Nintendo replies:

...though, to be fair, Nintendo often categorically denies things that turn out to be the case (3DS XL, mobile gaming, etc.), and Nikkei has a pretty impressive track record of breaking Nintendo news.

Are you guys looking forward to some sweet mobile gaming that doesn't take advantage of the hardware at all? Listening to people bitch about how slow the hardware is when the software is the problem? I know I am!

Is This the Nintendo NX Controller?

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/09/...&utm_content=2

Only 2 face buttons? Just further distancing themselves from third parties.

I'd bet that's just for illustrative purposes.

Nintendo patents a bunch of concepts they don't use (or don't use for a very long time), so I wouldn't sweat this one way or the other.

smh...another controller which will absolutely segregate them from any 3rd party company making cross-platform games. It's almost like they're trying to go out of business now...

I hope that's not true. I've realized over the last generation and this one that attempts to change the way people play games over a regular controller just don't do much for me or have much staying power. I know some people think VR is going to be different, but for me just give me a regular controller.

This

The Wii was an anomaly which I don't think will ever be replicated. The dual screen of the 3DS is gimmicky but it doesn't stop a developer from making what we would consider a "standard" game on it. IMO, home consoles can't survive at this point without 3rd party. Making yourself different from the others may sound great in concept but not when it mean your product won't have the top selling games available for it.

I don't like the layout either. It's lacking in number of buttons (I guess they think the touchscreen makes up for it?) and I don't like the orientation of the face buttons. I liked how on the SNES, the main buttons (Y and B) were in a NW-facing line so you could lay your thumb flat across them to run or shoot and jump at the same time. I also think the scrolling shoulder buttons are a bad idea, based on my dislike of middle-clicking on a mouse ever since the scroll wheel became standard.

However, I might put up with some annoyances if...

the controller is essentially the successor to the 3DS, a fully capable handheld system that can be played anywhere, without any tethering to or streaming from the home console. Maybe that is why the thumb controls appear to be somewhat flat and there is an internal storage unit. Perhaps it would lack a cartridge slot and you would transfer a game digitally from the console. For their rumored unified platform, the retail disc would contain both the home and handheld versions of the game.

If they do that, it would be worth the price. Third parties actually support their handhelds.

Maybe there'd be an option to use the handheld SKU as a console controller, but I don't think that would be the default option. Including both a console and a handheld in one package would result in a pretty hefty sticker price, and people who just want a console or just want a handheld would be annoyed having to pay a $150-$200 (or more?) premium for a device they're not interested in.

It's all speculation, but I'm expecting a handheld SKU and a console SKU that can play the same (or mostly the same) library of games. That way, even if both underperform -- say, 10 million consoles sold and 30 million handhelds -- that'd still give the NX as a platform a huge reach, and it'd streamline Nintendo's software development.

Not the third parties anyone's clamoring for, though.

Well, consider that they were charging $150 for a replacement Wii U GamePad, which is $20 more than what the 3DS was selling for at the time. If they come in at $350 again or even go up to $400, the controller/handheld system might cost $150 of that. $200-250 is a realistic price for the controller-less console, assuming it's underpowered relative to PS4/XBO and you have to buy storage separately. There is also that patent of a system without an optical drive, FWIW.

With its flat thumb pads (the patent specifically refers to them as "slide pads") and single pair of shoulder buttons, this thing looks a lot more like a handheld system than a console controller. So maybe this is just that, and they've decided to ditch the 2-screen setup to fit with their unified platform.

That would be suicide.

Of course, anything's possible. It's also very possible that this patent ultimately won't be used in a commercially released product at all.

Think of it from a usability standpoint too. You buy a game that you can play on the handheld controller you mentioned, and you can also play it on a console, using the handheld as a second screen. If you can play the game on a handheld alone, that means it has to be fully playable with a single screen. It follows that if you were playing the same game on a console and using the handheld controller as a second screen, anything on that second screen would have to be inessential. If the second screen is optional, why require the considerable expense of including it as a pack-in, especially when most of Nintendo's userbase only plays on handhelds anyway?

I have a really hard time seeing Nintendo following up the failure of the Wii U by basically doing the same thing again, but...well, again, anything's possible.

I wouldn't be shocked if there were some way to use the handheld as a second screen for the console SKU (actually, I hope there is!), but I'd be surprised if it's the de facto controller the way that the gamepad is.

Nintendo NX will be a console and a handheld, with 'industry-leading chips'

Nintendo has been upfront about 2016 being the year it finally starts talking about the NX, its next-generation console. The company announced the existence of the project in March of this year, calling it "a new hardware system with a brand-new concept." That concept, as has been rumored, might be a console / handheld hybrid, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal today.

The exact shape of the NX hardware isn't yet clear. People familiar with the development plans said Nintendo would likely include both a console and at least one mobile unit that could either be used in conjunction with the console or taken on the road for separate use. They also said Nintendo would aim to put industry-leading chips in the NX devices, after criticism that the Wii U's capabilities didn't match those of competitors.

In addition, the Journal reports that software development kits for the NX are beginning to be distributed, "suggesting the company is on track to introduce the product as early as next year" according to "people familiar with the matter."

With the next version of the blockbuster Dragon Quest series targeting the NX platform, it's no surprise that Nintendo is getting developers geared up to work on the hardware now. And with the company focused on unifying its disparate platforms with a new membership service, developed in collaboration with DeNA, an entirely unified platform starts to make a lot of sense.

http://www.polygon.com/2015/10/16/95...nsole-handheld


Nintendo's NX Wants To Leapfrog Xbox One And PS4 With 'Industry-Leading' Tech

Nintendo is now starting to send out development kits for the NX, reports the Wall Street Journal, and with them comes a fresh round of information about what the NX actually is, because Nintendo itself certainly isn’t talking.

With their somewhat inexplicable “no information until 2016” pledge, information has to be extracted from other sources, namely those who have been working closely with the system in one way or another. Today, that means past rumors about the NX are starting to feel a bit more solid.

Everything about Nintendo’s movements with the NX seems to indicate to analysts that they’re aiming for a holiday 2016 release. The poor sales of the Wii U mean that Nintendo really, really wants to get the new system to market and erase the old one from people’s memories. Though if dev kits are just going out now, that’s not exactly a ton of time for folks to be building games by a 2016 launch.

Past that, according to those “familiar with the development,” the Nintendo NX will be paired with a mobile unit that can be used with the system inherently, or taken on the go. That sounds to me like a Wii U Gamepad-type device that can be free of the console when it needs to be and used like a handheld.

What isn’t clear is if this is the “core concept” of the system and if the device is included. Or if this is also Nintendo’s new plan to replace the 3DS with an entirely new, separate handheld that will be sold alongside the NX. But the idea of the NX blending mobile and console has been around for a long time now, and it seems that it may in fact be the reality of the new hardware.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertco...-leading-tech/

If they didn't beat the XB1 and PS4 in power/tech 2 years after their launches they would be in a lot of trouble.

I can't believe you still can't get a Wii U for $200, if they offer tech better than the PS4 it's going to cost like $600

I think they'd rather hold onto their margins. Personally, I don't think a price drop would meaningfully move the needle, at least not for long.

I thought the CagCast was actually on to something with their idea. That the next console would pretty much be an Amiibo console, where you would buy a $60 figure and it would unlock the data on the console (kinda like if you would buy it digitally). That thing would sell gangbusters.

I think that's because the average number of games bought by a Wii or Wii U user is dwarfed by the number of games bought by a Xbox 1/360 or PS3/4 user. I don't see how their business model is sustainable in a market where casual gamers can get touch screen games like Monument Valley and Super Hexagon for 99 cents on a device they already have.

Believe it or not, the Wii has the second highest attach rate of any piece of hardware Nintendo's put out...going back to the NES era, and that includes handhelds as well. Only the GameCube has a higher attach rate. (It wasn't a big seller, but the people who bought in really loved it.)

Personally, I don't think it's fair to equate Nintendo exclusively with casual gamers. As colossal a step down as the 3DS/Wii U era was, that's still something like 70 million pieces of hardware overall (and the lights haven't been turned off quite yet).

My guess is that the Wii U just fundamentally isn't a console people enthusiastically want. Dropping the price might bring in people who've been on the fence for a while, but I doubt there'd be a sustained boost. Since Nintendo doesn't really discount their software all that deeply, there's the question of how many games you'd move to an audience that's already proven to be price-sensitive. First-party software is still profitable, Amiibo's doing well, the Wii U is (apparently) selling at a per-unit profit...might as well just ride it out and save their marketing muscle for the NX.

Nintendo's NX Console to Launch in 2016.

So what is the Nintendo NX? Will it be a true next-gen console that can compete on an equal footing with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4? Is it a handheld and conventional console hybrid, as some reports have suggested? Right now, we don't even know its official name. NX is just its working title, just as the Wii was once called the Nintendo Revolution.

If a new report from Digitimes is correct, however, we do know when it's going into production, roughly how many units are to be made for its initial launch, and by extension, approximately when the NX will appear in shops.

The outlet reveals that Nintendo's suppliers, Foxconn Electronics - the Chinese giant that builds everything from consoles to smartphones - is putting the NX into production in the first quarter of 2016. The electronics company was originally set to produce 20 million units for its original shipment, but according to Digitimes' story, that figure has been revised down to between 10 and 20 million units.

That revision seems to be because of a supply line of components rather than Nintendo's caution over sales. Indeed, if Nintendo manages to sell 10-12 million NXs in its first year, that's a good result - at least by the standards of the faltering Wii U. The latter system's lifetime sales are between 10 and 11 million, and it's now three years old.

With the NX going into production next spring, we're likely to see the console formerly unveiled fairly soon; that it'll be launched by the autumn of 2016 seems almost certain if the current schedule is correct.

http://www.denofgeek.us/games/ninten...launch-in-2016

I really hope the NX succeeds and becomes a hit for Nintendo. If it fails like the Wii U they might end up like Sega and pull out of the Console Hardware market.

...I'd be okay with that, as long as they don't turn into Sega in terms of Software.

I'm not interested in spending One/PS4 type money on a console to get Nintendo like games. They have to expand on their software if they really want to match those other two companies no matter how powerful their system is.

If it combines the platforms like what has been rumored I will be extremely happy. I love Nintendo games and there are tons of 3DS/DS games I'm interested in but I hate playing portables. If I was a child or commuted everywhere maybe but when I play games I want to play on a tv. I keep buying the portables too and then I stop playing them after a few days and sell them.

Sounds good to me. I think the console market is overcrowded as it is right now. I would be perfectly happy playing Nintendo games on my PS4 & XB1. My Wii U doesn't get much play time as it is now, so that is going to be a tough $300 - $400 pill to swallow next year.

And now that we are going on our 3rd year of this generation, it's going to be a tough sell when the console launches at least $100 more then the current consoles.