There's 4 or 5 of us that have been on the hybrid bandwagon since day one. Hell, I talked about before the NX was even announced. It's the only way forward for Nintendo that makes sense.
Allows developers to concentrate on one platform, but still have the flexibility to develop either a portable focused title, TV focused title or both! It also opens the door to what we've all always wanted. A true 3D open world-ish Pokemon game.
*Nintendo's fall media summit opens with video of Reggie and Kimishima*Maybe we're misunderstanding the hybridization. What if the NX is, say, a hybrid of a machine and a plant. You can play games on it, but you can also put it in a salad.
Well the topic creator was indeed of the mark on what one could exactly call an Hybrid. He basically said the console and handheld should be bundled together. However, the thread was created to talk about the hypothesis of a Hybrid system.While it's not unreasonable to expect a bundle that has both form factors, having that as the only option is going to unreasonably drive up the cost. They need to be available separately for this to work.
Also, what you're discussing is not really a "hybrid". More a "shared platform" or "family of devices".
To be quite honest, after those cryptic comments from lherre in the Media Create thread earlier, I'm betting this thing is just a traditional console that doesn't have a shared library.
How about this:
- Nintendo designs the Handheld system as usual. And is sold as usual. OK
- The console has the same hardware as the handheld, with possibly better clocks due to cooling and been connected to an power outlet. OK
- Since the hardware is the same, the handheld and console can interact with each other to increase processing. OK
- The console is sold with the handheld included. NO THX
Well the topic creator was indeed of the mark on what one could exactly call an Hybrid. He basically said the console and handheld should be bundled together. However, the thread was created to talk about the hypothesis of a Hybrid system.
How about this:
- Nintendo designs the Handheld system as usual. And is sold as usual.
- The console has the same hardware as the handheld, with possibly better clocks due to cooling and been connected to an power outlet.
- Since the hardware is the same, the handheld and console can interact with each other to increase processing.
- The console is sold with the handheld included.
With the handheld sold separetly as always the risk of an hybrid is reduced by half, while at the same time Nintendo retains an unique sales proposal for the console. The Wii U had an unique sales proposal and failed, yet it didn't have a shared library between handheld and console as an hybrid could have in theory.
There are a set number of unique things that could be done with a setup like this. Nintendo distancing themsleves from what MS and Sony offers can be worthwhile. So a low powered console could make sense.
*Nintendo's fall media summit opens with video of Reggie and Kimishima*
*Kimi feels Reggie around his belly*
KIMI: "You're feeling a bit soft, Reggie-san. Have you considered salad?"
REGGIE: "No thanks, Mr. Kimishima. Salad is boring."
KIMI: "Oh, really? Well not anymore!"
*the NX appears in a burst of hellfire the world's first half-console/half-salad*
REGGIE: "WOW!"
*Reggie begins eating the NX, blood streaming down his chin from the circuitry*
Some risks, some gains...Why would you pack a console and a handheld together in one SKU?
For what reason are you doubling the price of entry?
Ha, this is now my most wanted thing. I hope there's a caesar salad variety!Hey kids, ever wanted to get to the next level, but Mom says you have to eat your peas?
Get the Nintendo NX!
Sweep Ganon away in your gastointestinal juices!
Beat Bowser with your bowel movements!
Nintendo. Gaming is inside you.
(Games and systems sold separately. Talk to your parents before going online. Water and fertilize regularly until harvest season.)
Today, we're introducing three revolutionary products.
The first one is a widescreen Game Boy with touch controls.
The second is a revolutionary home console.
And the third is a breakthrough mobile game emulation device.
So, three things: a widescreen Game Boy with touch controls, a revolutionary home console, and a breakthrough mobile emulation device.
A Game Boy, a console, and a mobile emulator. A Game Boy, a console...are you getting it?
These are NOT three separate devices. This is one device. And we are calling it iTendo. Today, Nintendo is going to reinvent consoles.
I have a feeling this might be the case, unfortunatelyFive bucks it's more handheld than console and that's why it's "weaker"
Feeling some type of way about it now
Home console and Handheld interact with each other to increase processing.
Benefits of the hypothetical hybrid:
1) Handheld games work in the Home console. So the catalogue is boosted exponentially, a traditional weakness of Nintendo home systems.
2) Also both Handheld and console can play Mobile games.
3) User can play their games anywhere.
4) User away from home can play games in handheld. Other members in Home can still play games on the home console.
5) Family sharing. Buy one game. Data can be stored in the home console to play without the card while the Handheld is away.
6) The handheld games look and play better when both pieces of hardware are connected together.
7) Wii U second screen gaming benefits.
8) The hardware is low spected and relatively cheap.
Where ix the 10%/20% figure coming from?The gpu part in the console can easily be 5-10x as strong as the hh part.
So for a 10-20% increase in power you make programming much more painful and you have to add some high bandwidth connection for the handheld.
Increasing the gpu power of the console 10-20% on the other side would be chump change in comparison to the cost of including a hh.
It looks a little better for the cpu part, but focus has been long on gpu and it doesn't make much sense there either.
No you can't do 1-6 as you suggest.1-5: You can do all that without selling console+hh together.
6: See above
7: Could also be done without selling console+hh together. Though ofc you couldn't expect everyone to have both then, but the WiiU should have proven that this isn't a big catch.
8: It is low specced and expensive at the same time cause of the included hh
Where ix the 10%/20% figure coming from?
No you can't do 1-6 as you suggest.
You are proposing for them to go with a much higher spected console thus more expensive. So to do the things in the list the user will need to own a more expensive console plus the handheld.
With the way as described. Nintendo get's the "safety net" of their handheld busyness since that device can be purchased separatly. However, forcing the user to buy the handheld and console makes the home console more atractive. So the user get's a more powerful piece of kit with all the benefits of a handheld.
The wording and the metric used for the 10% figure was so strange, that it sounded like you were suggesting that when both handheld and console are working together the hybrid throughput would only go 10% above what the handheld could do alone. Thankfully that's not the case since it would be factually wrong.Console gpu 5-10x stronger = 10-20% power increase through the hh gpu.
Top of the line Smartphone SoCs have something like 200-300 gflops.
But Nintendo was never even close to using state of the art Hardware in a hh (powerwise).
And even with a 300gflops part, the ps4 is already 6x and the neo 13x.
Basically they manufacture the same hardware for both form factors. It would make sense in the amount of features the user will get with the way the 2 pieces of the hybrid interact with each other and it allows for higher fidelity visuals than the handheld would be capable by itself.I am proposing nothing, i'm saying adding the power of the hh to the console doesn't make much sense.
As i said the extra power you need to be equal with the hh in comparison is chump change.
E.g. 200gflops more for a hh gpu is a problem, but for a desktop gpu it's "nothing".
As far as i remember Nintendo makes handhelds in the 150 - 200 price range, save for the first few months of 3DS life.How does it make the console more attractive when you instead of $250 have to shell out $400?
Just makes no sense to me.
Reminds me of the gamepad, only even more expensive.
From my point of view, and without thinking even 1 second at the feasibility of the thing, Nintendo should try to offer two consoles : a home console and a handheld console.
Both would play the exact same games. Because people buy consoles to play Nintendo games. Give them the choice of how they want to play, and don't divide your library anymore.
This is what I believe Nintendo will announce.
Eh, portables are on the decline, thanks to smartphones. Furthermore it makes porting third party games harder, which is something Nintendo doesn't need right now. I can't see this becoming a success.