Topic: Zelda's Wii U-Turn to NX

That's not what I meant

That wasn't what the actual source of this news said. IGN is quoting what some earlier analyst came up with. A theory that I thought was pretty on the money right up unto the point where this newest information came to light. If you go back you'll notice that I've been saying for some time now that the NX is "probably" the portable and that'll come out in 2016. That Nintendo will then follow up in 2017 with a home console.

The Nikkei article we're talking about now suggests otherwise. They're saying that Wii U production will stop sooner than we would have otherwise thought. Something which makes a 2016 home console more likely.

@skywake: i realize you didnt mean its a hybrid. Im simply stating that you believe the 3ds is being replaced, and if nx is a hybrid, then it would be the replacement.

@LetsGoRetro: so either way the 3ds will be replaced soon, even if by something we havent heard of yet. And i dont see why that surprises anyone. Nintendo systems always last about 5 years. 3ds is 5, isn't it?

A hybrid would mean that the Wii U remains their flagship device. If it's a hybrid it is a portable first. If that's what they're doing and they're also stopping production of the Wii U? If there's also nothing else on the horizon? Then it means Nintendo are leaving the home console market.

I don't think that's the case.

@DefHalan: look like Nintendo does respond to rumours

http://mynintendonews.com/2016/03/23/nintendo-has-denied-the-...

@haigh1011:

Seriously, do people not read what I type anymore?

Considering it was posted on a financial site, they pretty much had to respond.

@DefHalan: I know you said "or atleast very rarely" I just find it funny that they happen to response to this one lol

@shaneoh: Yeh true, I hope the person who come out with this rumour comes out and say where he got his information from

Well if Zelda U follows the same path as Twilight Princess then Wii U owners will have the superior version until 2026 when a 4K remaster happens

@LetsGoRetro: I think skywake pretty much already said what I was going to say. As long as there are other possibilities, I will continue to push for those. (note, here comes the most important part:) Not because I think they are true, but because those are possibilities. Don't know where I said this, but yesterday I already said that the short life span of the Wii U doesn't bother me. I don't care either way. If we're getting a new home console this year, I won't complain.

The report has changed my opinion, if that's what you want to know. Although, Nintendo also denied the report in the meantime. Still, I think it's more likely that we're getting a home console this year, although I'm still open to the possibility that that might not be the case.

They'll probably put TPHD on the NX for the hell of it because they won't end up having sold enough on the WiiU. Just like the previous round. The Zelda U on NX. The WiiU got nothing special which is weird because it was the one that got the special Zelda edition.

But then how can you say that's the superior version when we have 20 others to play by then!?!?! I demand a full fledged 2 week arguing thread about this. TP GCN, Wii, HD, NX, TP '20, 4K. Any other version not mentioned isn't a REAL TP version

I actually have the Zelda edition WiiU. I thought about this as well. But for me, I played a bunch of Zelda games I hadn't played before on VC on my WiiU gamepad, so the theme worked out for me anyway haha

Zelda is their Guinea pig IP

I never own a gamecube so before the Wii U I had never played Wind Waker and to be honest I wasn't a massive fan and the cartoon style imagery. but like 12 months ago I was stinging to play a new Zelda game so I gave it a go and wow I love it now its actually a pretty good game. But I feel if I had played it on the Gamecube I don't know if I would have like it as much, So some people feel like i've played a new Zelda game on my new console

@skywake

Well i definitely dont agree with your idea that the Wii U would remain Nintendo's flagship degice if the NX does indeed end up being a hybrid.

If the NX was only a home console, it would surely take over for Wii U. Why would it also having a portable element change that at all?

Because technology isn't magic. You can't just throw whatever spec you want into whatevever form you want and expect it to be possible. Especially not with a target for a price point.

For perspective here's a list of systems sorted by GPU GFlops:
Nintendo 64: 0.1
Nintendo DS: 0.7
PSP: 1.2
3DS: 4.8
Gamecube: 6.5
Wii: 11
Vita: 51
iPhone 6S: 173
XBox 360: 240
Wii U: 352
XBOne: 1230
PS4: 1840
A New PC GPU: 1600-5600

A new portable would likely sit somewhere between the Vita and 360. In theory they could probably push it as far as the Wii U but I'm not sure the price tag would be palatable. Such a system won't cut it as a home console. The Wii U would remain the system I'd want to play big Nintendo titles on.

And before you go on some rant about how it can have "two elements" I'm sorry. That won't work. The only way they can get this idea working is if the horsepower is in a portable element. You expect people to have to buy the portable element to play games at home? That's not going to fly. Essentially what you've described here is a home console which requires the use of a portable in order to "unlock" it.

Basically what I'm saying is that a hybrid would only work as a kind of "reverse GamePad". The issue with that though is that the portable side of the equation has far more constraints. There's a reason the Wii U works in the direction it does. And that's before you even get into the issues of display resolution (portable: 480p, TV: 1080p) and compression (hey, lets magnify that!).

@skywake: i'm not technically inclined enough to really debate the topic, but it sounds like the gist of your argument is "If it's a hybrid there is no way Nintendo can make it both affordable and strong enough of a home console to compete in the current market"

You often say i dont understand what you meant, which may be true of both past topics as well as this one, but of I am correctly understanding what you're saying, I would say that would be very difficult to determine without knowing the price.

Maybe Nintendo is planning to price ot fairly high? Maybe it's going to launch as a home console with the portable coming seperately 6-12 months later? Maybe they're going to take a loss on the hardware for the first time?

I don't really know. I just know if it's a home console, whether strictly or hybrid, it certainly would replace Wii U totally and fully.

@LetsGoRetro:
The highest end mobile GPU on the market using the same metric as above? It's about 500GFlops. And that's a chip designed for tablets where there are less restrictions. More battery and a bigger surface area to dissipate heat. That's the highest end one as of late last year. Look at Apple's marketing for their new iPad Pro if you don't believe me, they repeatedly say it's "as powerful as the 360". If they could do better I'm sure they'd be gloating about it in the marketing.

When you take that into account and also make an assumption that Nintendo is not going to charge $500-1000US for this thing? Also the fact that they're going to want their portable to run for hours rather than minutes while hammering the GPU. I think the idea that it'll outperform the Wii U is a fantasy. The idea that it'll be a notable upgrade from the Wii U in terms of spec is even crazier.

@skywake:

I guess the way I would be looking at it, from a layman's perspective, would be along the lines of:

The PS4 costs $299.99 right now. I'm pretty sure Sony is now profiting from that, or atleast will be by the end of 2016 (although I'm not sure). So, let's say the NX is about exactly the same specs/as expensive. Would $150-$200 not be a reasonable expectation for the portable?

This would mean an absolute max of $500 for the 2, which already seems reasonable for a "hybrid, 2 consoles in 1 proposition". Let's now add in the possible cost decreases of:

1- Tech cost going down, hence price possibly going down.
2- This assumes Nintendo could not charge less than Sony does. I don't know what Sony profits from PS4, or if they do (or, if they take a loss for that matter). Maybe The 299 can be 275 and Nintendo can still profit?
3- Maybe Nintendo is willing to take a loss on hardware this time around? I know it's not likely, but maybe they're motivated by how bad the Wii U sold to just get these things out there, thinking newly acquired 3rd party support will help make up the difference, etc.

My point is, if at this point in time, $500 could effectively do this, I'm sure that it'll only be even more possible many months from now. I realize this is a simpleton way of looking at this, but I fully admit I'm not super familiar with any of it.