bluetoast

Nintendo...are we ever gonna see a normal fucking system from you ever again?

stingermck

Nope. The Wii ruined that change as they hope to catch lightning in a bottle twice.

mattysemo247

If the new system doesn't even have normal joysticks, I'm out. The digital joysticks used on phone games are a fucking joke.

Adam Tyner

Nintendo files patents all the time, and this isn't necessarily indicative of what the NX will be.

They've also recently filed patents for:

• Outward image sensors on a controller/handheld; think something that beams in all directions to detect nearby objects/movement
• A cloud-computing supplemental device; you plug in a second box, and it makes your original box perform better, basically
• Video achievement sharing; like the Miiverse stuff in NES Remix 2
• A stationary game console without an optical drive; mentions a controller with a display (like the Wii U); if NX winds up being buy-once-play-anywhere, ditching the optical drive would be necessary for the handheld...maybe a move to cartridges/solid state?
• Clickable, rotating shoulder buttons; kind of like two mouse wheels, I guess?
• Interchangeable physical controls; swapping out components like the Xbox One Elite controller; I can't imagine this could be used in tandem with the LCD-screen-as-a-controller patent

Any, all, or none of these may wind up being a part of NX.

fumanstan

Well the article quoted does mention still having analog sticks, but I hate the idea of even touch buttons.

mhg83

Nintendo would be stupid to not include a traditional controller as an option.

Adam Tyner

Nintendo has said when speaking about mobile that many of their games need physical, tactile buttons, so I'd be very surprised if those go anywhere.

Michael Corvin

Yep, if they go with another non-standard controller and they're digging their own grave.

fumanstan

Thank god!

Sonny Corinthos

7 things the NX must do in order to turn things around for Nintendo.

http://www.gamesradar.com/7-ways-nin...gn=buffer_grfb

Michael Corvin

Pretty much what we've been saying here. Almost feels like half an article though. They have so many things to "course-correct."

Also no mention of a strong online component.

Sonny Corinthos

New Nintendo Console to be Announced in June, released in Fall.

The new Nintendo console will be officially revealed this June

What has been code-named NX for some time now, the new Nintendo console will be officially revealed this June, Tokyo financial group Nomura Securities revealed (via Barron’s Asia). The smart money on this reveal would be this year’s E3 Expo in Los Angeles, set to kick off June 14.

Nomura Securities also revealed that the console’s “concept” is expected to be revealed during the spring, between March and May, with its official launch set to be either in October or November of this year. The firm does note that they believe the console will “cannibalize” existing sales of both the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U consoles, the latter of which was first released in 2012, making the gap between consoles just four years.

Previously revealed patents filed by Nintendo have shown off potentially interesting details about the console, such as: a controller with an LCD screen like the Wii U; a round tablet-like controller; and even a console without an optical disc drive and only a memory card slot. What the new Nintendo console will be in its final product remains to be seen, but check back here later this year as the official announcement comes through!

Read more at http://www.comingsoon.net/games/news...8Fw7tdBzeru.99

Michael Corvin

So I guess any rumored WiiU game thus far (i.e. Pikmin 4) will be an NX title at this point.

Four year life of the WiiU. Pretty shitty Nintendo.

Decker

That's four years without a redesign or a price cut.

Rob V

I've purchased every Nintendo console since the NES... no more. Fool me 6 times shame on you, fool me 7, shame on me.

cleaver

Sarcastic, right? If I could have gotten one for $150 I'd have considered, but it was like immediately a lame duck console.

Sega 32X came out 11/94, Sega Saturn came out 5/95, Dreamcast 9/99.

Adam Tyner

Maaaaybe. Something like Pikmin 4 might even make more sense for the Wii U if they could leverage existing assets and play to a larger, existing userbase, kinda like Assassin's Creed: Rogue. It'll take the NX a while to get 11 million users onboard, after all. Heck, maybe this is why Pikmin 3 is out of print!

Kimishima has said that Nintendo won't leave Wii U users out in the cold.

It's Nintendo, so you always have to take that sort of thing with a grain of salt -- they said the DS wouldn't replace the GBA either, and look how that turned out -- but maybe they mean it this time. I wouldn't expect stellar software support (I mean, there's so little as it is without the NX!), but maybe there'll be more cross-platform stuff.

The speculation (which sounds pretty realistic to me) is that when Nintendo wildly, obscenely overestimated the popularity of the Wii U -- estimating sales in year one that took them nearly three years to reach -- they overproduced all the necessary components as well.

If true, this means:

1) They amassed a huge stockpile of parts that just needed to be assembled

2) The huge cost of these components has already been reflected in their financials, so presumably that means that every console sold is massively more profitable from an accounting standpoint

3) The cost of getting production up and running for these suppliers who haven't been producing these parts in a couple of years may be prohibitive. I mean, who makes 854x480 resistive LCD screens anymore? Because there are no economies of scale, that stupid thing might cost more than, say, a 720p screen these days. Ditto for the weird, custom chipset. Microsoft and Sony continued to find ways to make their consoles cheaper to produce over time, but I can't imagine that Nintendo has invested that sort of R&D into what's essentially a dead console.

4) It might make more sense financially to burn off what they have at a higher price than to try to start production up again.

5) ...especially if the price/demand curve doesn't predict a massive amount of interest in the console regardless. Will there be more people interested in the Wii U at a lower price? Of course! Will that number be large enough to make it worthwhile? Maybe not. (As much as I love it, I think the Wii U is a fundamentally undesirable console for the mass-market at any price. If I slash the price of a brussel sprouts-flavored 2 liter of soda, it's not going to go flying off the shelves either.) You drop console prices to burn off excess stock, to spur software sales, or to grow your userbase, but if you don't have a massive amount of excess stock, if you don't have too much compelling software on the horizon, and if the console's about to be taken behind the barn and shot dead, then what's to be gained?

There's also the possibility that Nintendo doesn't want to be seen as the budget alternative. If you never drop the price, people will eventually stop waiting for a price drop. Bundling more games would seem to be Nintendo's idea of a price drop.

mattysemo247

That's not entirely true. It was released at $299 for the 8GB and $349 for the 32GB. Now the 8GB is discontinued and the 32GB is $299.

And there was the limited window a year ago when Target clearanced them out for $150, which is when I picked up my system.

Sonny Corinthos

The Latest NX 'Leak' Demonstrates Exactly Why Nintendo Needs To Start Talking.

The internet is starting to buzz again about yet another NX “leak,” this time from market researcher GfK, who reportedly has slipped in some Nintendo NX info into one of its recent surveys. And what’s been revealed is making fans both upset and confused. Among the details:

- Gameplay flows between the NX console and NX handheld device

- Gameplay graphics are 900p/60fps

- The box includes the console, a controller and a sensor bar

The problem with using a survey like this as gospel is that GfK might not have any idea what they’re actually talking about. While Nintendo may have given them specific information about the NX, it seems unlikely it would find its way into a survey like this. GfK could just be extrapolating test question info based on rumor or the precedent set by the Wii U in order to craft a survey for a client who might not even be Nintendo.

In the first line above, the survey says that gameplay flows between the NX console and an NX handheld, seeming to reference rumors about the console being both a console and handheld. Yet in the box itself is only the console and a controller, which would imply that it’s just a set-up like we have now with the Wii U and its touchscreen gamepad where gameplay also “flows” between them.

But what really makes no sense is stating outright that the consoles graphics are 900p/60fps, which is actually a step backward from many of the Wii U’s current titles. There have been Wii U games at 900p/60fps, but also 1080p/30fps and 1080p/60fps, depending on the title. It is entirely illogical that the NX would lock graphics at one resolution and framerate, and if they did, it (hopefully) would not be 900p/60fps on a console meant to be an upgrade from the Wii U.

So while the survey itself is supposedly legitimate, it’s unlikely all this information is. I talked to an ex-GfK employee who has done tons of these kinds of surveys, and he says there’s no way to know whether or not the information is based on fact or theory. A survey like this is usually a fact-finding mission for consumer preferences. For new products, they will invent a price, for instance, six prices, and see which one tests better. So any piece of this information could be a test about what consumers would want or not want to see in the NX.

But could some of the information be valid? Again, we have no idea because nearly a month into 2016 Nintendo is still refusing to talk about the NX, a system that all analysts predict is supposed to come out by the end of the year.

The problem is that Nintendo’s silence will continue to be filled by rumor and speculation for as long as they’re not saying anything. Last year it was their supply chain partners who couldn’t shut up about possible NX info. Then it was people crawling over Nintendo’s patents. Now it’s their own market research firm. This isn’t going to stop until Nintendo themselves comes forward with some solid, concrete information about the NX.

Nintendo already has their Direct format down cold as a way of effectively distributing information, so it’s high time that they at least put an NX Direct on the calendar. Some have suggested they’re going to wait until E3 2016 in June to give out any info, but that’s waiting way too long, unless the system isn’t actually going to come out until Holiday 2017 (which it very well might, with the way things are going).

Nintendo just needs to say something, anything concrete about the NX at this point, or these misleading rumors are going to continue to dominate the conversation about the future of their brand.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertco...0b2d5ea2dd16f0

Adam Tyner

This is what I believe to be the case.

chuckd21

Nintendo doesn't need to say anything until they're ready to.

Decker

Please Do Not Tease The Hardware.

Breakfast with Girls

I like the sheer volume of petulant indignation in that article.

Michael Corvin

Nintendo: No ThanX?

Music

I give you 2 years max