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[KingSnake]

If the NX handheld will sell more than the NX console in the West there are pretty good chances that the NX console is a failure.

All these firms and analysts and no actual information. This is a non-story.

This comment is pretty stupid. This time the info comes from the screen suppliers.

 

[Deleted member 752119]

If the NX handheld will sell more than the NX console in the West there are pretty good chances that the NX console is a failure.

Well, if it does end up being a unified platform with games available across device types, then it doesn't really matter what the split is.

As long as they aren't selling hardware for a loss (and I doubt they will), every unit sold is a profit, and one more customer that can buy all their games, DLC, subscribe to any services they end up offering etc.

They'd just care what the overall base is, not whether it's 60/40 handheld/console or whatever.

 

[Draxal]

Well, I guess they could make something like the GBA SP. Clamshell is just way better IMHO. But it'd still be really sad to see the dual screens go

They don't have to deal with hingegate anymore if they go without 2 screens/clamshell.

 

[Griss]

Either that or they commit to two screens on everything forever :O

This is a good point. They're changing architecture now, and trying to unify their game design and development, and using two screens on the home console for the next decade is ludicrous so now is the time to rip the bandage off and move to a single screen on handheld.

It also makes it much more appealing to 3rd parties who can port single-screen games over without all the work of the second screen.

 

[RM8]

They don't have to deal with hingegate anymore if they go without 2 screens/clamshell.

I'd be more comfortable with no clamshell if they use gorilla glass or something similar. And that's just not happening, lol. Plus wasn't hingegate a thing only with the DS Lite?

 

[KingSnake]

Well, if it does end up being a unified platform with games available across device types, then it doesn't really matter what the split is.

As long as they aren't selling hardware for a loss (and I doubt they will), every unit sold is a profit, and one more customer that can buy all their games, DLC, subscribe to any services they end up offering etc.

They'd just care what the overall base is, not whether it's 60/40 handheld/console or whatever.

I know that, I was just talking about the comments estimating that the handheld will sell better also in the West.

Also the split between handheld and console might matter when we talk about the quality of the games later in the life cycle and also the 3rd parties efforts.

 

[Vena]

That's basically the free form display Nintendo is using from Sharp, which also has ultra-thin bezels. Imagine a screen that stretches from side to side of the device, with cut-outs over where the sticks and buttons usually are. So it's wider than 16:9 (or 5:3 on 3DS), but you've got all this space around the buttons that's actually touch sensitive and a screen.

This makes for a flexible set-up where the best developers can bring the buttons and D-Pad to life via an interface, tutorial or gameplay elements that point to them and engage with them in real-time, or they could place touch sensitive buttons or actions that easily reachable from your thumbs (e.g. you could comfortable control an in-game camera via swipes). Or they could place HUD elements away from the main viewing area where a traditional screen lies.

And for lazy/resource limited/time limited developers, they can just extend the field of view for their game and claim it improves immersion. It's really flexible.

If there's one legacy the NX handheld will leave it'll be in bringing buttons and D-Pads to life, rather than them being these non-interactive thing off the screen. Should also be good at making these button controls feel natural to a new generation of players in Japan who might start playing on a touch-only smartphone or tablet.

Wouldn't the NX port of Sm4sh effectively imply hard-controls? I don't think that game is going to be redesigned for using haptic touch, nor do I think it would handle well with touch control over sticks and hard-buttons.

 

[FunkyDealer]

I'd understand if the dual screen goes the way of the dodo. Even if I'd prefer to keep it. Just keep the clamshell design.

 

[Danthrax]

NX Hand-held in 2016.

NX Console in 2017?

No, they're probably both coming out this year. The company in the OP is just concerned with handhelds because of the screens, though. The copy in the OP even mentions that they think Nintendo will ship a handheld with its new NX device.

 

[Toadthemushroom]

Wouldn't the NX port of Sm4sh effectively imply hard-controls? I don't think that game is going to be redesigned for using haptic touch, nor do I think it would handle well with touch control over sticks and hard-buttons.

Yeah, that would be one of the games that would just extend the game area over the buttons, and use only the buttons and circle pad/stick.

It might light up the button used for final smash (or the C-Stick might pulse) using the screen surrounding it.

 

[Vanillalite]

Wouldn't the NX port of Sm4sh effectively imply hard-controls? I don't think that game is going to be redesigned for using haptic touch, nor do I think it would handle well with touch control over sticks and hard-buttons.

 

[Armadilo]

Was this not just them quessing from research, that japenese wsj guy said it was just speculation

 

[RM8]

A screen with holes for buttons sound awful IMO. I don't see what'd be the point.

 

[redcrayon]

Makes me wonder what they could have planned for a launch line-up.

The 3DS launch games weren't exactly inspiring, Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars (despite looking like a retooled DS game) turned out to be the pick of the bunch for me.

 

[Somnid]

A screen with holes for buttons sound awful IMO. I don't see what'd be the point.

Increase peripheral screen area at no cost.

Also clamshell kinda necessitates or at least encourages dual screen design. Clamshell itself is great because you double usable surface area for screens and buttons while only slightly increasing thickness. Of course it's good for protecting the screens as well. Assuming that people want large wide screens on a portable if you used a clamshell to reduce width or add screen protection you end up with extra space in the middle, space that could ideally be filled. Of course with their new patent they can effectively fill 100% of that wasted space with screen real-estate so the screens are symmetrical.

 

[Papacheeks]

Nintendo's core business has always been their handhelds. The 3DS is old, it's clearly declining and it needs to be replaced. Getting a new revenue stream up and running in the handheld sector has to take priority over their dire state in the home console division. In their home market of Japan a handheld has the potential to succeed. A home console no longer does. Everything points in that direction.

Look, if Nintendo can't make a successful handheld, they're done as a hardware maker. It's that simple. On the other hand if they make a poor console but their handheld succeeds, they'll be fine. That's why the handheld needs to come first, that's why it needs to be the focus.

Are you talking about now? Because go back to Wii era, nes, SNES and it was a different story. There were more consoles, and I feel they outside of GBA,DS they made more long term profits from console?

Is there evidence to back up this claim? I guess in the past 2 generations it feels like their handheld was more successful.
But they have always been known for their home console, at least that's how I remember them anyway.
Their if they can ship both this fall then awesome, but if they have to space it out, I would while the iron is hot, strike on home console for fall.
Mainly because if they are bringing a decent amount of Wii u's library over, it would make more sense to have them out on the platform they are being played on mostly on Wii U.

And if they were able to cross play between Wii u and NX home console, that would do nothing but benfit them in currating a better online community of new and existing players for games like Splatoon, Mario Maker, Smash, MARIO KART.
How many people play 3DS currently competitively online? Maybe monster hunter, and smash.
It would be stupid after the hard work games like Splatoon, MARIO MAKER, smash have done to bring together a thriving community, to just have it die until next year, and even then that's too long of a wait.
Their home console is what needs to grow the most, Nintendo has no competition in the handheld market, and mobile will help them pad out the launch of NX handheld in spring.

So it make more sense to jump on the more failing platform. The 3DS isn't the device that get's trashed on internet talks, articles and what not.
So why should that be the thing they put out first? Unless they are going to co-release both of them at the same time.

 

[Toadthemushroom]

A screen with holes for buttons sound awful IMO. I don't see what'd be the point.

I'll repost what I mentioned a few pages back:

Imagine a screen that stretches from side to side of the device, with cut-outs over where the sticks and buttons usually are. So it's wider than 16:9 (or 5:3 on 3DS), but you've got all this space around the buttons that's actually touch sensitive and a screen.

This makes for a flexible set-up where the best developers can bring the buttons and D-Pad to life via an interface, tutorial or gameplay elements that point to them and engage with them in real-time, or they could place touch sensitive buttons or actions that easily reachable from your thumbs (e.g. you could comfortable control an in-game camera via swipes). Or they could place HUD elements away from the main viewing area where a traditional screen lies.

And for lazy/resource limited/time limited developers, they can just extend the field of view for their game and claim it improves immersion. It's really flexible.

If there's one legacy the NX handheld will leave it'll be in bringing buttons and D-Pads to life, rather than them being these non-interactive thing off the screen. Should also be good at making these button controls feel natural to a new generation of players in Japan who might start playing on a touch-only smartphone or tablet.

 

[Aztechnology]

I absolutely despise covering the screen with my hands on any game. I really hope that patent doesn't pan out. It's why I won't play anything but turn based games on mobile or tablet.

 

[Fourth Storm]

^^^^^The patent describes a 16:9 viewing area between the buttons/sticks, so you wouldn't be covering anything you already had in a traditional display.

Wouldn't the NX port of Sm4sh effectively imply hard-controls? I don't think that game is going to be redesigned for using haptic touch, nor do I think it would handle well with touch control over sticks and hard-buttons.

I can't see them doing away with physical buttons altogether. Something like the button config in this patent may work for most of their games, though, in combination with the Free Form display. One of the major points of the free form patent centers on immersion and having all inputs hidden when one's hands rest on the analog stick. They don't want to go nuts on the inputs.

 

[Pie and Beans]

My take: Sounds possible, but I imagine the home console will be a more powerful box, rather than just a VitaTV situation. But it might not be a huge amount more, and if Nintendo can make it small and low-power like a streaming box then they probably will. I find the idea of them competing with PS4 pretty silly.

I just don't really see the point of them making a conventional console when due to their new 'all in' software development route, it'd be like buying a rig thats only purpose is to emulate Vita/WiiU games at like 4K or something with better AA. I can see it being some 600p handheld, 1080p 'console'.

Nevermind how incredibly confusing it would be if despite trying to go for a unified shared library, things all have to have "ONLY ON NX HOME" tags and so forth. Like way to shit on your own shoes before you even step out the door again.

 

[Champion]

I'm excited about the handheld and pessimistic about the console.

Are you talking about now? Because go back to Wii era, nes, SNES and it was a different story. There were more consoles, and I feel they outside of GBA,DS they made more long term profits from console?

The numbers tell a different story.

 

[Trevelyan9999]

No, they're probably both coming out this year. The company in the OP is just concerned with handhelds because of the screens, though. The copy in the OP even mentions that they think Nintendo will ship a handheld with its new NX device.

2001 is a good example (GBA/GC).

AMD also expects new APU SOC revenue this year in the second half of 2016 in reference to game console demand, in other words basically they are saying Nintendo NX without actually saying it

 

[Insane Metal]

So it's just a portable? Or there will also be a home console?

 

[Somnid]

I'll repost what I mentioned a few pages back:

Imagine a screen that stretches from side to side of the device, with cut-outs over where the sticks and buttons usually are. So it's wider than 16:9 (or 5:3 on 3DS), but you've got all this space around the buttons that's actually touch sensitive and a screen.

This makes for a flexible set-up where the best developers can bring the buttons and D-Pad to life via an interface, tutorial or gameplay elements that point to them and engage with them in real-time, or they could place touch sensitive buttons or actions that easily reachable from your thumbs (e.g. you could comfortable control an in-game camera via swipes). Or they could place HUD elements away from the main viewing area where a traditional screen lies.

And for lazy/resource limited/time limited developers, they can just extend the field of view for their game and claim it improves immersion. It's really flexible.

If there's one legacy the NX handheld will leave it'll be in bringing buttons and D-Pads to life, rather than them being these non-interactive thing off the screen. Should also be good at making these button controls feel natural to a new generation of players in Japan who might start playing on a touch-only smartphone or tablet.

There's also a third option for devs concerned about performance or obstruction which is to just render the central screen area and slap a static border on the rest (VC would be an obvious thing that does this with console skins). This scenario is most interesting for the gimmick-whiners because it's literally indistinguishable from having color plastic there aside from the customization benefit.

 

[NeonZ]

Is there evidence to back up this claim? I guess in the past 2 generations it feels like their handheld was more successful.

It's not just "the last 2 generations". That has been going on since the Nintendo 64. At the same time that their console business took a big stumble with the Nintendo 64, the Gameboy line had just been revitalized by Pokemon, and the portables basically never looked back. Even during the Wii's generation, it still couldn't match DS' numbers.

 

[RK128]

Interesting..... then this changes what we all feel about how Nintendo is supporting the Wii U this fall. While NX versions of Wii U games could still happen (Zelda U, Smash Brothers 4, Pikmin 4) I expect to hear more about Wii U titles this year.

The rumored Paper Mario Wii U game alongside knowing about Pikmin 4, Zelda U and likely the Sonic Anniversary game all landing on Wii U this fall easily finishes the line up for the console this year.

Make some NX versions that launch with the portable that are forwards-compatible with NX console and bam, strong way to open up content roll out of the NX platform.

Edit: My thoughts on the NX console vs. handheld is easy; the console will do as well as the GC did (numbers wise) but the handheld will easily be the breakthrough hit for the hardcore gamer crowd. It fills the AAA games on the go promise the Vita originally did (big name Nintendo games in one spot) and it supporting major third party releases that wouldn't normally come to handheld (thanks to the console existing and both sharing the same games) makes people more inclined to get the game.

And to be honest, I only would consider the handheld.

 

[jmdajr]

yuck

 

[Jumpman23]

I know lots of folks dislike this but personally I find it to be pretty cool.

 

[Toadthemushroom]

I absolutely despise covering the screen with my hands on any game. I really hope that patent doesn't pan out. It's why I won't play anything but turn based games on mobile or tablet.

It won't quite work like that mockup, since there is no footage of 21:9 Mario Kart 8. Instead that's showing standard 16:9 Mario Kart with the buttons and sticks taking a chunk out of it.

If a game does that and extends the playing field it'll be anything that you wouldn't have seen otherwise.

There's also a third option for devs concerned about performance or obstruction which is to just render the central screen area and slap a static border on the rest (VC would be an obvious thing that does this with console skins). This scenario is most interesting for the gimmick-whiners because it's literally indistinguishable from having color plastic there aside from the customization benefit.

Ah yes, that'd work quite well. Might be used in games that need to render less pixels to improve performance too (could just be a static background with HUD/buttons too)

 

[_woLf]

Knowing Nintendo's shitty naming schemes, I really think releasing an underpowered handheld before a console would be a massive mistake.

 

[Spyder_Monkey]

This comment is pretty stupid. This time the info comes from the screen suppliers.

After yesterday's news that the NX will have RAM and ROM, it appears the NX will also have a screen. Things are starting to come together.

 

[Somnid]

I know lots of folks dislike this but personally I find it to be pretty cool.

I wish someone could update this with 2 screens, putting the map at the bottom. Assuming the bottom screen is more secondary perceived issues will be further mitigated.

 

[Anth0ny]

It'll be both this year.


The whole "sharing a bunch of stuff between different form factors" gimmick would be real shitty if only one form factor existed for a number of months.

 

[Semajer]

They should save 3D for the revision this time

I think I'd be okay with this as long as the software before the revision is designed with 3D in mind. I love the 3DS' 3D, but I want better screen quality.

 

[Pie and Beans]

I know lots of folks dislike this but personally I find it to be pretty cool.

It only works in concept gif form because hands aren't visible. Your thumb/palm/wrist covers up from the analog stick or face buttons down, rendering the point of having stuff down there almost a complete waste of time and money to do this custom frippery.

 

[Neoxon]

So it's just a portable? Or there will also be a home console?

If what's being rumored & speculated is true, then there will be both an NX Handheld & an NX Console that share their architecture, OS, & most of their games.

 

[Adam Tyner]

Is there evidence to back up this claim?

If the numbers IGN printed are accurate, then:

The Game Boy (including Color and Micro, presumably) sold more hardware units than the NES/Famicom and SNES/Super Famicom combined. It didn't move as many games, though (501.11 million games vs. 500.01 million for the NES and 379.06 million for the SNES).

The Game Boy Advance significantly outsold the N64 in terms of hardware and software: nearly 2.5 GBAs for every N64 sold, and around 150 million more pieces of software too.

The DS moved more hardware than the Wii and GameCube combined, and the number of DS games sold isn't far behind that combined number either.

 

[Papacheeks]

It's not just "the last 2 generations". That has been going on since the Nintendo 64. At the same time that their console business took a big stumble with the Nintendo 64, the Gameboy line had just been revitalized by Pokemon, and the portables basically never looked back. Even during the Wii's generation, it still couldn't match DS' numbers.

Ok, gotcha.

Just I guess their hand helds don't sell in US right? Isn't the market for them mainly oversea's for handhelds?

And if it is a shrinking market because of mobile, shouldn't the focus be on getting mobile games out to revitalize people's interests WW for Nintendo branded on the go games?

Not everyone in every country want's a dedicated hand held but I bet your ass they want to play a Nintendo quality game on their smart device.

Makes more sense to vamp that, launch a console which shows is still a thing through their sales on Splatoon, Mario maker, and shows WW with PS4/XBO that people want console.

If they can show NX platform through mobile integration and the console platform, people would be more inclined in outside territories to buy their handheld.

If the numbers IGN printed are accurate, then:

The Game Boy (including Color and Micro, presumably) sold more hardware units than the NES/Famicom and SNES/Super Famicom combined. It didn't move as many games, though (501.11 million games vs. 500.01 million for the NES and 379.06 million for the SNES).

The Game Boy Advance significantly outsold the N64 in terms of hardware and software: nearly 2.5 GBAs for every N64 sold, and around 150 million more pieces of software too.

The DS moved more hardware than the Wii and GameCube combined, and the number of DS games sold isn't far behind that combined number either.

HOLLY BLUE SHELLS BATMAN!! That's a lot.

 

[JaseMath]

*Please be a single screen handheld with a console dock*

 

[Neoxon]

*Please be a single screen handheld with a console dock*

For the millionth time, such a hybrid was already ruled out. Maybe we could get one later down the road in addition to the NX Consoles & Handhelds, but Iwata made it pretty clear before he died that a hybrid was not in the cards at the moment.

 

[Jumpman23]

I wish someone could update this with 2 screens, putting the map at the bottom. Assuming the bottom screen is more secondary perceived issues will be further mitigated.

I'd like to see that too.


One thing that really disappointed me with the original iPhone was the early images made the phone seem like the entire thing was a screen with a button embedded. Once they started showing images of stuff on the screen, you could see just how much of the bezel was actually taking up the screen real estate. Companies are always looking to shrink the bezel and if Nintendo can come to market with something bezel-less, I think that could be quite unique and draw some attention/excitement from more casuals.

 

[doop_]

*Please be a single screen handheld with a console dock*

I really like the look of that.

 

[IchigoSharingan]

Please have a decent display this time.

SUPERAMOLED or bust

 

[FunkyDealer]

WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE FINGERPRINTS?!

 

[Cheeseman Battitude]

Going with a handheld first instead of the Wii U replacement everyone wants would be the ultimate troll.

 

[dreamlongdead]

I personally am not excited for new hardware. I'd sooner just pick up a Vita to complement my new 3DS. The extra games will keep me going for a long time.

The current technology is pretty outdated, so the upgraded specs are welcome. I definitely won't be there on day one, but I suppose that it is time for something new.

 

[Serenitynow]

For the millionth time, such a hybrid was already ruled out. Maybe we could get one later down the road in addition to the NX Consoles & Handhelds, but Iwata made it pretty clear before he died that a hybrid was not in the cards at the moment.

If you are getting tired of correcting them, don't correct them. While your efforts are valiant, it's impossible to educate everyone who thinks it might be a hybrid. The people who are well informed know what to keep the conversation surrounding.

 

[FunkyDealer]

*Please be a single screen handheld with a console dock*

I don't think we'll get more than 5 inches. Batterylife, weight and PPI is more important.

 

[Neoxon]

Going with a handheld first instead of the Wii U replacement everyone wants would be the ultimate troll.

Not really. The NX Handheld is probably gonna move more units than the NX Console either way. Not to mention that the 3DS is showing its age.

 

[Ganondolf]

I think Nintendo will announce the NX handheld in February or march. here in the UK Tesco reduced the original 3ds to £35 and today thegamecollection.net has reduced the price of the 3ds xl with pokemon x to £14.35