DaSorcerer7
Member
Wouldn't mind them sticking with NX as the name, but they probably won't.
-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
WSJ: Nintendo Begins Distributing Software Kit for NX (Console + Handheld units)
- Thread starter killercow
- Start date
- Status
Wow. This thread blew up. I had to wonder whether there was other information apart from the distribution of dev kits to third parties.
Anyway, I just remembered a crazy rumor that Nintendo planned to ship 20 million devices in the first year. If it's true, that's a crazy projection given that the Wii U struggled to sell 10 million units. I suppose that figure would cover all SKUs but it's still a huge number.
I can think of three potential NX device profiles.
1) Deluxe home console: high end performance with optical disc drive and cartdridge/SSD slot for game media and portable compatibility.
2) Mini home console: Same performance and chipset but no optical disc drive (digital and cartridge only).
3) Portable: a more powerful Nintendo portable than 3DS which can optionally work in tandem with the home consoles. This is one way to play Wii U games on new NX machines.
The home consoles may or may not have cartdrige slots but it would make sense so they can play portable media. Generally, you'd be able to play digital or cartridge-based portable games on any of the three devices. Higher end HD games will work on either of the first two but you'd be restricted to digital purchases if you own the mini.
Nintendo's smartphone games will also be playable on NX when it makes sense. There will be no technical impediment. We already see that they are willling to have some games across handheld and mobile with the porting of Pokemon Shuffle to mobile.
They'll graft the Wii U into the platform with a software update to make the programming interfaces available. Lower end NX games (probably those for the portable and smart phones) will also be compiled for (as in source code translation) and be playable on Wii U through the digital store. They may also release a low end Wii U mini device at an attractive price which, while lacking an optical drive, will have digital access to the entire Wii U library and compatible NX portable games. Therefore the Wii U will continue to exist as part of the ecosystem but Wii U owners may see some "only for" tags in the digital store which bars them from incompatible titles and serves as advertisements.
I do believe they have been hard at work on launch titles for a while. It explains the really low key E3. They couldn't talk about games for machines that they hadn't revealed and there wasn't much cooking for the Wii U. I'm absolutely convinced that Zelda is a casualty of adjusted priorities but that it will get a Wii U release as well. Twilight Princess was an excellent launch title for the Wii alongside more casual fare like Wii Sports. It's also the best selling Zelda EVER if the the GC sales are added in although the Wii sales alone bring it VERY close to OoT.
I also think they're working on a sequel to Splatoon. It has been a phenomenon on the struggling Wii U so they'd have to be crazy not to. Apparently, most of the game's development was spent working out the gameplay systems while most of the actual content was made during the last 10 months of development. Therefore, having a formula which gamers have already embraced, they should be able to make a sequel in a year and a half to coincide with the launch window of new hardware. Splatoon is infinitely replayable and well worth owning but it's clear that there is room to expand the concept. A beefy Splat2oon would be a system seller, in Japan at least.
Anyway, I'm actually optimistic about Nintendo's future. Given Nintendo's approach of valuing their console business, I think their expansion into mobile represents an opportunity to complement their primary business. Pokemon Go looks poised to be really successful and that can only help awareness of the Nintendo brand. I know they'll be thinking that they can probably get some of those people to buy their dedicated machines.
Those are my ramblings on what the future holds.
Anyway, I just remembered a crazy rumor that Nintendo planned to ship 20 million devices in the first year. If it's true, that's a crazy projection given that the Wii U struggled to sell 10 million units. I suppose that figure would cover all SKUs but it's still a huge number.
I can think of three potential NX device profiles.
1) Deluxe home console: high end performance with optical disc drive and cartdridge/SSD slot for game media and portable compatibility.
2) Mini home console: Same performance and chipset but no optical disc drive (digital and cartridge only).
3) Portable: a more powerful Nintendo portable than 3DS which can optionally work in tandem with the home consoles. This is one way to play Wii U games on new NX machines.
The home consoles may or may not have cartdrige slots but it would make sense so they can play portable media. Generally, you'd be able to play digital or cartridge-based portable games on any of the three devices. Higher end HD games will work on either of the first two but you'd be restricted to digital purchases if you own the mini.
Nintendo's smartphone games will also be playable on NX when it makes sense. There will be no technical impediment. We already see that they are willling to have some games across handheld and mobile with the porting of Pokemon Shuffle to mobile.
They'll graft the Wii U into the platform with a software update to make the programming interfaces available. Lower end NX games (probably those for the portable and smart phones) will also be compiled for (as in source code translation) and be playable on Wii U through the digital store. They may also release a low end Wii U mini device at an attractive price which, while lacking an optical drive, will have digital access to the entire Wii U library and compatible NX portable games. Therefore the Wii U will continue to exist as part of the ecosystem but Wii U owners may see some "only for" tags in the digital store which bars them from incompatible titles and serves as advertisements.
I do believe they have been hard at work on launch titles for a while. It explains the really low key E3. They couldn't talk about games for machines that they hadn't revealed and there wasn't much cooking for the Wii U. I'm absolutely convinced that Zelda is a casualty of adjusted priorities but that it will get a Wii U release as well. Twilight Princess was an excellent launch title for the Wii alongside more casual fare like Wii Sports. It's also the best selling Zelda EVER if the the GC sales are added in although the Wii sales alone bring it VERY close to OoT.
I also think they're working on a sequel to Splatoon. It has been a phenomenon on the struggling Wii U so they'd have to be crazy not to. Apparently, most of the game's development was spent working out the gameplay systems while most of the actual content was made during the last 10 months of development. Therefore, having a formula which gamers have already embraced, they should be able to make a sequel in a year and a half to coincide with the launch window of new hardware. Splatoon is infinitely replayable and well worth owning but it's clear that there is room to expand the concept. A beefy Splat2oon would be a system seller, in Japan at least.
Anyway, I'm actually optimistic about Nintendo's future. Given Nintendo's approach of valuing their console business, I think their expansion into mobile represents an opportunity to complement their primary business. Pokemon Go looks poised to be really successful and that can only help awareness of the Nintendo brand. I know they'll be thinking that they can probably get some of those people to buy their dedicated machines.
Those are my ramblings on what the future holds.
iwata admitted this was essentially part of the plan. instead of spinning plates on different hardware, they would offer multiple form factors and let the consumer decide which ones were better.
Panajev2001a
GAF's Pleasant Genius
Nintendo would love to sell as much software as possible regardless of the format
. This is quite obvious.It is also hard to argue that their third party solution would improve if they forced all of their HW, home console included, on cartridges. Relying on cartridges for software delivery more rather than less going forward would not be good news, but I would like to read posts arguing the contrary
.well what is the purpose of the nx? i don't think the purpose of the nx is to suddenly get all those sweet sweet western publisher dollars. it's probably a side benefit, but knowing how iwata did business, it's probably to benefit japan more. japan, where the ds sold 30+ million units and the vita and the 3ds are poised to be the best and second-best selling platforms of the generation (although ps4 has a good chance at overcoming vita eventually).
the purpose seems to also be getting nintendo's software all under one platform. no more grueling schedules for mario kart 7 immediately followed by grueling schedules for mario kart 8. no more doubling up on 2d mario within three months of each other. no more having to hit the same beats over and over and port games from console to handheld to fill release lineups. with that in mind, it means the concept needs to be as simply understood as possible. i don't think that happens with a game available on a disc and also a card. it confuses things and muddies the concept. they might actually execute it this way but i don't agree that it's a good idea.
games on a cards aren't the best for publishers as a whole. it might be best for making the platforms a success though, and while i'm sure japanese publishers would also prefer discs, i think they're pretty accepting of the idea of cards.
Graphics Horse
Member
Nintendo would love to sell as much software as possible regardless of the format
It is also hard to argue that their third party solution would improve if they forced all of their HW, home console included, on cartridges. Relying on cartridges for software delivery more rather than less going forward would not be good news, but I would like to read posts arguing the contrary
Well really I think they'll be relying in an increase on digital more than anything else. I'm not here to argue what will be good news,.at least from a consumer perspective, in fact I suspect there may be an attempt at an xbone reveal era style arrangement if they're serious about account based software ownership.
Aye, I think the strategy will rely on using the same physical media in all form factors.
Increased production costs (which Nintendo might even offset with a small reduction in their license fee) are a small problem that publishers will overcome if Nintendo are able to get a sizeable install base. That is the far more important challenge.
Digital is clearly going to be the baseline that is compatible across all form factors. The portable will evidently use carts for physical media. There would be advantages and disadvantages to ditching optical media and I don't think they will. They'd been down that road before.
It'd be a manufacturing/consumer disaster to have 2 lines of manufacturing for each game.
Nah, they don't need the Game Boy brand anymore.
Nintendo is a much more bigger brand as a whole and they should use their name more often "because it's Nintendo."
dickroach
Member
I think going straight digital could be a brilliant move for Nintendo.
the only negative I can think of is that they wouldn't have a retail presence in GameStop, Best Buy, Walmart, etc... I know they don't have gigantic one now, but it would literally just turn into the amiibo section.
whatever. do it. do what iOS/the App Store does.
the only negative I can think of is that they wouldn't have a retail presence in GameStop, Best Buy, Walmart, etc... I know they don't have gigantic one now, but it would literally just turn into the amiibo section.
whatever. do it. do what iOS/the App Store does.
PdotMichael
Banned
The idea of catering to Japanese developers mostly is even more insane than using espensice flash rom as storage for retail games.
Locking the Japanese market should be at best a side effect of the NX business. The bigger Japanese companies would still prefer the PlayStation because of the higher install base in the west, so being successful in the domestic Japanese market isn't enough.
Locking the Japanese market should be at best a side effect of the NX business. The bigger Japanese companies would still prefer the PlayStation because of the higher install base in the west, so being successful in the domestic Japanese market isn't enough.
The X in NX stands for the whole family of devices, individually there will be the NBoy, NCube, NUltra etc..
Graphics Horse
Member
That's why I suspect their physical delivery system could basically be a Pikachu figure with a usb micro plug sticking out of his ass.
Anyway, let's imagine that the NX is more powerful than PS4 / XB. How exactly would they solve this with the handheld unit? Even with a lower resolution there are limits to how much power you can reasonably expect a handheld unit with not too high price and a solid battery performance to pack. Do they put out a different version that's for handheld, like XB and PS4 gets different versions with different performance? Can you reasonably expect 3rd parties to make two versions of a game? Difficult to imagine. And in retail it could get messy with two versions of the same game. Is it possible to have the same game on the same disc perform quite differently on different SKUs? Surely it's all at least easier if the console and handheld are relatively similar in power.
They'd turn a lot of people away by doing that, especially when online is still a luxury to a lot of people in terms of downloading/streaming things.
The PikaPlug if you will.
Graphics Horse
Member
It would contain the game so you save having to download. But still force you to register online. the cute figure is there to take your mind off it being the same scheme as what Microsoft wanted.
Mandate all console versions run at 4k native? Idk, I'm not expecting them to be ps4 level gpu. Cpu side will have to be reasonably similar at least.
Dreamwriter
Member
I don't understand, why would it be difficult to imagine that developers would make two versions for two entirely different platforms that will be owned by different people with different expectations of quality? And why would anything get messy in retail, they already have different sections for 3DS and Wii U.
Lord Ghirahim
Member
I always read it as Weekly Shōnen Jump too. Very annoying.
dickroach
Member
I don't buy that this is a real issue for a tech company in 2015. Netflix pivoted from a DVD rental company to a streaming company and is doing gangbusters now. you don't have to sell to everybody.
The thinking with NX is that most, if not all Nintendo games would work on both, and third party games would be for one or the other. It'd be one software section, assuming all are on carts. Things get messy when you have cart and disc versions of the same game.
In terms of development, it REALLY depends on how hard it is to put a game on both ,and how hard Nintendo tries to push it.
PdotMichael
Banned
Streamlining developement so they can easily produce two SKUs for console and handheld if the developers want it. The differences are indeed way to big to expect from the developers to deliver basically two different versions for the price of one.
It will be more interesting ig Nintendo will release different form factors line a more classic handheld and a larger tablet sized version with better hardware and resolution and the gamed scale automatically.
To be fair, you can also still get DVDs/Blu-rays from them and some movies are exclusive to DVDs/Blu-rays. I wanted to watch UHF but it's DVD only Netflix and I only have their streaming service.
I don't think Nintendo will fully go all digital because there are still people out there who want discs. I'll always want discs when available when I'm buying a product.
Napalm_Frank
Member
The most intriguing thing about the NX is that while the handheld will have no big dedicated hardware competition the competition in the home console market will be INSANE in 2016. Nintendo needs to come out guns blazing or they will get eaten alive fast and I think they know this. That's why I'm so excited to see what they are up to. With Wii U I can kinda see why they were fucking up but this time they have to know what's up.
PdotMichael
Banned
Also a BD drive costs less than $30 for the console companies. That's nothing for the acess of a retail distribution channel and a digital only version wouldn't lead to a significantly cheaper console.
nintendo isn't going to beat sony and microsoft at the aaa western market game. instead, look at what they've been doing even throughout the wii u/3ds generation and that should inform you of their future decisions: partnerships with japanese companies, using western third-parties to work on first-party properties, working with indies, and working more closely with western third-parties that have family-friendly franchises. i think for nintendo, or at least iwata, this market of enormous blockbusters from western developers is generally an antithesis to the software nintendo provides. and they probably don't want to directly contribute to that and would instead prefer those kinds of publishers come over to their side. this is actually what happened in the wii/ds generation to a great extent.
it's possible nintendo could lock down the nx as the place for a different kind of audience. we already see rpgs doing very well on the 3ds in the west and family games doing relatively better on the wii u versus other 8th generation platforms thus far.
if there's a timeline, i'm pretty sure it's about mid-late-2013 when everything was seriously sped up. aside from the 3ds reveal, nintendo fucked up at every step along the way. the first signs of panic even happened in 2012 when they had to have seen shitty december sales and started up filming for the january direct.
Dreamwriter
Member
That thinking doesnt matchup with what Iwata has said. He was talking about being able to develop for both console and handheld using the same code because they were the same architecture, not having two systems run the exact same game on the same media as if they were one single platform. Think of Smash Bros. 3DS and Wii U, that is *exactly* what he was talking about, that kind of dual release is what he wants to make easy to develop in the future. He said it could allow them to fill in software droughts on one console if another wasn't having them, but that doesn't mean that *all* games would be ported between the two different platforms, in fact good console games and handheld games rarely overlap - a good design for a handheld game is quite different from a good design for console.
And don't forget that the console will have something unique about it similar to how Wii had motion controls, something Iwata said will "surprise and innovate". The only way *all* games could be ported between the two would be if they didn't use this new feature as something integral to the game (or if the handheld also had this feature, but that would be really limiting themselves to force it to be sonething both devices could do).
if they have an unified development enviorment, they can put almost all their handheld games on the console to help it and have extra power for higher resolutions, etc, (the handheld is not gonna match the console but it could have a power difference where the console's extra power is used to reach 1080p60).
imagine if the Wii U could add 90% of the 3DS library to itself. suddendly it's way more attractive to get one.
plans could change a bit along the way. in the past, what they said in PR didn't turn out exactly as stated when things happened.
also, the new feature in the console could be used by certain games only and those that don't use it could be ported to the handheld (like most Wii U games that don't have any vital gamepad-only features that wouldn't work on 3DS or Wii games that used classic control schemes)
Mr. MondayNight
Member
I'll buy regardless but give me my Wiimote for FPS games and it's game set match for me.
decent power and wiimote compatibility ad I'm happy.
Monster Hunter 4 and/or MHX <3 I was begging for a Wii U version of MH4 it would have been awesome and the environments would have looked amazing with high res textures.
decent power and wiimote compatibility ad I'm happy.
Monster Hunter 4 and/or MHX <3 I was begging for a Wii U version of MH4 it would have been awesome and the environments would have looked amazing with high res textures.
Lupin the Third
Member
"The winter is coming....."
Uh what is this post even about?
plasmawave
Banned
So they will announce it in 2017?
PdotMichael
Banned
Nintendo's forecast is to sell like 10 million systems. That is nothing especially after owning the handheld market completely again.
Nintendo must compete with Sony and Microsoft. There is healthy niche for Nintendo or do I think that is what Nintendo wants and for what the NX platforms is designed for.
We aren't talking of becoming a carbon copy of the two other companies but that avoiding of Sony and Microsoft will hurt Nintendo even more.
Many Japanese companies prefer handhelds, period. PSP showed it, 3DS shows it. It's a safer bet in Japan to release your game on the leading handheld. That's why this 2-in-1 idea is a great way to unite western and Japanese strengths for Nintendo.
If you're not talking about being a carbon copy of Sony/Microsoft but you think that they need to compete directly with them, what do you think the console should be like?
another nintendo console...another fail.....
wut
Dreamwriter
Member
Plans can't change in big ways without big delays, it takes Nintendo roughly two years to bring a finalized hardware design to market, only things like minor spec changes can happen once the process has begun without delaying the launch, and Iwata's statements about their goals for the future were within this window. Unless they don't release a new handheld at the same time as the console, but the news that started this thread seems to point to both launches near simultaneous.
And can you really see Nintendo not pushing their big innovative new feature hard in their own games? It's rare on Wii U, and on Wii it was practically unheard of (only one I can think of was Smash Bros).
neurosisxeno
Member
Which would work if Nintendo had games attractive to a majority of the Western market, but they won't.
hey look he doesn't like something, and he need to let you know....
- Status