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Nintendo's New System Likely a Console/Portable Hybrid (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The Wall Street Journal reports (paywalled) that Nintendo has begun issuing software development kits for its new console, codenamed NX. The company hasn't provided any details publicly about how the console will work, but people who have gotten access to the SDK say it will likely include both a console and some kind of portable/mobile hardware. The intent is to be able to take some aspects of gaming with you when you leave the living room. Nintendo is also looking to step up its hardware efforts in response to criticism that the Wii U's capabilities were notably lower than those of the PS4 and Xbox One. In what ways do you think a console should be partially portable?
Nintendo is looking to step up it's hardware efforts in response to criticism that the Wii U's capabilities were notably lower than those of the PS4 and the XBox One...
Really? Why do people always jump to this conclusion? In the history of Nintendo, they make what they make for their target demographic, and don't try competing against Sony and MS. This shouldn't need revisiting EVERY TIME someone releases a console.
So... a Constable?
Nintendo is looking to step up it's hardware efforts in response to criticism that the Wii U's capabilities were notably lower than those of the PS4 and the XBox One...
Really? Why do people always jump to this conclusion? In the history of Nintendo, they make what they make for their target demographic, and don't try competing against Sony and MS. This shouldn't need revisiting EVERY TIME someone releases a console.
They only recently became profitable again after a slump - and it's said that's also likely because of them making some big changes (tl;dr - licensing characters externally, making games for mobile platforms).
Nintendo for years was like Apple - above reproach and doing it their own way, but now it's having to play everyone else's game for the sole reason that not enough people were playing their games.
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Couldn't they just make a DSi that replicates the functionality of the WiiU gamepad?
Here's what Nintendo should do. Design their SDK with the specific intent of eventually using it to build cross platform (as in iOS and Android via NDK) applications. Have requirements for the developers for capabilities like dynamically adjusting to any size display, touch-only input, and encourage in-app purchases using Nintendo's API. As an "excuse" for no hardware controls, release a portable gaming system like the DS that can flip around so only the screen is visible. That is the motivation for a touch-only mode of input.
Then, after a couple years, and you've built up a good library of games, you spring the bombshell - you provide the software libraries for iOS and Android needed for all these game publishers to seamlessly and effortlessly build for those platforms without having to modify their sources at all. Of course, Nintendo branding and licensing would apply to use those platform-specific SDKs and they would receive a cut, as it saved the developers a huge amount of money they would have had to have spent to support diverse platforms.
Now if Nintendo really wanted to play hardball, they sneak in a generic provision in the license agreement with the developers, and Nintendo releases all titles to those platforms (iOS and Android) directly on behalf of the developers, and funnels 90% percent of the revenue back to them while keeping a 10% slice.
Why, you ask, would Nintendo do something to promote gaming on other platforms? Because Nintendo knows that is inevitable either way, and this scheme would get them a cut on that action. They provide the premiere cross-platform gaming API that works on iOS, Android, Nintendo's next gen console, and their next-gen DS, and since developers have no other option (which is the way it has always been) to develop for Nintendo anyway, why not leverage their effort on other platforms too and increase profits?
Better known as 318230.
I was trying the DS version of Paper Mario the other day, using one of my daughter's older DS units (she's got one of the big 3DS now, so she said I could use the old one to see if I'd like it). So I'm playing this game, and my old eyes are squinting at the screen... and I thought "right now it'd be great if I could "airplay" this on our 47" television".
I could see a device that basically is more of a smart hub, rather than a standalone console in its own right - one that would give users the option to play their handheld games on the big screen, with some additional new distributed processing options where, if a bunch of users are in the same room with their 3DSXLs (or a new iteration similar to that), they could tie into this hub and play console-like games - but still be able to take that portable controller with them on the bus and play mobile games.
Sorta like what the Wii U attempted to do, but carried further to where it's the handheld devices that are primary rather than the console. Bonus points if, at some level, the model would work with existing 3DS hardware or even Nintendo-written iPad/Android apps.
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The port issue has been rectified. There is now a wireless adapter for Wii-U that has 4 GameCube controller ports on it. Its popular for the new version of Smash Brothers Wii-U due to the old GameCube controllers having been a favorite for competitive play.
The Wii U has shipped approximately the same number of units as the Xbox One.
It depends on which part of the world you're in. PlayStation 4 is beating Xbox One and Wii U combined globally, in Europe, and in the rest of the world. In North America, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have each outsold Wii U by roughly 2 to 1. But in Japan, Wii U is in the lead and Xbox One is a rounding error.
Figures from VGChartz:
PS4: NA 9.60; EU 9.93; JP 1.67; ROW 4.25; total 25.45
XbOne: NA 8.61; EU 3.63; JP 0.06; ROW 1.58; total 13.88
Wii U: NA 4.70; EU 2.40; JP 2.52; ROW 0.65; total 10.27
I'm not sure why everyone is quick to qualify the Wii U as a disaster and the Xbox One a success.
Because you've only talked to Americans.
In this sense, APK is Alexander P. Kowalski, the self-proclaimed "Lord of Hosts" who advocates using /etc/hosts as the workhorse of web content blocking for security and efficiency. He wrote a proprietary hosts file aggregator application for Windows called APK Hosts File Engine, and he likes to remind us that hosts-based blocking is faster than browser extensions because it runs in kernel mode and that MalwareBytes recommends it. He has his own peculiar style of writing involving lots of boldface type, use of & instead of "and", and other quirks, and posts copypasta ads for APK Hosts File Engine on Slashdot as Anonymous Coward.
But I don't see the similarity between APK's writing and Narcocide's.