Support NeoGAF

[immortal-joe]

- Unified Online System (Login to a device and you're good to go)
- No major cutbacks on hardware (materials, screen, internal)
- Reasonable backwards compatibility (back to DS games)

Get that done, and I won't care what the thing is running on.

 

[SenatorBot]

This image seems to be appropriate.

Also another aspect to this is that it can easily entice mobile only users to move to larger Nintendo devices by offering the option to them. Like they get to lvl 20 in their P&D Mario editon, they can play it on their big screen TV by buying the console version as well as other games that only work due to the console's power. This also encourages their console only users to download their F2P games and to get into the ecosystem and to spend money on microtransactions.

Either way Nintendo wins from exposing two audiences that will never overlap into the other side of the gaming coin.

 

[Larogue]

Google and Nintendo finally working together again is promising.

One step closer to Nintendo VR becoming real.

Android is open source OS, they are not necessary working together, anyone can make their own custom android ROM.

 

[AniHawk]

If they're talking about OS now, is the system gonna launch relatively soon? by 2017?

the 3ds will be 5.5 years old in 2016, and it will be over 2 years since the new 3ds launched. late 2016 seems like a good time for me. at the very least, before the end of the fiscal year ending march 2017.

 

[Candescence]

The conclusion-jumping in this thread is hilarious.

Nintendo basing their next OS on a mature, extensively documented and widely-supported architecture is certainly a very good thing.

 

[Swifty]

This assumes that the performance delta between them is moderate or that you would not be pushing the home console a lot though.

True. I can name a lot of graphics features you can easily turn off to get something rendering from a GTX 970 to a mobile PowerVR GPU: Physically-based rendering, HDR, deferred lighting, shadow filtering, large framebuffer sizes, tessellation, screen-space effects, etc.

But having a varying CPU target performance is a much more challenging problem. Something that requires CPU horsepower is likely integral to gameplay decisions and much more difficult to scale back.

So if anything, a shared platform architecture would benefit indie and handheld developers more than AAA developers. But still, a large platform performance delta would still keep the AAA developers happy to stay in their home console zone while indie developers and handheld developers would welcome having a platform that lets them have access to both a handheld and a home platform with minimal investment.

 

[Ashler]

I'm instantly out.

 

[Mihael Mello Keehl]

I'm instantly out.

Everybody still knows nothing about anything.. people getting excited and jumping ship over some invisible guest console lol.

 

[leroidys]

The conclusion-jumping in this thread is hilarious.

Nintendo basing their next OS on a mature, extensively documented and widely-supported architecture is certainly a very good thing.

Yeah, I think the conclusion that people are drawing from the OP is that NX is going to be able to natively run arbitrary Android executables, which is a lot different than, for example, PS3 running a hypervisor on FreeBSD. I mean if this is just Nintendo making a heavily customized branch of Android, it's essentially non-news. This wouldn't accomplish that much though, as games would potentially still need to be ported to NX. there are already tools to convert smartphone games to Nintendo platforms, so if it is a heavily custom version of Android it would make things easier to port, but it wouldn't be quite the paradigm shift that the source claims.

 

[plebegamer]

I'm just curious as I'm not technologically inclined, but if the NX were like a tablet, would it be possible for it to act as a fully mobile tablet for the Wii U? Or is that impossible?

Like you can play your handheld/mobile games on the go, walk into your living room, sit down, and start up Splatoon and start playing with the NX as the game pad?

 

[Oregano]

Dedicated handhelds are trending to become a thing of the past. There's no point in releasing another handheld that might reach 20 million users when you can put your games on mobile and reach 100's of millions.

Consoles have a future but the problem the industry is currently facing is creating new generations of console gamers. Most kids play bad mobile games, burn out and never move onto a console. NX will be an attempt to cross that gap with both the mobile and NX experience benefitting each other.


EDIT: nice, theres a banner ad for dick insurance on this page.

Consoles are conracting too and in Nintendo's case even worse than their handhelds. Dedicated consoles are just as much a thing of the past.

Especially in Japan where 90% of Nintendo's third party support comes from.

 

[Iacobellis]

I think I'm already more hyped for next year's E3 than this one.

Whatever Nintendo announces will be huge, maybe more huge than the Revolution/Wii.

 

[maquiladora]

This makes a lot of sense. I imagine NX will be a hybrid of a dedicated games system and a phone with an optional dock + controller to turn it into a home console. It will be able to play both Nintendo's new smartphone games and games made just for the NX which make the most of the dedicated controls.

I could be totally wrong though.

 

[Jessmo111]

1. Would this confirm no backwards compatibility?
2. 2 Wiius ducktaped together with android os? Ill buy it.
3. Scaled down wiiu level platform, for a handheld and a scaled up greater than ps4 system for next gen, WITH android OS!?

Our collective bodies are not ready.

 

[LOCK]

This has potential!

 

[kami_sama]

It's the only OS good enough for mobile gaming that is free to use.
Also, I think the NX will be something like the Nvidia Shield.

 

[E-phonk]

1. Would this confirm no backwards compatibility?

It doesn't exclude anything for 3DS yet, but for a potential homeconsole even just going ARM would mean no backwards compatibility. To be honest it will be very difficult for nintendo to do perfect console BC without the archaic powerPC.

But nintendo's newfound love with selling Wii games through the WiiU eshop might give you an idea how they'll solve that and make some money on it.

 

[Branduil]

Rather than Nintendo releasing their software on mobile phones, this actually leads me more to think that Nintendo will have one or several phone versions of the NX, using a forked version of Android.

 

[big_z]

Consoles are conracting too and in Nintendo's case even worse than their handhelds. Dedicated consoles are just as much a thing of the past.

Especially in Japan where 90% of Nintendo's third party support comes from.

I explained the console situation in the post you quoted.

Consoles are shrinking because people are failing to notice them
Handhelds are shrinking because another device has taken their place.

 

[AniHawk]

even with this they have so many hoops to jump through. the reality is that 3rd party games just dont sell well on Nintendo platforms I am talking multiplatform games.... the "OTHER" versions are always better and most people have multiple consoles now and days. I think Nintendo should be going after the exclusives as they have a better change of getting their gamers to buy them.

EDIT: yes I know you mentioned exclusives

i think we need to take a couple steps back because i don't think we're talking about the same thing.

i think ea and take two are probably done with nintendo. ubisoft, activision, and warner bros. are probably mostly done with nintendo.

likewise, nintendo probably doesn't care about their support. i don't think they want to contribute to a kind of gaming industry that basically shuns them.

what they do have is a lot of third-party support in japan for the 3ds. third-party support here in the handheld space has been fairly strong for a long time, although western support really disappeared this generation, especially after 2013.

with their new platform, i'm guessing that 'nx' is the name of the platform that gets supported by multiple devices. if it's strong enough and it can play madden, then that's a thing it can do. whether or not ea puts in the effort to make it or nintendo puts in the effort to reach out is left to be seen (i am guessing no). what they might be able to do is bring aboard atlus/sega, capcom, gungho, bandai namco, koei tecmo, and whoever else is left in japan after the vita no longer becomes viable, but wants to make games for the dedicated hardware space. there could be some serious overlap for certain games, like mobile appearing on all devices, handheld appearing on console, and some console-only stuff. overall it would be a lot more fluid, and i would think nintendo themselves would probably shy away from having multiples of the same kind of game this generation unless they're doing different things. so instead of 2 2d mario platformers being nsmb2 and nsmbu, it would be like nsmb nx and mario maker 2.0.

 

[Oregano]

I explained the console situation right in the post you quoted.

Consoles are shrinking because people are failing to notice them
Handhelds are shrinking because another device has taken their place.

I disagree and even if I agreed I would find the distinction meaningless. In Japan, Nintendo's stronghold in terms of both consumer and developer interest, then consoles were supplanted by handhelds a long time ago. Even before the mobile revolution happened.

 

[Rosur]

This image seems to be appropriate.

Also another aspect to this is that it can easily entice mobile only users to move to larger Nintendo devices by offering the option to them. Like they get to lvl 20 in their P&D Mario editon, they can play it on their big screen TV by buying the console version as well as other games that only work due to the console's power. This also encourages their console only users to download their F2P games and to get into the ecosystem and to spend money on microtransactions.

Either way Nintendo wins from exposing two audiences that will never overlap into the other side of the gaming coin.

Yea this is the way I see it happening, maybe the OS that NX is based on is Android but it won't be stock and be a heavily customised one with extra security to stop hacks etc.

 

[Lucifon]

After everyone demanded Nintendo start making mobile games they decided to make an android set top box.

Spoiler

Probably not true...but maybe

 

[Nzyme32]

This is bad. Android has a huge Piracy Problem, and I think the last thing Nintendo wants is bad sales because of that. They better have a Solution for that

This is easily avoidable for Nintendo and DeNA.

OEMs can preinstall applications and infrastructure that bypass the traditional GooglePlay store. Rather than being installed as an "other source" their main system can be a preinstalled app. They can update the app independently and have a separate account system for their content and games downloads that can prevent Piracy rather than simply protecting the app apk. DeNA would likely work on that as part of the base account structure for games and how microtransactions will work.

The added bonus is of course no oversight into what the app/platform can install or update, so they can evolve freely without restriction, skin how they want, offer their own downloads, games etc etc - and importantly, Google receive no profits at all, Nintendo and DeNA get the whole thing. It will only be the mobile apps on the play store that lose a bit of money to the play store.

 

[InfiniDragon]

This sounds awesome. A customized Android OS would as someone earlier mentioned, mean documented and highly supported architecture. That would be a huge deal for Nintendo's new console.

 

[Striek]

It doesn't really matter if their next platform uses android and is a mobile port machine or is a beastly traditional console.

Nintendo is going to make or break themselves on mobile. Mobile being android and iOS. Not their own devices. They aren't going to be leading consumers to the blue oceans of NX, they're going to be deep-sea fishing for whales in the same waters as every other publisher.

 

[SmokyDave]

Gosh, I'm truly shocked.

Nah, just kidding. Obvious move is obvious. If Nintendo end up putting out a decently powerful handheld with a decent OS, I'll pop a bottle of champagne.

 

[Peru]

It doesn't really matter if their next platform uses android and is a mobile port machine or is a beastly traditional console.

Nintendo is going to make or break themselves on mobile. Mobile being android and iOS. Not their own devices. They aren't going to be leading consumers to the blue oceans of NX, they're going to be deep-sea fishing for whales in the same waters as every other publisher.

I believe you are utterly wrong. We'll see in the coming years. When all other traditional consoles die Nintendo will have a chance to offer a real alternative, the types of games you don't get on Steam and don't get on iOS. THat's where their future lies, in standing out, not going after the same pie.

 

[Striek]

I believe you are utterly wrong. We'll see in the coming years. When all other traditional consoles die Nintendo will have a chance to offer a real alternative, the types of games you don't get on Steam and don't get on iOS. THat's where their future lies, in standing out, not going after the same pie.

Yes, their move onto mobile was clearly to solidify their traditional platforms, not a necessity because of the remarkable decline of their fortunes on handhelds and consoles.

Companies typically go one foot forward to go two feet back, right?

 

[Deleted member 30609]

I'm sure this will be beneficial for the younger generation of engineers they hire internally.

 

[Nightbird]

This is easily avoidable for Nintendo and DeNA.

OEMs can preinstall applications and infrastructure that bypass the traditional GooglePlay store. Rather than being installed as an "other source" their main system can be a preinstalled app. They can update the app independently and have a separate account system for their content and games downloads that can prevent Piracy rather than simply protecting the app apk. DeNA would likely work on that as part of the base account structure for games and how microtransactions will work.

The added bonus is of course no oversight into what the app/platform can install or update, so they can evolve freely without restriction, skin how they want, offer their own downloads, games etc etc - and importantly, Google receive no profits at all, Nintendo and DeNA get the whole thing. It will only be the mobile apps on the play store that lose a bit of money to the play store.

Well that sounds good. If it works like that I have no worries.

 

[Frodo]

Android is, for sure, much better than any console or handheld OS available right now.

If this turns out to be true, I can only see it as a good thing.

 

[Ricky 7]

This is good news.

 

[antennaehead]

I'm not entirely convinced that Android is cheaper. I'd imagine heavy tinkering with Android isn't that much cheaper than creating own OS, considering the fact that Nintendo has its own OS and could use that.
So it's probably about third party / smartphone compatibility. Can't say I'm too happy about that, but hey - it's still a rumor. We'll see.

 

[Iacobellis]

I'm not entirely convinced that Android is cheaper. I'd imagine heavy tinkering with Android isn't that much cheaper than creating own OS, considering the fact that Nintendo has its own OS and could use that.
So it's probably about third party / smartphone compatibility. Can't say I'm too happy about that, but hey - it's still a rumor. We'll see.

I'm all for Nintendo to do anything that allows them to release cheaper systems again. The 3DS at $250 was such an odd move coming from the same guys that were selling the best-selling handheld at $120.

 

[E-phonk]

considering the fact that Nintendo has its own OS and could use that.

Their WiiU OS runs on PowerPC, so they'd have to port it, including all drivers, the API etc.
Also, afaik the WiiU OS is quite archaic in it's design.

 

[Big Green Anus]

I dont want the system to get hacked and have piracy, so I am hoping this is not true to an extent, unless Nintendo hires the best security. I would be great to use some Android Apps though.

 

[Striek]

I'm all for Nintendo to do anything that allows them to release cheaper systems again. The 3DS at $250 was such an odd move coming from the same guys that were selling the best-selling handheld at $120.

Ehhh it might seem strange in retrospect but remember the DSi/XL were selling unprecedented amounts at $170/$190. Like ridiculous amounts. After years of record sales after record sales $250 probably seemed like a risk that would pay off.

 

[PhantomVash808]

This is exactly how I feel about this news.

 

[Iacobellis]

Ehhh it might seem strange in retrospect but remember the DSi/XL were selling unprecedented amounts at $170/$190. Like ridiculous amounts. After years of record sales after record sales $250 probably seemed like a risk that would pay off.

I had no idea the DSi was retailing higher than the DS Lite by that much. Seems to have made sense for the extra features it came with.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

Nintendo is going to attract third parties in the console industry by using android OS?

 

[Interceptor]

This makes a lot of sense. I imagine NX will be a hybrid of a dedicated games system and a phone with an optional dock + controller to turn it into a home console. It will be able to play both Nintendo's new smartphone games and games made just for the NX which make the most of the dedicated controls.

I could be totally wrong though.

This has to be the most persistent rumor of the Internet. We know its not happening and yet it won't die. Is there some hdmi dock fetish around gaf?

 

[Sendou]

While Nikkei has been wrong with some Nintendo related things in the past I can easily see this happening. Just all around makes sense.

 

[Terrell]

Wonder why they didn't just use some form of Linux? Oh well

Probably because there's a higher level of interest in Android right now for several obvious reasons.

The conclusion-jumping in this thread is hilarious.

Nintendo basing their next OS on a mature, extensively documented and widely-supported architecture is certainly a very good thing.

It's really the best news to be hoped for. Wii and Wii U's OS is pretty much a joke.

It doesn't exclude anything for 3DS yet, but for a potential homeconsole even just going ARM would mean no backwards compatibility. To be honest it will be very difficult for nintendo to do perfect console BC without the archaic powerPC.

It's really going to depend on how they've been writing Wii U games. Iwata has made a point to say that Wii U software was being created in a way that it can be easily folded into their next system, so I'm starting to think that means they are writing to the metal as little as humanly possible, so there's fewer calls directly to the hardware architecture that need to be re-written and it can be "translated" to whatever NX hardware is through a software wrapper. (am I understanding this right? If I'm not, I need someone to correct me)

 

[Boomstompfloppy]

This news isnt all bad for me, i havent owned a nintendo system since the gamecube but im more tempted with this news.

Make an android game box that supports all those media apps that are allready there and have a handheld that runs the same games and ill buy both.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

I've completely lost the ability to tell the difference between a genuine lack of knowledge and concern trolling.

 

[Symtendo]

This has probably been brought up but where does this leave iOS support? Ifnthey go this route are their mobile games likely to be Android exclusive?

 

[Pez]

This has probably been brought up but where does this leave iOS support? Ifnthey go this route are their mobile games likely to be Android exclusive?

I believe Android is generally more popular in Asia, right?

 

[Hellraider]

This has probably been brought up but where does this leave iOS support? Ifnthey go this route are their mobile games likely to be Android exclusive?

No one is gonna bet on Nintendo that hard. IOS will still be king when it comes to mobile games, especially from Japan.

 

[Xiao Hu]

If true it's a step into the right direction, though perhaps a little bit late. I hope Nintendo manage to get as many of the popular mobile developers as possible for the NX.