be competetive. Nintendo has allowed Sony to basically take over the console industry, to launch this thing AFTER even the PS4K is almost the final nail in the coffin. The hardware is going to have to be something legitimately different and yes probably non-conventional. 

The Nintendo groupthink here that Nintendo can release some console that's a little better than the PS4 for $300 and that's good enough ... holy fuck are those people in for a rude awakening if that's all the NX is. It is going to get its ass rocked in this market. 

No the group think that because it's specualted NX is two devices, one for portable and one for home console, under this speculation beating the PS4 isn't as big a factor because the portable side of things already guarantees it'll do better than the Wii U and GC. This won't be two separate devices it will be one brand across two markets, both devices can essentially sell the exact same amount as their predecessors only this time it'll be one userbase not two separate ones.

There's a high probability in that scenario though that the "console" side of that pie flops entirely and Nintendo is basically left as a portable machine maker. Though I suppose that isn't much different from the reality of today. 

Part of this is Nintendo's doing though, realistically in 2017 if they're releasing a console if needs to be competetive with the PS5/XB2 in specs and it likely won't even be close to the PS4K let alone PS5. 

The time frame to release a "me too PS4!" has pretty waaaaaay passed I think and the PS4K complicates everything even further because Nintendo won't even have the "hey our machine is a little better than your PS4!" card to play even. 

It really just needs a HUGE push at the beginning of the console's life cycle with complete games (The Wii U's first year was pretty much all third party games with missing collectors editions and no DLC), it needs to be on par with the PS4 at the very least, and it needs a decent price point. 

The third party games it gets that are late? They better freaking have exclusive content. The new games it gets, they need to have a collectors edition. And sad as it is to say, they need third party devs flat out telling us Nintendo will get all the DLC.

If it drops with around 8 games spread between first and third party, all with all the content and collectors editions, I think the story will be a bit different than Wii U. 

And I agree, it needs the console/handheld hybrid, or something that really changes the formula you simply can't get anywhere else. I also agree that's half the battle. Without a single game being announced, the viewers need to look at the console and say "yes, this is what I want". Because as you said (and I completely agree with), it lost out on being the first console with 4K media in some shape or form (especially if Sony releases their console in October, which would still be a month earlier than the NX for even the people that believe it is coming out this year). 

Essentially the NX is going to have to hit us with a double whammy. It HAS to be new and attractive and it HAS to release with a plethora of games (and not Wii U remasters people have made themselves believe is going to be SOOOOO attractive, it gives 13 million people no reason to upgrade). 

Here's the thing that Nintendo fans don't get ... most people aren't going to be THAT impressed even if Nintendo has Mario, Zelda, blah, blah, blah at NX launch. Also good luck convincing third parties t make exclusives for a platform that has no userbase versus the massive userbases the PS4/X1 had. 

Hybrid console that is portable is probably their best bet now simply because at least it would be different. 

They can't compete with Sony head on in the console space any more, not directly because they've allowed Sony to become too strong and given the PS4 waaaaay too much time to build a monstrous head start and even get a freaking PS4K upgrade out possibly before NX itself. 

Even Microsoft is going to be very hard to compete against, the PS2 only had a 18-20 million lead over the GameCube and it trounced the GameCube, even the XBox One will be well past 30 million units if NX is a 2017 product. 

Really to be honest any console releasing in 2017 should have competetive specs to the PS5/XB2 ... that is way too late for a PS4-tier console. Waaaaaaaaaaaaay too little, too late, it's far more likely to be the Wii U all over again ... Nintendo's PS3 released several years too late. 

The only way it can flop under that scenario if if both devices don't make any money, it's one brand with a shared library so they only need people to buy one or the other. If you combine Wii U and 3DS sales that's 73m sales, that's the kind of dynamic this concept would bring, it wouldn't matter if the console side only sells 10m for instance because the portable side would have a good 40-50m people through out a gen at least.

This also means if the console side doesn't do as well the's no scenario like the Wii U where they need to get new hardware out, they can carry on with the gen regardless as it's all one library and brand.

Well yeah basically what that means is Nintendo is pretty much finished as a console maker but can continue on making portable machines, assuming mobile doesn't continue to eat their lunch (which is a whole other can of worms). 

In that scenario though I wonder if Nintendo basically relents and agrees to make PS5/XB2 console games of certain bigger franchises. If you're not going to have basically any real console presence, then you can't really even say PS5/XB2 are competetion because it's competetion against what? So you may as well support those machines just like you eventually reneged and opted to support iOS/Google. 

Nintendo's fundamental mistake was not recoginizing Wii U was a fucking terrible idea while still in development. They needed to have recoginized the problem then, now they are in a very bad spot because they've let Sony regain all their hold on the console space and then some and now it's going to be very hard to unseat them. Trying to compete with the PS4/XB1 so late now is just going to be a disaster. 

They will be interested though, they get what they want and don't have to wait for it. Then when the userbase is solid during that first year, third parties may be more interested in throwing the console some bones instead of avoiding it like the plague. 

Releasing in 2017 with PS5 specs WILL NOT HAPPEN. The console would be vastly overpriced for people who are on the fence at best for Nintendo products. Even the diehard fans like myself would be skeptical to drop $500 + on a system that may not get any third party or extremely stripped down ports of products (like Wii U). 

There is simply no way people are going to buy it.....

It doesn't mean anything like you're implying, it means that their business model would have changed in that both devices not only work alongside each other but create an echosystem where the sale of all devices combined drives their gen not individual sales. They essentially won't need the console side of things to sell like the PS4 because the's another device that will do that in a parallell market while providing a safety net, what this means is rather than being a problem like it is with the Wii U console sales will become bonus sales instead.

The angle you're looking at it from is not the angle that the approach adheres to.

Forget PS5 ... I don't think they'll even match the PS4K spec. 

In which case it will already be outdated before day 1. 

Even the freaking Wii U was a little better than the other systems when it launched in 2012, NX probably won't even have that card to play, the people looking for something better than the PS4 in spec will find the PS4K. 

Nintendo's console future is very, very murky. Like I said they fucked up allowing the Wii U come to market in the first place, now they are screwed because it has thrown off the entire time line for their console succession such that they are forced to bring out their 'answer' to PS4 several years late. 

If you're playing basketball against me and you spot me a 10 point lead every game and we're playing to 11 ... chances are I'm going to beat your ass every game. This is not a fair fight. 

They never should have released the Wii U, they should have scrapped it and made a PS4/XB1 tier machine for 2013 instead, now they are in a really bad spot, I kinda wonder if PS4K is Sony's way of stomping the console NX out, if so they are ruthless. Wii U screwed up everything.