+- Tendo City (https://www.tendocity.net)
+-- Forum: Tendo City: Metropolitan District (https://www.tendocity.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+--- Forum: Tendo City (https://www.tendocity.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=42)
+--- Thread: Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors (/showthread.php?tid=6959)
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - A Black Falcon - 22nd April 2016
So, since E3 is coming up fast yet again, already, the rumors are all over and might be fun to discuss.
For the NX, supposedly it'll be more powerful than the PS4 or X1, but since Sony and MS are both talking about releasing upgraded versions of their systems maybe as soon as this year, that may not mean much. Will Nintendo yet again release a new system quite a bit less powerful than the others' are, or will it be close? That'll be very interesting to see. On the positive side, if Sony and MS release only updated systems, it does make a Wii U-like situation where far more powerful systems release a year later much less likely... unless MS does exactly that instead of releasing a half-upgrade this year, but who knows; we'll have to wait until E3 to learn what all three are going to be doing. Even though a lot of third parties have pulled out of E3, for the big three hardware manufacturers this is shaping up to be a huge Ee!
Of course, whether Nintendo can do anything to start winning back third parties is the other huge question, though that will be very difficult, considering how bad things have gotten now. Or will they just give up on that, and focus on first-party-published games only, again? One rumor is that Nintendo is trying to get more games finished faster than they have recently, and that would help of course if it's true and actually happens. You still need third parties at some point, though, but due to Nintendo's choices in the past they have lost almost all of them. More first party output would help a lot though, with how slow it's been in recent years. I still say that Nintendo never got over their terrible decision to sell off Rare... too bad.
Beyond that, the big NX question is about how it'll integrate a screen-on-controller portion and a traditional console portion. I think there are conflicting rumors here though, so who knows. Nintendo has talked about trying to make their handheld and TV systems more similar in order to make development easier, so some kind of new system or set of systems that all run on similar (maybe ARM?) hardware seems likely... though ARM isn't the best choice for a TV console, I'd think, so we'll see. As for my opinion on this one, I can understand why they would want unified system architecture, but the differences between handhelds and consoles are as significant as ever, and you can't make one system that does both equally well. I know some people like to dream about it, but so far at least you can't make a handheld that is also a great TV console, it would not be powerful enough... but different but more similar platforms could work. It will be interesting to see what Nintendo's come up with though, and if it'll go over better than the Wii U did. Here's hoping, they need it!
As for Zelda, the top rumors are that the game will launch on both NX and Wii U, as with TP and the GC and Wii versions, and that there might be a female playable character as well as the regular male one. The former of those seems very likely, but for the latter, while it'd be great, I'll believe it when I see it. Oh, and third rumor, voice acting for everyone except Link. Sure, why not. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1205846
As for Sony... that's another subject, but if they seriously are going to release a "PS 4.5" or PS4 Neo or whatever this year, that's only three years after the PS4! Yes, all games apparently will have to work on the older system, but still, you're asking a lot from your customers to get them to buy another expensive system AND games... oh and a VR headset too. MS is also talking about upgraded systems and a short life cycle, but not quite as much as Sony has been. I know people buy new phones all the time, and they need more power particularly for VR, but still, this could backfire... and the idea defnitely has gotten a lot of criticism online too. PS4 Neo potential info: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1209238
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - A Black Falcon - 26th April 2016
.. nothing? Really? There's a lot of interesting stuff to talk about here...
But for new news, Nintendo just announced Zelda is delayed to 2017. :bummed: How long will this game take...
On a positive note though, an NX version of the game has been confirmed. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1212191
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - A Black Falcon - 27th April 2016
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1212187
... And now Nintendo is saying that the NX won't be at E3 and will launch in March 2017. Zelda, however, will be at E3 even though it's launching in 2017 as well, I would guess probably at NX launch or close to it... so huh. Nintendo will have some event later this year to reveal the NX, but passing on showing it at E3 may be a mistake. We'll see.
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - lazyfatbum - 5th May 2016
http://www.gamnesia.com/news/a-new-report-has-sparked-speculation-that-nintendos-nx-could-use-cartridges
aaaaaaand here comes flash carts
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - A Black Falcon - 5th May 2016
That would be pretty interesting. They're a good idea in concept, the only question is if costs can be kept down enough to make it that good in practice.
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - Dark Jaguar - 6th May 2016
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/05/why-nintendo-nxs-rumored-shift-from-discs-to-cartridges-is-actually-smart/
According to this article, 32GB flash carts are getting so low in price that production costs are favorable against Bluray. More than that, it negates the modern need to "install" your games to your console due to much faster access times. Flash isn't as fast as the old EPROM chips, but they're fast enough.
Also, they can actually do what rumors have been saying Nintendo "would do" for years now, and set a section of that cartridge as "writable space", so DLC and patches (up to a limit) could actually be stored on the cart itself instead of in system memory, saving even more room for users. There was basically no possible way that implementing that with rewritable optical disks would be in any way reliable or long-lasting, but with flash carts it's a whole other story.
I think Nintendo making sure their hardware is comparable with MS and Sony's is an "about time" situation. Nintendo cutting costs with the Wii by deciding to skip a generation of hardware improvements was a good move at the time, but it's clear now that 3rd parties aren't very interested in making software aimed at an older spec when they don't have to. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if all these rumors about XBoxOne.Two and Playstation 4.5 were MS and Sony's way of cutting Nintendo off at the heels and making sure Nintendo couldn't claim their console was more powerful. Nintendo may be down, but MS and Sony know better than to ignore them.
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - lazyfatbum - 6th May 2016
What DJ said. Also if Nintendo goes crazy and releases a cellphone streaming device that's a console and handheld in one the flash carts would make a perfect companion just like loading an SD card. You buy the card, you store what you want on it (including personal files? pics to save from the NX's camera? idk) and it acts like a removable flash drive and you choose how much space you want. This might mean that Nintendo is ditching physical copies and opting instead for releasing specialized cards just to hold the digital media, so my carts/cards are unique to me (a card that displays Metroid artwork, one that displays Zelda, etc) or just d/l it directly to the device but it would be smart to cut cost here and just have external storage/cloud. Also:
https://www.destructoid.com/here-s-another-clue-the-nintendo-nx-will-not-have-an-optical-drive-359529.phtml
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - Dark Jaguar - 6th May 2016
If they "opened up" extra space on these carts for users, they might as well just use SD cards flat-out. I'd be for it, but among other things Nintendo's gotta go through a dramatic shift in how they approach user "ownership" of their consoles. That is "side loaded apps" becoming a thing. The PS3 ALMOST got us there, but one little hacking scandal and they went and removed the custom OS feature from the system.
I am still not sure Nintendo is willing to commit to making their own dedicated cell phones. Sony tried that and it cost them big. For one, if they attempted to put their own exclusive store front on their handhelds, like Sony, it would fail utterly. They'd need to use Google's app store (I'm saying Google and not Apple because, well, come on, it's Apple we're talking about here). Further, they would need to be sure it could run the most popular games (Angry Birds) and the most well-reviewed games (The Room), so they would need to be in lock-step with Google's Nexus line. Lastly, Nintendo would need to consider whether or not to go the customized Android OS route. The plus side would be putting their own mark on the OS to make that cell phone their's, but the downside would be if that custom layer was harder to use than Google's own or slowed down the system just by running on top of it. Besides the technical aspects, there's also the matter of keeping up to date with Android updates. I like my Nexus because I can count on getting Android updates the "day of release", and there's a decent section of android owners that don't want to wait around for various manufacturers to finish customizing each update before they can get it.
Then there's the phone company exclusion deals. Sony dealt with that when they had to make the Vita AT&T exclusive, for example, and phone companies are only a little less likely to see a Nintendo cell phone and NOT demand an exclusivity deal (which would instantly lock out a huge target audience from even being able to consider it).
The last option would be a cell phone entirely designed by Nintendo with it's own OS built from the ground up, but in today's cell phone markets there's basically zero chance anyone would seriously consider such a 5th pillar option. The days when literally every phone ran it's own custom OS are dead now, it's all about making the OS a "platform" and getting every hardware maker to adopt it. There's Apple and Google, the top dogs (Apple is more popular in mind share, but Google's got the whole "every phone maker wants to use it's OS" thing going for it), and trailing way behind there's MS, and technically Amazon's got their own version but no one cares. Nintendo may be Nintendo, but games, even the very best games in the industry, just aren't enough to get anyone to care if it means all their apps aren't going to cross over to a device that is basically what "set top box" proponents have wanted forever, only in your pocket. You'd need to convince people it's worth buying two cell phones simultaneously, like we're all Hillary Clinton or something. Keep in mind that technically the Vita is a "cell phone", but no one actually uses it for that purpose, namely due to needing to turn off the cell phone's main function just to play a game online on the Vita, which in today's society is unacceptable (that, or pay for an extra "line" just for that system, which is just too expensive to consider). Generally, the Vita is connected online on the go the same way the 3DS is, by setting up one's cell phone as a hot spot and using the wifi function on the handheld.
Put shortly, I've given the whole "Nintendo enters the cell phone market" a lot of though, and all these compounded problems with multiple different ways Nintendo could approach that challenge are.... thorny... very thorny... Frankly, I'm not at all surprised Nintendo's avoided it so far. Every direction I look I see it as an impossible situation. Well, unless.... Unless Nintendo decides to do something very un-Nintendo-like and simply go third party when it comes to portable games, working out a major deal with both Apple and Google to officially promote a special well-built "controller addon" as the official recommended controller addon for their main cell phone lines. Even then, that's going to be tough as the market for such controller addons can testify to. It's very hard to make a "one size fits all" solution with the endless variations of cell phones out there (blame that one on Google).
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - A Black Falcon - 6th May 2016
On top of everything else, there will be no E3 Direct, only a Zelda Treehouse stream.
The biggest problem with this isn't the delay, or not having a E3 Direct, though those things are both really sad and I'll miss having something to watch from Nintendo at E3 Zelda stream aside, it's that all this speculation about the NX has gotten really old. I, like most people, just want to see what it is already, and we should have learned that at E3... but how long will we have to wait, how many more months before we learn what it really is? It's kind of agonizing...
And yeah, not good for Nintendo, given how Sony and MS should have lots of stuff about their system updates, while Nintendo will have nothing until... who knows when. Maybe it'll all turn out fine in the end for Nintendo, everyone will pay attention to them whenever they do say something after all, but it is a missed opportunity. I think E3 does still matter, even if it's less than before.
On the other hand though Zelda is one of my favorite series, so I'm definitely excited to see much more of the next major Zelda game!
Quote: Put shortly, I've given the whole "Nintendo enters the cell phone market" a lot of though, and all these compounded problems with multiple different ways Nintendo could approach that challenge are.... thorny... very thorny... Frankly, I'm not at all surprised Nintendo's avoided it so far. Every direction I look I see it as an impossible situation. Well, unless.... Unless Nintendo decides to do something very un-Nintendo-like and simply go third party when it comes to portable games, working out a major deal with both Apple and Google to officially promote a special well-built "controller addon" as the official recommended controller addon for their main cell phone lines. Even then, that's going to be tough as the market for such controller addons can testify to. It's very hard to make a "one size fits all" solution with the endless variations of cell phones out there (blame that one on Google).True, Microsoft's attempts at a cellphone OS have not worked out too well. Some Nintendo-only thing probably wouldn't do great either... and Nintendo, focusing so much on third-party stuff for Apple and Google phones? That market is so volatile, it's even more boom-bust than the console industry probably...
Quote: If they "opened up" extra space on these carts for users, they might as well just use SD cards flat-out.Having the read-only data be on something separate, for added security and maybe lastability, seems like a good idea though if possible...
Quote: I'd be for it, but among other things Nintendo's gotta go through a dramatic shift in how they approach user "ownership" of their consoles. That is "side loaded apps" becoming a thing. The PS3 ALMOST got us there, but one little hacking scandal and they went and removed the custom OS feature from the system.I just want Nintendo to give up on hard region locking. Absolutely nobody in this industry does this anymore other than Nintendo, and it's terrible. I have no expectations for it as Nintendo is very stubborn, but they REALLY need to ditch region locks.
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - Dark Jaguar - 7th May 2016
For the other big companies, they release ONE OS, with all the translations built right into it. Nintendo, on the other hand, releases custom OS builds for every language. That's one thing they'll need to fix going forward. Along those lines, such a change would allow us as users to create online accounts in other regions, giving us easy access to untranslated releases in other territories. I know I've done that with both MS and Sony, with a British and Japanese account with both services.
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - A Black Falcon - 2nd June 2016
So, Nintendo will be showing more than just Zelda at E3 -- other Wii U and 3DS stuff will be streamed: http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/nintendo-expands-on-e3-streaming-plans/1100-5457/
This is good news for sure, only Zelda would have been odd...
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - Dark Jaguar - 6th June 2016
At this point it should be obvious that anything gleaned from English QA sessions with Japanese people will never turn out entirely accurate. On-the-fly translating seems to be pretty spotty in those situations.
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - lazyfatbum - 2nd July 2016
If Nintendo wants to get popular again they can't transition from the somewhat adorable Japanese creators in an interview to a stuffed shirt Apple presentation from Reggie. Nintendo's push to make their company stand out as Japanese is fine, when I saw the wii commercial where Japanese people in suits actually showed up at an "American" house to hand deliver a Wii to tween boy and his family I knew right there that they were feeling threatened by the culture gap which Sony (and later Ms) had zero issue to capture. But give us a representative of America to talk shit and get people interested. That ties in to what I just read:
http://suzguru.com/wordpress/index.php/2016/07/01/report-nintendo-sales-and-marketing-vp-scott-moffitt-leaving-this-summer/
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - Dark Jaguar - 5th July 2016
I don't know what it is, but I've just never liked Reggie. I know, I've got no particular reason to dislike him, but something about him just rubs me the wrong way. I dunno, I just get the impression he doesn't actually like video games and it's all an act for him, and he'd rather just focus on administrative duties.
Mind you, maybe in a year or two we'll find out he kills kittens when no one is looking. I never liked Subway's Jarred either after all.
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - lazyfatbum - 6th July 2016
Every time he said "eat fresh" he smirked
Reggie's okay, he could present in a different way and it would work better but he needs to find that energy somewhere between Daniel Tosh and Jimmy Kimmel. Fuck it Nintendo presentations should be handled by Daniel Tosh and Jimmy Kimmel. I would love to see them both deal with Amiibos "a new Amiibo releasing on the 24th this month is Dark Link which will unlock the Dark Link Cage Match mode in Breath of the Wild, after you unlock the mode you can display your Dark Link Amiibo in any place where other adults can judge you." It would create a vibe putting Nintendo is a position to represent itself as admitting to its "all ages" entertainment philosophy while firmly giving children exclusivity to the less adult aspects of Nintendo products and then talk shop to their other markets their hoping to procure, but adults aren't going to purposefully endorse Nintendo with them defining themselves as children first entertainment.
The Apple presentation worked because the products were designed as work stations, music devices, streaming services for home and business, Apple is synonymous with business life, Nintendo is synonymous with mushrooms
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - A Black Falcon - 9th July 2016
I've never been a big Reggie fan, but you're being a bit harsh, DJ... his PR persona aside he is just an executive, and one with relatively little power compared to predecessors like Howard Lincoln due to Iwata's centralization of power in Japan. As for his PR persona yeah I didn't love it initially, unlike some, but he's not awful either.
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - Dark Jaguar - 9th July 2016
I basically said what you said, how was I harsh?
...it was the kitten thing wasn't it?
lazy, you just listed two of my least liked comedians. Especially Tosh.0
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - A Black Falcon - 9th July 2016
Yes, it was the kitten thing. I love cats, they're amazing!
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - lazyfatbum - 12th July 2016
Hate Tosh all you want he's popular and he hits the right notes with most of the crowds who play video games. The classic go to of anyone high school and college aged is to just make fun of people and events sure but he has other qualities in his humor. An American representative should be somewhere in the gene pool of Bender from Futurama. Almost everything in our media now is self referential like movies that are written in such a way that the character's know they're in a movie, popular TV shows, even books, so having a host that gives that Bill Murray vibe that makes fun of himself and the company in a tongue and cheek manor would push Nintendo in all the right ways. They're all corporate suits now with the occasional Hawaiian shirt.
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - Dark Jaguar - 12th July 2016
Eeeehhhhhh I don't know about that.
One thing to keep in mind is I've kinda distanced myself from a huge part of "gamer culture". It's gotten pretty messed up out there.
Tosh is no Bill Murray, because while Bill Murray may be sarcastic and self referential, he's got one thing over Tosh. Bill is nice.
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - lazyfatbum - 12th July 2016
Its good that some people get that.
So yeah a nice Tosh
and gamer culture is retarded. It's kind of terrible watching people create an identity around hobbies instead of the other way around
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - Dark Jaguar - 12th July 2016
Heck, for that matter, what's the big deal about "identity" anyway? My personality is a weird collection of carpet samples of other people's personalities haphazardly sewn together, and I'm okay with that.
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - A Black Falcon - 12th July 2016
Tosh? Maybe he's been in some video here, but I don't remember anything about that person. As for Kimmel though, I don't usually watch late-night TV, haven't watched his show regularly apart for really liking that bit he did with Hillary several months back.
I also don't know if I have ever watched a whole Apple presentation; I don't like Apple or own any of their products, so why would I? So yeah, I'm not sure what this difference between Apple and Nintendo is, myself...
However, I think you're saying that Nintendo of America needs more freedom to actually run things for this region here, instead of Nintendo staying so controlled by Japan as it has been since Iwata reorganized the company that way, and if so I entirely agree. I think that more local control would help for sure, NoA knows this region better than NCL does in Japan. T his includes marketing of course, along with the choices of which games to localize.
I mean, seriously, WHY is Picross 3D 2 (for 3DS) still not announced for a US release? Come on already NCL... :(
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - Dark Jaguar - 13th July 2016
Of all the games they've failed to localize, you pick a sequel to a puzzle game?
I'd focus on stuff like Mother 3, or even Terranigma (which has a fully functional English translation that needs to end up on the VC) before I started asking for such barrel scrapings as that.
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - A Black Falcon - 13th July 2016
Picross 3D is my favorite game on the original DS, so of course I want to play the sequel! Such a fantastic game, I really love it, and need more puzzles... which you can't get since they shut down original DS online. And they won't announce the sequel for the US even though it's been out in Japan for some time now. It's really frustrating.
As for Terranigma for VC, sure, that'd be cool. I did really like Secret of Mana.
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - Dark Jaguar - 13th July 2016
Terranigma has nothing to do with Secret of Mana I'm afraid. Terranigma is the third part of an Enix series, the previous two being Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia.
Secret of Mana did have it's own unlocalized sequel though, in the form of Seiken Densetsu 3 (as the fans commonly romanize it). By all accounts, it's actually better than Secret, but it never got a US release, as Square at the time opted to instead have a local team make a unique game for America called Secret of Evermore. Evermore isn't a bad game, but it is not as good as Secret of Mana and lacks any and all multiplayer support besides.
Notably, the "Gaia series" is known for being much more "grounded" in character writing and development, with a lot of more realistic problems on top of the more fantastical. I recall people acting a lot more like people in those games, Gaia in particular, than in later JRPGs where they would all be reduced to one-note cartoon characters like "the brooding one" or "the action one" or "the innocent one" or "the black one, just like American movie Bad Boys 2 which we're sure has all sorts of depth and nuance we're not at all overreading into it and is certainly an accurate portrayal of American culture".
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - A Black Falcon - 13th July 2016
... Why did I say Secret of Mana? Sorry, I meant Illusion of Gaia of course. It's a great game, and is much better game than Secret of Mana. :) I actually finished Illusion of Gaia some years ago; that and LttP are the only games like that for SNES I've beaten.
As for Seiken Densetsu 3, yeah, it's better than Secret of Mana for sure. They fix that horrible delay on hits in the combat system, which is huge, and it's otherwise better as well. As for Evermore, I got that earlier this year, I believe. It does seem good, but I haven't gotten far into it.
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - A Black Falcon - 27th July 2016
So, the new NX rumors are basically the same as the old ones -- it's a portable-console hybrid. I remain to be convinced that this is a good idea...
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-07-26-nx-is-a-portable-console-with-detachable-controllers
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/nintendo-nx-the-pros-and-cons-of-a-transforming-portable/0170297
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1253721
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - Dark Jaguar - 27th July 2016
Honestly it sounds like a great idea. Why bother with two pillars when one will do the job? The 3DS is Nintendo's actual money maker, it makes sense to simply treat all their games as portable games, with the added bonus of being able to hook that portable up to a TV. It should be more powerful than the Wii U, but it isn't going to dethrone the PS4 or XBone any time soon (that's just physics, it has to run small, low power, and low heat). To me, it sounds like a solid plan. Now, it won't be running any Wii/Wii U/Gamecube games, but since it's running on ARM, it can run all DS and 3DS software easily enough (technically GBA software too, but I expect the cartridge slot to be DS/3DS style with no GBA port, so that rules that out). That'll mean as a portable, it'll maintain Nintendo's tradition of backwards compatibility just fine. The removable controllers basically mean when connected to a TV, you've got a built in wii remote with a better button layout, so that's good.
Frankly, I don't see any downsides here. Nintendo is bowing out of directly competing with Sony and MS and have gone full-on with the one market they've always dominated, portable gaming. Combined with their tentative first steps into cell phone games (to great success, partly due to how terrible the vast majority of cell phone games are), they've got a clear path. Meanwhile, Sony and MS have opted to just turn consoles into PCs with none of the advantages of PCs. I'm not really sure how that's going to turn out.
There's third party concerns, but Nintendo has maintained solid third party support on their portable line, so I'm expecting that to continue on the NX. Frankly, this seems like a pretty smart decision, even if it means the days when Nintendo could compete graphically with competing systems are long behind us. The Gamecube seems to be the last time Nintendo is going to play that game.
Some are suggesting Nintendo should use Android as the OS. I don't think that's a good idea. The Android OS, in terms of raw performance, isn't so hot. It is designed to run a lot of software and allow it to be portable, and also allow lots of little apps to run in the background for push notifications. I've seen a game dedicated system that ran on Android. I bought and Ouya, and that's the one console I actually regret buying. I own a Virtual Boy, and I regret the Ouya more. That system ran very slow, slow even by the standards of the hardware it had, and it all comes down to their custom built version of Android. It would be better for Nintendo to stay the course and just keep on making their own OS as they've done. Android is fine as a general purpose OS, but not so hot as a gaming one.
I do like their inclusion of a docking station. If it was like the PSP, they'd just sell a cable that lets you hook it up to a TV and call it a day, but they've made it a lot more convenient. I'm thinking they really need to put an ethernet port on that docking station, along with the obligatory USB ports (hopefully at least 3.0 this time). I wonder how well using the NX as a second screen, ala the Wii U, will work. As it stands though, I think as a gamer, I stand to save a LOT of money going forward. Not only will I now be buying only one console from Nintendo (and no longer needing to buy two versions of Smash and Mario Kart like this gen), but I also won't be needing to buy any more XBox consoles, what with MS going for making XBox games "universal" Windows apps (I really hope they eventually let me use my physical XBox One games on my PC too). Also, Sony is bowing out of the portable games market entirely after their Vita fiasco (which is a shame, because the Vita is danged near perfect, hardware-wise). So, I'll be buying a Nintendo handheld, a Sony game system, and updating my PC every now and then (which after my recent upgrade, I shouldn't need to do for a good long while). It's a good time to be a gamer.
Nintendo NX & Zelda Rumors - A Black Falcon - 27th July 2016
Quote:Frankly, I don't see any downsides here. Nintendo is bowing out of directly competing with Sony and MS and have gone full-on with the one market they've always dominated, portable gaming. Combined with their tentative first steps into cell phone games (to great success, partly due to how terrible the vast majority of cell phone games are), they've got a clear path. Meanwhile, Sony and MS have opted to just turn consoles into PCs with none of the advantages of PCs. I'm not really sure how that's going to turn out.As I've said in several threads now (here for example: http://tcforums.com/forums/showthread.php?7212-E3-2016-Press-Confrences ), I think that the third-party concerns are a big issue, and by yet again refusing to release a system with hardware comparable to the competition Nintendo doubles down on ensuring that they will not get much third-party support, particularly from the West. The loss of third-party support has hurt Nintendo quite a bit over the last two decades, so this is a real problem. With this Nintendo continues relying on creating gimmicks that can draw people in. But how reliable is that as an operating principle, when in the last two generations we see the two polar opposite results that it can bring?
There's third party concerns, but Nintendo has maintained solid third party support on their portable line, so I'm expecting that to continue on the NX. Frankly, this seems like a pretty smart decision, even if it means the days when Nintendo could compete graphically with competing systems are long behind us. The Gamecube seems to be the last time Nintendo is going to play that game.
And as for third parties on handhelds, the 3DS is still getting some support, yes, but the rise of smartphones has greatly reduced the amount of third-party support it has gotten versus past Nintendo handhelds. The 3DS is a moneymaker, but past Nintendo handhelds did better because they were not competing with something most people have in their pocket. Convincing people to carry something around other than just a phone is not so easy. On these grounds, for the coming years at least there may actually be more security in the traditional console market; it has problems too, but at least there is still a clear place for devices that let you play games on a TV.
Of course, playing the high-power-console game costs a LOT of money, so on those grounds I can see why Nintendo is staying away; maybe this is the safest route. But it has its own major issues.