Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@WebHead: I dunno about reliable, those things he was supposedly right on about Pokemon are rather safe bets:
3D engine: Pokemon was steadily heading that way, it was only a matter of time before it happened.
New type: not the first time it's happened.
Older Pokemon get new abilities and forms: New regular and hidden abilities. It's also not unusual to get new evolutions for existing Pokemon (say a Lapras evolution is possible). It wasn't necessarily Mega Evolutions they were talking about.

So again, take as much salt as you can with this. I've had enough rumour legitimacy debating for a while.

Suffice to say, were this the route Nintendo to take with their next portable, it would be expensive.

@shaneoh: really wish they would announce this darn thing already.

@WebHead:
E3 isn't that far away, we're practically into the third month now. Enjoy some games.

@shaneoh: truly hope this is the last thing they announce years in advance(it won't be.) Don't think iwata thought of the Osborn effect when announcing this thing.

AMD is making ps4/Xbone level APUs for notebooks though...

After hearing all this I'm a little scared that Nintendo might mess up the NX. Like they just need to make a normal console that has killer 1st and 3rd party games, by trying to do all this fancy stuff it is just ruining it for them. Don't get me wrong I think its a good idea in some parts but I can see a wii u situation happening again where people don't really understand that its a new console and they think its just another 3ds or something. The fact that my wii u gamepad only last like 2 1/2 hour of game play mean this think will be the same and you will be forever charging it and using some other controller which i prefer anyway.
I've been looking forward for the NX for a long time I really hope that is going to last and in years to come Nintendo can be proud of it

_{No swearing please}
~Waluigi

Soo...a swanky modern Samsung looking 2DS with a Sharp technology screen (or 2) that is as powerful as Xbone and I can plug in wirelessly to any HDMI port if I want? Oh, and it will plug in to a 'SCD' to utilise cloud technology and increase it's performance? And I will be able to play DQ, FF and Zelda anywhere? Erm...can I have a yacht while we are all wishing?

@Whitewatermoose: sadly, we probably won't hear anything before April and probably wony see anything until e3.

@Whitewatermoose: Deep down, I think I feel the way you do. But it's way too soon to be jumping to any conclusions. We have to hope that Nintendo's management has taken good notes during the Wii U's lifetime, and that they will not repeat the same mistakes.

Honestly, if they do, they deserve every ounce of failure they receive. It would be very sad to see Nintendo forced into dire straits, but it would be completely their own fault. They have a HUGE chance here with the NX. HUGE.

It is almost like the Wii U was an experiment, and the company could have raked in tons of valuable information about their fanbase and about the people who still hang out on competitors' consoles. The NX will give them a chance to go for both groups when both the Xbox One and PS4 still haven't really done anything spectacular, even by fan standards for the most part.

hmmm.....

"It has a wireless HDMI dongle that attaches flush to the back of the device. A user can pull it out and insert it into any display with a normal sized HDMI output and the devices uses an evolved version of the Wii U’s streaming tech to display in HD to the TV screen"
In theory I could see this working but I have to wonder why. Wireless streaming to a portable I can understand, but streaming from a portable to a TV? Why not just use a dock? If this is the plan and I was Nintendo I'd sell an optional dock for HDMI + Charging and a separate controller.

"Allegedly the analog controls for movement has small motors in them for full haptic feedback"
This could work quite well for a traditional controller. I can't see it working so well if it happens to be a portable as the first point suggests. There's just not as much space in a portable which would make it less worthwhile and more expensive.

"It can literally Bluetooth synch with everything, especially smart phone and tablet."
Why? And if so why Bluetooth?

"The closest in terms of power it gets to is the Xbox One"
If the first point is wrong and it's a home console (i.e. at least a stack of DVD sized and plugged into the wall)? Well sure, definitely. But not if it's a portable as implied earlier. Well, to be fair maybe on a lower resolution screen as you'd expect to see on a portable it'd "look" as good as something you might see on the XBOne. But not if you're blowing it up to 1080p on a TV. A portable could realistically trade blows with the Wii U and that might be enough to get some third parties on-board. But it won't be trading blows with the XBOne on spec.

"Look to Pokemon GO"
In what sense? Pokemon GO is a GPS based game which will work best on mobile networks. So this thing has GPS and Mobile ontop of all of the other stuff? Good luck getting people to buy it at the price it'd be.

"The real strengths of the device is its usability and ease of use."
I also like waffles....

The portable with HDMI streaming sounds great for solo portable gaming. I do hope Nintendo have a story to tell for local multiplayer. That's been the strength of Nintendo's home consoles: 2 or more players have always been able to have fun playing alongside each other for the price of an extra controller or two. If this latest rumor pans out, portable to TV doesn't sound like that kind of gaming.

IMO it sounds like an unnecessary complication. If a "hyrbid" in this way is what they're going for there are far better ways to go about it. Cheaper ways with less compromises. They could easily do this via an optional physical dock and extra controller. It'd cost less than the hardware required to make streaming work reasonably especially wireless streaming. And it's not like you'd lose anything by going that route. Think about it, you're either playing on the TV or not. Why does it need to be wireless?

Someone on reddit ripped this leak to shreds.

@iKhan:
I agree with the ripping to shreds other than one point. When they talk about a "wireless HDMI dongle" I don't think they litterally mean full wireless HDMI. I suspect they mean something more along the lines of a Chromecast, NVidia Shield or Steam Link. A small machine that plugs into the HDMI socket. The issue with that point isn't about the feasibility of it.

No, the issue with that point is why they would even bother. With the Chromecast it's wireless because usually your TV isn't next to your router. With the Steam Link it works over your network because your PC isn't next to your TV. With the GamePad it's wireless because it's a controller and you're holding it.

With this? Why does it need to be wireless? For off-TV it doesn't need to stream because it's literally a portable. For on-TV it doesn't need to be wireless because you could just place it in a dock and do it via full HDMI!

Wow, this sounds credible! Who wouldn't want another high-cost Nintendo portable? All parents will be thrilled about giving their children something that cost twice as much as an ipad mini.

I'm glad that a majority on this board seems to understand how asinine the "hybrid console" idea is.

I think people need to tone down their expectations. If it is a portable or an hybrid, it will have nowhere near the power-levels of Xbox or ps4. At most it could have Wii U levels of graphics, but even then it would be expensive as hell. Rather look at mid-level phones for graphics.

My prediction is that Nintendo wants to emulate how phones are released today. I think they will try and stop the 5-year cycle, where you can lose a lot of money with one failed console. This would mean that they will release incremental upgrades more often (nx1 in 2016, nx2 in 2018 etc). Developers would still have just a few platforms to prepare their games for, but could have more advanced graphics if you have a newer console. Which isn't really unlike how it is today, with current gen/last gen.

With this strategy they could release one console with xbox/ps4 graphics now, and still be able to output a newer console when the others upgrade. This would give them a much more stable revenue than their current strategy and also make Nintendo the most flexible console maker, which can adapt after the market much more quickly.

I think this is aligned with most of the official things we have heard from Nintendo. I didn't think this before, but I think Nintendo really wants to adapt to today's ever changing world.

@Whitewatermoose: Nintendo's been moving away from the local multiplayer approach as most of the games nowadays either don't include it or is a really dumbed down version of the online multiplayer or single player component so maybe they're learning that online multiplayer is much more important.

So I just seen this http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=197068172&post...
Are we ever going to get some real news on the NX

For the first two you're on the money and I agree 100%. With the third it's more complicated. I personally don't think they'll go that route because of the limits on spec a portable design would bring. You'd get this high end portable and plug it into your TV for an experience that's not as good as what the Wii U can do. I also don't think they would do it via a "dongle" and instead think think it'd make more sense to do it as a dock. Because a dock would work better and be cheaper. But it is technically do-able.