Topic: My idea for the NX, thoughts?

Ok, first of all I'm a huge fan of Nintendo's innovation - but I feel that Nintendo's innovation has to come more from their software rather than how a game controlls. Saying that it doesn't mean the hardware can't do stuff never done before - here's my idea. A lot of people think its lame, but I personally think it's great.

Ok so my idea would have the NX be two consoles in one, and by technical wizardry have the motherboards of both consoles connect together to create a powerful home console.

The pecs would go as follow - 4xAMD K12 chips and their latest rival to Nvidia's X1 mobile chip, 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM (1GB dedicated to OS) let's say with a minimum performance of 750GFLOPS in the handheld unit capable of 720p 60fps in all engines. The handheld is a small tablet - streamlined Wii U gamepad deal. a 5 inch 720p screen with anywhere between 8 and 12 hour gaming battery life. Wifi and an unlocked 4G nano-sam slot available alongside SD and Micro SD support. Touch screen available only for practical user rather than gaming use such as keyboard entry and app selection etc. The console takes 64GB fast flash based cartridges which would remove the need for installs apart from updates and patches to games.

The base unit of this console would not only charge the handheld but it'd contain 4xZen "BristolRidge" APU capable of a GPU that can handle 1.5TFLOPS of calculations in its GPU and 4GB of GDDR4 RAM all dedicated to games, alongside a 14nm Wii U chipset for backward compatibility, it'd also contain a bay for popping in a 2.5" HDD or SSD alongside everything such as Wifi, Ethernet and 4x USB 3.0 and support for USB powered HDDs. The base Unit can only play digital Wii U games and not contain ANY optical drive.
The controller would simply be a well designed run-of the mill console controller with modular components.

If Nintendo could pull off linking the motherboards together in order for the console to become a 8 x core CPU and a 2.25TFLOP GPU with 8GB RAM when connected to each other. With the ability to play the games too on the go - that'd be fantastic IMO.

Imagine being able to play the next Metroid, or a third party game like Grand Theft Auto and simply be able to pluck out the handheld unit - and continue playing on the bus or at work on your lunch break! Even have streetpass exclusive content and local multiplayer with others over the Wifi or online via 4G?! For me that'd be amazing!

All a developer needs to do is have bothe the settings for a 720p version of a game and a 108+0p version stored on teh cartridge - then when the console detects its plugged in/not plugged in - it's a simple case of switching on/off effects and resolution just how a PC game is able to.

The console would be aimed at a more western audiences at a premium price range - the ability to play full on home console / PC games on the go and at home with little to no compromises - especially when it doesn't rely on streaming or cloud computing is something I'd say is within the $350 - $430 price range where the Wii U would be more for a cheaper audience. Both would share a similar games library which would allow the Wii U to be phased out slowly and gently too. Yes backward compatibility is only available on the base unit - but as a new concept I don't think that is an issue - especially if both Wii U and NX could share the same games library.

What do you guys think? A lot of people say that sharing motherboards is impossible - but if anyone can do it - Nintendo can. Also using mobile technology for the handheld component would be great for third parties as UE4 is mobile friendly, and the X1 is already proved itself to be pretty powerful with 1TFLOP of calculations in its GPU.I'd love a handheld home console that became more powerful when it became a home console. What do you think?

Sorry, but I'm not a fan. For the purpose of argument I'm going to assume the merged motherboard idea is possible in the first place.

With this setup, you basically get a system that can do 50% more operations than the PS4, but it can never use it, because if you want to play off the base unit, developers are limited by the first setting. This means that, aside from graphics, developers really can't take full advantage of the greater power in gameplay.

Secondly, we're already in severe diminishing returns in terms of the impact of console power on gameplay. The PS4 is 8 times more powerful than the PS3, but it really can't do THAT much more (i.e. it's nothing like the transition from PS2 to PS3, and even less like the transition from N64 to GC). So a 50% improvement isn't that impressive for a 9th gen system.

Lastly, the controller is really backwards. After all Nintendo has done to progress controllers forward, your idea goes back to a controller concept from the year 2000. If you want to go with a traditional NES-SNES-DS2 controller lineage, that's fine, but progress it in some way. Replace the right stick with an iteration on the Steam Controller trackpads for example.

Ultimately, this system suffers a near identical problem to what the Wii U had. It's held back specs-wise in order to implement a feature of convenience. It can't compensate for this with new gameplay ideas in hardware, because the controller and the convenience feature have minimal application. So essentially what you have is a PS4 that allows you to take games on the go.

So no one is going to react to that thinking "whoa, this is a whole new gameplay experience thanks to this console's offerings". They are going to think "that feature seems convenient, maybe I'll get it down the road".

I do see what you were trying to do with the combining motherboards, but like I said it creates a bottleneck, and the combined system ultimately doesn't present that big an improvement.

Ultimately, it would be better to do something like the PS4+Vita Remote Play, offering the feature as an option. It's a little more expensive, but it allows you to produce a more powerful console and maybe even push the envelope with controls.

I find it very hard to believe that Nintendo would swing from selling a less expensive console in the previous two generations towards a premium-priced machine in continuing uncertain times, both generally and for the game industry as a whole. Just too big a gamble for what is a fairly conservative, though innovative, company.

Given the rise of tablet-based gaming is getting flagged as a reason for Wii U's failure to perform better, I suspect a move towards a more portable device is on the cards. This would be a system that would initially be lower-power than the Wii U in terms of visuals, but would have a scalable architecture that would eventually match and overtake the Wii U, with more regular iterations in an attempt to broaden the market and create a platform with a more open-ended lifespan that isn't in line with the historic game console release schedules and more clearly take Nintendo out of appearing to compete with Sony and Microsoft.

This will not make people who like playing games on boxes connected to their TVs happy, but it seems a lower risk proposition than making yet another plastic box to put under your TV. This seems especially true given they appear to be more concerned with ensuring continued brand relevance with younger players who have been wooed by smart devices and largely giving up on the folk who are currently more interested in Xbox and Playstation.

Bla bla specs.