Basic premise: the late Iwata once said Nintendo with NX was taking into consideration various factors, including the playing environments that differ by country.
Absolutely, but *not* in a discrediting way, mind you.
I see what you mean. But i would hope that if Nintendo makes a console in the same ballpark as the other two, they would use that level of hardware to actually improve gameplay and evolve their series, while also making them look as good as they possibly can (basically like they did on SNES, N64 and Gamecube, or with Zelda on the Wii U). What you're proposing may work for a good number of their series (2D Mario, Yoshi, Kirby, Fire Emblem, Luigi's Mansion, maybe DK, etc), but for games like Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Xenoblade or Splatoon, i'd say no. New entries for some of these series felt like a variation of the usual formula, which is ok since all of them were outstanding games, but i believe we're reaching the point where they need to take advantage of the new, more powerful hardware to evolve their series and bring some serious innovation in the way these franchises play. They did it with Zelda with the Wii U/NX version, and i'm pretty confident that they'll do it with Mario too and Metroid the next time it shows up.
I always thought that quote was more about tools/sdk/API and gamepad streaming tech, the portable being in that ballpark doesn't necessarily have any association with the Wii U architecture or its absorption.
That (arguably) takes us back to one of the biggest issues Nintendo is facing though: with the ever-shrinking home market and the multiple occasions where Iwata and others stressed software droughts, I cannot really see them pushing for lots of first/second party home-exclusive content, unless the home console itself becomes a hit that is.
We're on the same page about the handheld and the rumor, but i think they know a souped up handheld wouldn't work as a main home console. Sure anything is possible, but hopefully they won't settle for that.
I believe WiiU's GX2 API are based off OpenGL 4.X, and Vulkan is basically their "successor" so i think they should be backward compatible. But yeah, these statements shouldn't be taken literally, just like Miyamoto talking about CPU power or Kimishima saying that the Wii U failed because it was too much like the Wii.
I think it's the other way around: without compelling software, and even some groundbreaking and somewhat desruptive games, it will be difficult to turn the new consoles into the success they want them to be. This may sound obvious but if they want to be successful they have to take risks, especially considering where they are now. For what it's worth, they made a bet on Splatoon and it paid off: the game sold more than 4 million copies in less than a year and helped making decent numbers (by WiiU standards at least) in Japan, which is a very important market to them.
Source: http://www.ubmgamenetwork.com/gdc/business-center.php
Source: http://www.ubmgamenetwork.com/gdc/business-center.php#nda-room.php
Personally i'm not one of those people, but i'm pretty sure low price point and new concept will be very important factors. If i thought or knew that Nintendo was willing to eat a small loss and sell a console for 350$ at d1 again, i would fully expect the NX to be more powerful than Xbox One and PS4 combined, but i doubt they would do that, or that they even care about horsepower to the point that they would do that. With this in mind, it's not easy to build a more powerful console than what Sony currently has at the same price or even lower, especially if the new gimmick raises costs, but as long as the console is in the same ballpark i won't really care. Current gen graphics are more than ok to me.
I think this post is pretty much on point. Nintendo has backed itself into a corner. It's not going to get the 'core' Ass Creed, CoD, FIFA etc. gamers back any time soon. It's cultivated a console environment that doesn't cater to these people for the last couple of generations. Even if NX launched out of the gate with a nice, powerful console and the latest CoD, FIFA, Fallout et al, it really wouldn't do much at all, IMO. Even if these were created to take advantage of NX's power capabilities. Most of Nintendo's audience just doesn't buy these games. Yes, we see a lot of complaints on here about poorly made ports, 1 year later, lacking DLC etc, but these people are in the minority, I'm afraid. It's not that the majority of people aren't buying games due to the aforementioned reasons, they're not buying them because they're just not interested. These games don't cater to them.
Look what I found,.
Those on par games would sell to a small audience of Nintendo owners that want all games on Nintendo's console. This is a vocal minority on GAF and other sites. There's a large chunk of Nintendo's core audience that mainly plays Nintendo games that just wouldn't give a shit.
