I've seen opinions across the web. Whenever it was rumoured that NX would have a screen controller everyone was like:

"Not learned their lessons, incredibly hard to believe. Wii U all over again - haven't they learned from Wii U" etc etc.

Now the concept seems to have been clarified there has been some positivity over it. I'm wondering why more people aren't rebelling against it given the Wii U comparisons. I remember Iwata talking about future hardware and one of the things he said was that they weren't going to throw away what they learned from Wii U. At the time most people thought it was architecturally related to the GCN Power PC for backwards compatibility etc.

Now it seems he was talking about hardware features and form factors. This is going to be another Wii U like device if you play it in the home, with broadly a similar control design, a large touch screen, console quality graphics (not 3DS or vita for instance) it will have gyros, vibration, AR, a touch screen, speakers and more - one would assume. It's form factor means it has to sacrifice graphical power to some degree - or it will be "overpriced" as some hardcore gamers would see it.

Wii U was just about more powerful (or more techinically modern) in features than 360/PS3. NX is going to be around less than XB1 and PS4 probably. It should run major engines though.

Isn't this just a case of Nintendo making the same old mistakes? I get that having all Nintendo games on one device will plug software gaps, but if they had just ported 3DS games to Wii U would anything have been different?

Note: 3DS-Wii U ports were harder because architecturally they were pretty darn different.

For me, the only real difference will be in its portability as a mobile device. I can pick it up, take it upstairs and play without having to unhook all the usual console gubbins. And I can throw it in my bag to play at a relatives house which is going to be really useful. I'm hopeful that 3DS quality graphics will be somewhat of a thing of the past (although RE Revelaitons looked almost 360 quality with 3D off). My hope would be that portable games will get a nice graphical bump, nothing major but clean lines and unblocky textures would be nice.

What's your take on NX in relation to it being Wii U 2? I've seen some saying it will be jack of all trades master of none.

I think pricepoint will be the most important factor in its success.  Nintendo would like to promote this as their new handheld, as that is where the lions share of their customers are.  A lot of those are also kids who still need their parents to buy one for them.  If they price the NX too high, they'll quickly lose a large part of those as well.

Quite frankly, I don't know what Nintendo aims to win with this strategy.  How large is the consumer base that kind of likes a 3DS, kind of likes a WiiU, but feels that there aren't enough games on either to justify buying one?  And to think they'll be able to produce more games on a whole because of this...  Average game development cost wil rise, because NX games will cost more to produce than 3DS games, so in the end Nntendo will end up releasing less games than they do now.

In the end people don't care about the hardware of gimmicks, they just want to play Nintendo games.  Unless the NX is such a great proposal that it can reach Wii-like results, I don't see this new strategy expanding their market at all, regardless of how much the NX will resemble the WiiU.

Dvader said:

So you have this console that was a phenomenon and it sold a gajillion units. You make this other one and no one likes it.

Of course let's model the next one after the one no one likes.

It's still insane to me that they dropped the Wiimote. Star fox would be sooooooooooooo much better with wiimote controls and one screen. Splatoon, a million times better with wiimote. Everything is better. But no.

The portable aspect is the only thing that can save this system. If it's marketed as a new portable first.

How about those detachable controllers?  They could very well be new iterations of wiimotes.  Everything that was inside the Wiimote is rumoured to be inside the NX.  All Nintendo needs to do is add 2 infrared lights below the actual screen bit, and voila.  Of course, that would still force a rift in UI between mobile and home play.

Nintendo better thought this out very good, because if not it's going to be an even bigger mess than the WiiU in terms of user interface and it'll be a huge headache for developers.  Unless of course devs will be allowed to make games that only function on the go or at home.

travo said:

Hopefully, it's backwards compatible with the DS and 3DS.

aspro said:

In terms of publisher suport it is up against the massive install bases of PS4 and XB1 which are PC hybrids. In essence they are competing for games from a monolithic opposition.  That's on the homefront.

On the mobile front they are competing with essentially free games and a Japanese market hostile to phablets.

It's going to be tough.

I think that this could position them even better as the 2nd option of choice.  I'm sure a lot of core gamers wouldn't mind having a relatively high-spec handheld/console for on the go.  As for mobile, if they embrace the idea of welcoming mobile developers and F2P to their console, and if they add in multi-touch, they could very well steal some of the Ipads thunder amongst kids as well.

But if it will be enough remains to be seen.  Personally I see this thing selling worse than the 3DS, effectively lowering their consumers by about 1/3rd as the home console branch will cease to exist.  Of course, perhaps there is still much more to the NX than has been rumoured, and all this will turn out to be moot in the end.

As they say in Flemmish: hope brings joy to the lives of fools.

By unifying their portable and home console gigs, Nintendo will make a fucking killing. Just picture the same system you use for the new Pokemon game, the new Animal Crossing, will be also good for playing the new Mario, Zelda mainline games! And Smash and MK. And quirky shit everyone loves such as Layton. And Monster Hunter.

I would buy it. I will buy it for Animal Crossing alone.

Come on, some kind of crap Pokemon is hardly the same as the mainline portable games that sell millions, pls. It is not about one game making a difference. Wii U was poorly marketed, badly advertised, with a confusing message. This time the message seems to be crystal clear: You like Nintendo stuff, portable or home console? This is the thing for you then. No more buying two separate systems in excess of $500. Everything will be here, the big games and the small ones.

SteelAttack said:

You like Nintendo stuff? This is the thing for you then.

Isn't this the clear message from every Nintendo system?

I wonder though, if they somehow got every 3DS game on the Wii U eshop would that have changed things? Or if they had a 3DS game card slot working through an external USB device on Wii U. Again would it have changed Us fortunes?

I guess it's timing more than anything. To have it day 1, saying everything will natvely work on NX, that would be powerful.