New Legend of Zelda amiibo Are Coming In December

New line of Zelda amiibo, dlc, and artbooks for Zelda's 30th Anniversary!
And Metroid only gets Federation Force for its 30th Anniversary >:3

Maybe Metroid will get some chibi Federation Force amiibo… just how the fans like 'em.

YES! My favorite Zelda in amiibo form!! 😍

Now I will become a toy collector, love these.

WAANT.

Most likely will get the OOT and WW amiibos.

When it comes to breathe of the wild, we got all the smash Zelda amiibo will have use, Wolf Link will have use, and then the game already had 3 or 4 amiibo coming out, I'm just thinking it's starting to get a lil too much...

I already have the Smash version of Toon Link, but this design looks a fair bit nicer... ooh, the temptation...

Cool. I've been waiting for these. Hopefully we get mainstay characters like Darunia, Ruto, Ganon, Impa, Tetra, etc. down the road.

OH I NEED IT

The stress of this announcement just made my wallet explode. Time to clear some shelf space.

I want all 4!!!!!!!!

Looks smart, would love a dancing Darunia OOT one!

Nintendo revving up the milking parlour again I see. Announcing more new SCamiibo while Bayonetta, Corrin and Cloud remain AWOL.

And don't forget this little Cur.

@cmk8 That would be amazing! We have to start a petition to Nintendo now!

So many amiibo, so little money...

That Pixel Link will go nicely next to Pixel Mario.

Hope my exisitng Toon Link amiibo will function the same as this new one.

In other news, Skyward Sword HD was effectively debunked today.

@allav866
No. Ocarina of Time was released on the Wii Virtual Console before the 3DS remake!

There is NO WAY I will be able to convince myself I don't need those...

Meh.

OoT Link in Breath of the Wild CONFIRMED!

I think Nintendo should've celebrated the anniversary more than this.

I love those Amiibos

That's cool. Now where's my Bayonetta Amiibo?

No. Amiibos dont actually do anything. Waste of money.

8-bit Link for me

@bolt05 The amiibo compatibility seems to be a lot better in Breath of the Wild. Normally they're just mii costumes everywhere but here they're actually using data from other games to affect how it behaves on BotW.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Milking or not they know I will buy them. I will take all four please!

Will hunt heaven and earth for the NES Link Amiibo to compliment my 8-bit Mario Amiibo-- the only Amiibos I'll probably ever get.

These look great!

Gimme that Hero of Time amiibo!

10/10 will buy

Seeing as I only collect Zelda series amiibo this is great news for me!!! Woo hoo!!!

I love the amiibo figures they've made. These...will so be in my collection.

Seriously looking forward to the whole Zelda amiibo line, and Poochy for sure.

I need these so bad, 8-Bit and Ocarina Link are a must-have for me. I audibly gasped when I saw them revealed (which doesn't happen often)

Damn you Nintendo! Those Wind Waker ones look great.

I want them! Gimme! Especially the Ocarina of Time one.

I will definitely be getting OoT and WW pack if I can find them.

I love 8 bit Link!!

The only justified Bayonetta and Cloud amiibo delay is they're being tied to the Bayonetta 3 and Final Fantasy 7 remake games that will arrive day one for the NX.

Oh, and Corrin yada yada....

Gotta have it.

Where is my Pink haired Link?
Dammit, give me Link from A Link to the Past!

@Captain_Gonru No NX comment? It really seems like a given at this point don't you think?

Love the 8-bit Link , these are gonna look soo spectacular with the rest of my amiibo collection- day one purchase.

I've come to strongly dislike amiibo and their functionality and the fact that they're glorified DLC.... but I love these figures.

So I guess Bayonetta amiibo got canned

They really couldn't have picked a better pose for Link or Toon Link. I only wanted the Smash Amiibos, but IDK...I don't actually have any of the LoZ Smash Amiibos yet, so...I think I may get those two instead. Zelda looks great, though I've never played Wind Waker, so IDK much about her. Maybe some day I'll get 8-Bit Link if Nintendo makes more than just him and Mario. But they all look perfect, especially Link himself! <3

They're good, but I'm cutting back on amiibo so I probably won't grab them.

I'm very cautious about the special functionality with Zelda Breath of the Wild. Minor things like having the character appear and help you out would be very cool, but I'd be very annoyed if entire dungeons were locked behind premium DLC.

@MrGawain @SLIGEACH_EIRE I really want Cloud and Bayonetta, but I've decided they are holding out for the SSB NX port to reveal them. While a "Complete" SSB would be nice, I figure they'll throw in Mii costumes and the SMM and Miivrrse levels, but unlock the DLC characters with the amiibo. Which makes a whole lot more sense to me than $7 for DLC to play as and $13 for amiibo to play next to. And maybe they'll be nice and still keep the option to pay for the DLC without buying amiibo. But if I pay $13 for an amiibo, it should unlock the character in game. It just should.

@Xaessya

@Xaessya I hear you, but despite the premise being a big misstep you have to admit that Metroid actually had a brand new and well-made game with tremendous effort behind it in the actual window of the anniversary year. Zelda stuff is toys and books and stuff.

Of course something in the Metroid universe at the level of BotW would be preferrable. And no I don't mind if it's delayed a few times.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE
Only 16th on an Amiibo comment section. You're slacking, so you are...

Another Toon Link?
Anyway, I want that OoT Link! Didn't like the Smash Link Amiibo that much. When can we preorder? ^^

You can 100% bet I am going to hunt all of these down!

OMG!!! That Ocarina of Time Link is gorgeous. Ugh. I need it.
(T_T )

The perfect addition to my Link shrine.

@sillygostly

MINE! These Zelda Amiibo are all mine!!!!

@WiltonRoots Hey, being the 16th comment is the least of my problems given my week. And well, they're not my favourite, I wouldn't even call them accessory.

Nintendo, stop, my wallet can't take it! ;n;

So, just like the Kirby series amiibo, you need to buy the same characters again to access new stuff in the latest game, instead of being able to use the Smash versions. What a rip-off!

I'm definitely having that 8 bit link

These are fantastic, but where are the remaining Smash Bros. amiibo? I'm really surprised those haven't been announced yet.

Are they sold out already?

It's for me!!!!

See, this is why I have no money.

**throws money at Nintendo**

That Toon Zelda amiibo is awesome!

Want these SO BADLY , i do hope nintendo will one day announce a skull kid and a fierce deity amiibos

@3dsgeek333 Cool, thanks i didn't know that. I am purposely avoiding BotW videos, previews etc so i can enjoy it without spoilers when it finally arrives. I have some amiibos but still not a big fan of gating content, I buy a console and a game and I need to keep buying crap to get all of the features. And for NX the games wont be cheap at launch I bet. It's a little bit of a corporate Nintendo gouge business model.

I'm getting a couple of these... but I can't help but want a Wind Walker and TP HD dlc or patch to support them in more unique ways. :/ Wven if it was small. I like the Wolf Link carry forward thing as it feels like more involvement and purpose for the amiibo for instance.

Also, I'm with @rjejr I think unlocks if characters via amiibo makes good sense in SSB and Hyrule Warriors. Will be interesting to see what happens with amiibo on the NX as they have a chance to reposition it to new customers (I hope!)

@aaronsullivan Can you please talk some sense into Gonru for me, I think he's broken.

@Captain_Gonru "Nope. Likely, yes. Sensible, sure. Logical, absolutely. Given, no."

Honestly, they can't take out amiibo support of all those Wii U games they will be porting, and I think it's going to play 3DS cartridges as is. Why make all of these 3DS games other wise?

I've already said this once before but I'll say it again, the software will work w/ amiibo. Nintneod Logic may take the chip out of the hardware, but then they'll just take all of those 3DS portals they havent' sold yet and slap an "NX" sticker on the box. (Really hope they don't do that, just make a plug in portal like every other NFC game. Make it a big red mushroom face.)

Seriously, I know they haven't announced it yet, but what odds would you give amiibo in NX games? I'm at like 99.9999% to 0.0001%. Which in the grand scheme of things, that's as given as given can get to me, b/c I have the world ending in a zombie apocalype at 18% before they even announce NX, 23% before they launch it. I can't be bothered w/ infinitesimal.

@rjejr @Captain_Gonru Amiibo was can't-keep-up successful without a successful console. There's just no way Nintendo is growing to throw that potential away when its hopes and investments are in new surges of interest from hardware and a steady stream of games.

Now without thinking about it too much lately I only give 3DS backwards compatibility a 50/50 chance as the chip rumors and speculation are all over the place and... you have the bigger more successful library with 3DS vs. a library with more relevant performance with Wii U vs. compatibility with the rest of the game industry. See, that doesn't come out 50/50 so I need to consider it more.

Also, LOL at the percent chance speech @rjejr and awesome conspiracy theory about Cloud, @Captain_Gonru. Nintendo seems to lean towards variations on amiibo for each release of a related game. So maybe more than one Cloud amiibo before all is said and done.

@aaronsullivan @Captain_Gonru "we can't be disappointed"

Oh, we are all going to be disappointed, that's 100% certain.

I'm pretty sure it's impossible for Ntinedo to do it right. Of course I'd say that's true for any reveal, as a company really only has two options, make it powerful, then people complain it's too expensive, or make it cheap, then people complain it's under powered.

Now I do think they managed to do a really good job w/ Wii on price, but it was in SD and woefully under powered compared to the other 2, but it had what they needed as it sold 100 million. Of course it also had waggle, and gamers complained about that.

I think Sony did a great job w/ PS4, power and price.Of course they had such a low bar to hurdle after the $600 PS3. Had they made it $500 w/ the PS Eye it may have bombed. Some people complained about no games, or more accurately no games except ports, PortS4 or something, but I do think they were in the minority as it's sold 40 million.

So there is always going to be that group of complainers, but I think it goes far above and beyond w/ NX. They are almost guaranteed to annoy half the community right from the start w/ the 2 rumour camps. Dedicated home console or no dedicated home console. And if it is a handheld hybrid I think most people happy about that news will be in for a rude awakening at the price. It won't be cheap.

Too long, too many rumours, the Wii U owners are already in a tizzy. 3DS owners have so many new games to look forward to they don't even need 4DS yet. I can't imagine any scenario in which a reveal goes well. And I have imagined all of the scenarios, and a few of them do go well for some people, but I assume Nitneod won't go w/ anything I think they should.

And I didn't mean to imply a certainly on 3DS in NX. It makes sense to me on many levels - Nintneod likes BC, fills in the software gap, games haven't been available on TV before as Ninteod only likes to port in 1 direction from Wii U to 3DS, so many cartridges out there played by so many people it would be hard to resell them all as new again compared to the few good Wii U games not played by anybody they could port for $40, "3DS Player" is a selling point for NX hardware - but emulation could be an insurmountable issue. Just knowing NX could play 3DS games might turn some people off the hardware.

So I'm 50/50. Nintneod is on a tightrope over the abyss, that's for sure.

I need the 8-bit one. It would look great next to my Modern and Classic 8-Bit Mario Amiibos. It is a bit troubling to see that a new Amiibo line was announced while Corrin and others are MIA.

I've got the 8 bit and OoT ones pre ordered. Haven't been able to catch the WW set on Amazon yet.

@Captain_Gonru Better late than never?

I just re-discovered some old "Fusion" stories in my discussion w/ Thanos and I found it interesting that it had NFC even 31 months ago. I thought of you and almost added you but it was long and mostly off topic. But here's the Fusion specs from Jan 2014.

http://nintendonews.com/news/general/nintendo-fusion-could-be-nintendos-next-gen-hardware-name/

And yes, I still think Cloud, Bayonetta and Corrin in the NX reveal b/c they will unlock their DLC in the port. Well they would if naything Nitnedo did made any sense.

I still don't knwo abut FF7, I'm hopeful, probably not FFXV.

And I'm still gung ho for NX playing 3DS cartridges. It would make sense to delay even a home console if it played 3DS gmaes on the t until they oculd sell as many 3DS as possible, b/c that would be a drain on 3DS hardware sales if either a NX home or hanheld or hybrid played 3DS cartidges.

That was Thanos idea, so I'll give credit were its due. Though he says it wasn't his idea, so maybe something he said just inspired me. But ti's the only real reason I have on my an NX Home hasn't been revealed yet, or an NX Hybird. NX plays 3DS cartridges, 3DS sales plummet. I wonder if it did play 3DS carts if tehy would leave that part out of the ND? Maybe mention it in January? hmm

@rjejr Partially my idea. I had it at some point when I started thinking about cartridges when that rumor came up, and then I half dismissed it, but then I read it on a forum again and after that it also popped up in a YouTube video, so I reconsidered and decided that if they would use the same type of cartridges as in the 3DS, then it would actually be pretty likely that some sort of compatibility could be offered, at least in the handheld, or used as two separate screens, like your 4DS idea.

@Captain_Gonru What specs? In the Fusion article?
If so, then no more than "okayish" but even worse than the EuroGamer idea. (for the handheld part, obviously, since there is no home console in that rumor)

The handheld is still okay, but the home console part is decidedly meh...

CPU too weak, RAM is WAY to low (needs to be at least 8GB) and I don't like the PowerPC CPU, that kind of architecture is out of the question nowadays if it needs to be developer friendly and powerful enough to run next gen engines easily without too much customization. That would put Nintendo in another Wii U situation.

And what's all the Final Fantasy hum drum about, gentlemen? Dragon Quest and Fire Emblem is where it's at. F*** Final Fantasy...

@Captain_Gonru I'm more looking forward to Worlds at this point as I'm enjoying Ni No Kuni. Though I'm hoping for NX to get 3DS support so I can play MH Stories on my big screen TV. MHS looks like Worlds of FF only much better. Worlds looks like Kingdom Hearts w/ the Disney properties removed.

Know how some gamers are referred to as "graphics elitists"? Well I'm one of those, but I'm also a "voiced" whore. I need my voices in games, it's 2016.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4Gz7BislTw

Remember 3 months ago when Nintneod showed us all of that footage of empty nothingness in Zelda Wild? Don't you think 3 months time is long enough they could have followed that up w/ some of the supposed voice acting, towns and NPCs? Maybe a Wii U ND w/ Zelda, PMCS, the 3 amiibos and maybe some indie stuff? Strung along and hung out to dry. Think I'll change my avatar to this. 1 shirt for Wii U support, 1 shirt for NX news.

I have a bunch of Thanos emails to get thru, I'll let ya know if anything new pops up. I'm currently fixated on Fusion and Iwata.

@ThanosReXXX "like your 4DS idea"

I've had so many idea, I'm not even sure which ones I came up w/ and which ones I've borrowed. 30 months is too long though to be playing this game and that's on Nintneod. Well actually the first 1 month is on whoever came up w/ Fusion, but Iwata ran w/ it 1 month later in that "brothers" interview. No matter how NX turns out that "brothers" transcript will be relevant somehow. I dont' think we talk about Iwata's comments coming 2 weeks after that Fusion stuff enough, too much of a coincidence for me now, where there's smoke there's fire. But Nintneod Life NEVER covered "Fusion", I looked, so it may have passed us by.

Anyway, I think I was a big fan of "fusion", Home and Away, but then I got all on board the hybrid. I still think hybrid, but my brain is working overtime to merge the two ideas. Like religion and science. Iwata was always trying to merge the 2, I don't think he was ever on board w/ either. Biggest problem w/ anything he said though is translation issues. Words like "platform" and "system" are used almost interchangeably w/ one another, and I think by '"platform" he sometimes meant "generation", not a device, Wii and DS were a platform, Wii U and 3DS were a platform. I think the Japanese see things differently than us, different religious upbringing and worldview. I'm not sure anything he "means" is translatable. The words are, but not the meaning of those words.

Whatever NX is, it's what Iwata wanted, only problem is, he did't know what he wanted, only that he wanted it to play games and sell. He may have had an idea when he died, but not when he made that "brother" comment, he didn't know what to do.

@Captain_Gonru You should wait on FFXV. And that's coming from a guy who pre-ordered it in January.

It will have a season pass w/ tons of DLC, so who knwos when that will be out
Then they've said more DLC not covered in the season pass.
This game has been so long in the making, and now they basically have to make 2 versions of it, Slim and Pro, there are sure to be hiccups for awhile.

Witcher 3 just came out w/ a Complete Ed. for $50. I'm waiting a year for FFXV, they are sure to polish it up some in the meantime. Squash bugs, improve the interface, patches, updates, all of that stuff. Waited 10 years already, what's 1 more?

@rjejr "I think the Japanese see things differently than us, different religious upbringing and worldview."

Is this then the part where I get to say "well, dùh!"?
That is what I have been saying all along. Their ethics, standards and view on life is so inherently different from ours, also in a working environment, that we can't simply compare them to us and say for example that they make stupid or weird decisions, because to them, it probably makes perfect sense.

As for translatable or not, that isn't just reserved to Japanese: since I've been living here in Amsterdam/the Netherlands, I've learned some REALLY weird sayings and habits, but some of the things I know are weird or strange to them as well, and not everything can be translated as is, so you have to speak in alternatives or similarities.

But most of that is reserved for media and every day life: in official interviews with Nintendo, you would have either Bill Trinen or Iwata's personal assistant translating the things he says, which completely rules out any mistakes or misinterpretations made, so we can safely assume that the statements made in these official documents are as intended and not misconstrued.

As for the whole hybrid/fusion thing: drop the hybrid, that's simply not going to happen, and you're on the right track with the Fusion, interchangeable games and all...

And I never saw Iwata struggle to bring the two together, so I must have missed something along the way, but to me his idea of where Nintendo should go was always pretty clear, and the plan is in motion now and we will see the fruits of that labor later this month or in the first week of October.

And he was definitely on board with a unified platform: it was his explicit wish/demand that Nintendo should be more like Apple or Android in the desire to have multiple devices share the same content and in large parts share the same tech/OS. If that doesn't spell Fusion, then I don't know what does...

And my take on the usage of the words platform and system is more or less the same as yours: system being the easy one as that will be either a handheld or a console, and platform being either a family of systems, like the DS range, which is then a "handheld platform" or they could be talking about the software & hardware that the games are running on, because since the NX, there has been a lot of talk about a unified platform (designating the Operating System) and integrated architecture, which is also a platform of sorts.

And the "like brothers" comment is crystal clear, so what's not to understand or thinking that Iwata didn't know what he was on about? I think he knew full well what that was all about, and that was the shared architecture and OS, since he explicitly said: "and then home console and handheld will no longer be separate, but will be like brothers in a family of systems".

And that too is the death knell for the whole hybrid lunacy. A family of systems isn't one device, and since code name NX is supposed to be a complete move away from devices like the Wii and Wii U, we can't include these in the aforementioned "family of systems" like some numbskulls (not you) are also trying to do, to force their misconstrued idea upon others and make them think that this is about this schematic here:

And that was one of these slides not coming from an official quarterly report, so it can largely be ignored. It was only ever intended to prevent a sales slump of both the Wii U and the 3DS because the NX devices will surely replace them.

And Iwata himself, when making that "like brothers" statement, was only talking about the new family to come, so he was talking present and future tense, not about the Wii or Wii U.

I did have to do a small reassessment this week, because of the renewed support of the 3DS. I now believe that they will first introduce the home console with some kind of screened controller (for the streaming and all) and that the handheld will be introduced later, and that might also coincide with the SCD's who will also arrive later in 2017 or in Q1 2018.

As far as your idea of the 4DS was concerned, that was the detachable top screen, so you could use the bottom half as a controller. Always remember your own ideas, especially if they actually make some sense...

By the way: The Witcher is a great series, so if you like that kind of game, it's practically a must buy.

@Captain_Gonru I was in Target the other day when a Nintendo employee was in there. I really wanted to beat some NX news out of him but I just let him be. He just walked around looking at stuff. I'm assuming he was a Ntnedo employee b/c he had on a gray polo shirt that said Ntineod where his IZOD crocodile should be and he was wheeling a very work looking bag.

Squeezing the amiibo section to 2 columns makes sense, 4 or 6 a game on even a monthly basis doesn't require that much room, though it does lean toward Pokemon amiibo as cards. Which would still require NFC. Maybe they'll include all SSB amiibo in the base game, or just ignore them for that one? Or maybe Walmart just wants more room for something else? What I don't know w/ no Disney Infinity this year, and fewer Lego D sets.

I do keep looking around though, this is that time of year when store set-ups start getting ready fo the holidays and I'm wondering whee NES Classic Mini will go. Waiting till mid-November for that seems so late. They could have been selling plenty since the announcement to early adopters and then sold even more during the holiday rush. But what aren't they slow on?

Do you have your pre-order in for your Surface Phone yet?

http://arstechnica.co.uk/business/2016/09/microsoft-lumia-surface-phone-dead/

Thought you could use some more device rumours in your life.

@ThanosReXXX "I now believe that they will first introduce the home console with some kind of screened controller (for the streaming and all) and that the handheld will be introduced later,"

So, you are saying NX is Wii U 2?

OK, maybe that is too simplified and unfair. You are saying it's Wii U 2 but w/ a Gamepad you can take anywhere and stream games like remote play? Well if that release first, and the home and handheld play the same games, why would we need a handheld, just buy the home, b/c you just described one possible version of the hybrid, a home system that's portable.

I'm going to stop there, b/c I don't see how they can launch anything that looks like Wii U 2. That's madness. I like the idea, it's what Wii U should have been, real wireless gaming, but it's too late now.

If there is going to be a separate home and handheld they need to look very different, and maybe work together, but the Home on it's own can't have a portable handheld component for gaming over WiFi. I can't see it. And i realize the limitations of WiFi make a handheld far superior to that for gaming on the go, but it just looks too much like Wii U too me. That would be a horrible unveiling I think.

@Captain_Gonru I know they won't change anything now, still time yet, but I'm looking to see where everything is now so I can tell when something changes.

@rjejr No, not Wii U 2, Fusion, like we discussed earlier. And why they would then still need or want a handheld? Simple: there will always be occasions where the internet or Wifi isn't stable enough, and more importantly, there will also always be handheld specific games. The controller, or smart device for all I care, if people want that so much, would only stream console games, not handheld games. And the controller won't have a cartridge slot in my concept idea.

And a system isn't a hybrid if you leave the console at home and only use the controller to take with you to stream games from the console to the controller. I was also basing this whole idea upon a mix of the Fusion and the controller with a haptic screen that HNF mentioned, so part of it could very well be true.

@Captain_Gonru interesting theory, but I think it would actually complicate things. Did @rjejr already point you to HNF's blog? If not, have a look see here:
http://happynintendofan.blogspot.nl

@rjejr He has posted something new there, so there's three posts now...

@rjejr Well, here it is then: (guess who)

@Captain_Gonru "but CAN be synced to the portable"

Synced? You and your fancy schmancy SAT words.

If there is a Home and Away that don't work together like the Gameboy and Gamecube did for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles 13 years ago I will be greatly annoyed. And they better not charge 99 cents for it either like they did w/ SSB and the 3DS.

And Zelda.

Away should work as a controller for ALL Home games. Whether it's as a 2nd controller for multiplayer or a single player w/ or w/o a screen. Playing the same game carts should only be part of the story, they have to work together for games that need it like Spl2oon and SMM2:The One With Slopes. If they make each device $199 or less thats $399, so it's ok.

Bonus points if Gameapd or New 3DS works. Surely they put something into the New 3DS line to make it forward compatible?

@rjejr You forgot Pacman VS...


I also came across a new leaked picture of the detachable controllers:

HNF is slowly dialing up the number of posts on his blog. I'm counting 4 posts now. He's up to something...

And I quote:
"DMP has confirmed to have a design win for a gaming device in Q1 2017, more specific 3/2017"

Combine that with the still to be disclosed third design win in gaming from AMD and the picture is pretty much complete.

I really have to compliment him for doing his research in backing up almost everything he says, and were he isn't, he clearly states that he's only speculating, and he sticks to his story as well, so no flip-flopping either.

Information is getting pretty damn close to being conclusive now, and so many people will be disappointed that the rumors aren't true.

Which is actually strange, because it seems more and more likely that the truth is actually better than the (not so interesting) rumors that have somehow taken center stage during this entire crazy merry-go round...

@rjejr Well, PE has added his own thoughts on the matter, and then some...

@ThanosReXXX Pac-Man Vs was a real thing? I honestly thought that was a joke somebody made up, like Sonic '06.

Trying something new today, reading emails backwards order, starting w/ the PE vid, then 7 more to go. (Didn't read the Pac-Man email, just saw the pic)

Don't know who UntypedHero is, but I think you can go back about 6 months and find somebody giving a date for the NX announce if you look hard enough, so, flavor of the month I guess. Somebody, someday, will be right, b/c it will be announced, and next week is as good as any, better than most, but we'll see.

I need to go find the AMD stuff b/c it feels like every week there are AMD quotes, those people are a talkative company, so I can never tell when people are referencing old or new stuff. SMD interview seems new though, but while I listened to it, I didn't hear him say anything too convincing.

AMD win #3 could be in any number of things, Amazon, Google, Apple, Sony all makes devices. NX is the most likely, but it could still be a hybrid couldn't it? Why does it have to be a home console? They said they had an "ARM" win way back, still haven't found it anywhere. (I know you just told me where it went, but I forgot.)

Moving on...

@ThanosReXXX What happened to this post?

and this is just odd, coming from Nintendo themselves:
Hint: look in the lower left corner...

All I saw in the lower left corner was <Back

Not posting the link though I saw the pic. Interesting choice of names, I wonder if I'll need a new TV after all?

@ThanosReXXX "Which is actually strange, because it seems more and more likely that the truth is actually better than the (not so interesting) rumors "

Funny thing, why all this secrecy for so freaking long if it is just separate home and handheld consoles? Why not just say, "we're making a new console, and a new handheld console."? 3DS is old, everybody knows they would be making a new handheld someday. Wii U isn't selling well at all, everybody assumed they would be making a new home console some day. So why not just say that? Why all the "platform" and "systems" nonsense? Why drive everybody nuts for that? So they can "sync" like @Captain_Gonru said? PS3 and Vita "synced" 4 years ago in LBP2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqS81msAdSw

@bolt05 I won't spoil much since you're avoiding it, but you definitely won't be disappointed with Wolf Link's compatibility, especially if you saved data from TPHD on it.

@ThanosReXXX "And the controller won't have a cartridge slot in my concept idea."

Well no, why would it, if it only streams from the Home console? Which does limit it quite a bit over WiFi. What if Nintendo put a 4G chip in it for people who feel like paying the monthly fee? Does 4G work - cell phone tech ain't my thing.

Nintnedo could put a really small screen on it, like the DS4 touchpad, and make it only work for very limitd things like the Dreamcast VMU did. But then that looks like a step backwards from the GMaepad.

I like a home console, I like a home console that works w/ either the 3DS, New 3DS, Gamepad or NX handheld as a 2nd screen - whatever happened to "Smartglass"? - but I don't like the home console controller having a screen that streams games, looks too much like the Wii U for marketing purposes.

@Captain_Gonru "And the one topic I'd LOVE to get an insider rumor on is why the hell they're waiting so long."

That;s my theme fo this morning. If it is a home and handheld console, why not just say that at least at E3 2015 last year. Why all the secrecy and game playing w/ words like "System" and "platform"? Even the Splatoon tournament people dont 'know what they are playing for. The secrecy seems as ridiculous as the delay.

FF:CC:TCB is the only CC game I played and it is by far 1 of the worst games I ever played. Everything about it was bad. Made me not like those Wii controllers 1 bit.

@rjejr "Pac-Man Vs was a real thing?"

It sure was, my friend. It was included with the GameCube racing game R Racing Evolution:

Apparently, it was later also included with other titles, so if you still have a GameCube, some controllers and a GBA with a cable to connect it to the GameCube lying around (or an old Wii with GameCube ports), then this is pretty much a must buy, especially if you've got kids.

You play with four people simultaneously, and the person that plays Pac-Man will be playing on the GBA, while the others play the ghosts and can only see a small circular space on the TV screen of the maze in which they have to find Pac-Man. It makes for some hilarious gameplay. That is, if people aren't sore losers...

Here's a clip, although that doesn't entirely convey the fun to be had from it, because you don't see the Game Boy Advance part.

"What happened to this post?"

It was a hoax, it was a simple html edit that someone did and made a picture of, so I removed it because it was fake. And what it said in the left column was "Nintendo 4K"... (I should have said lower left corner of the column with the selectable options instead of lower left corner of the page)

Here it is again:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CsN9Fg-WEAAbcb9.jpg

The AMD podcast is actually VERY convincing, so I cannot for the life of me see how that would not confirm that this is the ticket.

The question the guy asked SPECIFICALLY pertained to gaming as did the answer and the VP/CTO himself also pointed to design wins in gaming of which two are known, them being PS4 Pro and Xbox Scorpio.

That only leaves one, so it's actually pretty damn obvious...
Combine it with the confirmed DMP custom design win and that's that.

But I'll let Dave speak for me...

SMD:
"The question he was answering was in regards to gaming consoles only, Lisa Su back in July of this year said that AMD has multiple (more than 1) more design wins beyond gaming than just the numbered 3, so that would be at least 2 more pushing the total number of design wins to at least 5.

Here is the direct quote from earlier today: "You see the success and diversification that we've achieved in game consoles. In fact of our three newest wins, two have been just announced recently by our game console partners Microsoft and Sony. And so with those specifications you can see how with the Playstation 4 Pro with the Microsoft Scorpio they're leveraging the IP that we've developed, our next generation IP in graphics."

He was talking about all 3 being in relation to gaming consoles, with 2 of the 3 officially announced by Sony and Microsoft since obviously they can't announce anything before Nintendo. Otherwise he would have just mentioned the 2 for Sony and Microsoft while the 3rd would have been lumped in with the others beyond gaming consoles."

For me personally, between Dave, HNF and my own research that pretty much nails it all down for about 90%, if not 95%...

What I'm a bit more worried about is that there are now more and more rumors popping up of a reveal date delay to November, so I hope those aren't true...

Have you taken a look at all four posts in HNF's blog yet?

@ThanosReXXX I was going to say that Ninteod 4k pic looked like it could have been fake, the email link worked, but I know how defensive you get of your "proof".

"about 90%, if not 95%"

How can you only be at 90-95%, I thought you were 110% by now? Heck you even got me 50-50, you should be around 200%.

Good to see you realizing it's all just hearsay until Nintendo says.

Those "reveal date" rumours are like amiibo on eBay, I just think everybody is getting on board, I wouldn't pay them no never mind. Its' revealed when it's revealed, that won't change what it is. Now rumours about the launch being delayed out of March, now THAT would be interesting, I should start circulating those. I mean looking for those.

Every hour or so I google Gamestop Expo 2016 NX just to see if anything shows up. So far nothing, but I forgot it was in California so they're all probably still sleeping. I do expect something though. Well besides what they already announced at the Nintendo booth there:

Stop by the Nintendo booth to get your hands on a number of exciting games:
YO-KAI WATCH 2: Bony Spirits & Fleshy Souls (3DS) – Embark on an all-new adventure in Springdale with more than 350 new and returning Yo-kai to discover and befriend—each with a unique look, personality, and Soultimate Move.
Mario Party Star Rush (3DS) – Think fast and have a blast with a variety of ways to party with Mario™, Toad™, and more, on-the-go or on the couch!
Paper Mario: Color Splash (Wii U) – A mystery's afoot on Prism Island and only Mario™ can solve it—by restoring the land's vanishing colors with his new Paint Hammer.
Disney Magical World 2 (3DS) – Live your dream life on an adventure with beloved Disney characters.
Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past (3DS) – Travel to the past to save the present as you restore forgotten lands and battle an unknown evil in this classic DRAGON QUEST adventure completely rebuilt from the ground up for the Nintendo 3DS system

Question on all those NX announcement rumours. When you hear dates for them, are they dates for the announcement of the reveal, or the reveal itself? Surely they are going to announce the reveal in advance, it won't just pop up on Youtube will it? Even a ND gets 2 days notice. Those Sept 20-22 dates could be for the announcement on 20 then the reveal on 22. Or we could get an announcement in early October for a reveal in November. B/c after waitiing 2 years Nintendo should tease a reveal 30 days in advance.

@rjejr The reveal itself, not the announcement of it. An announcement of an announcement doesn't really seem to make sense, although they could announce an event or online presentation, so I guess that would fit the bill of an announcement of a reveal...

As for the percentage thing: I was just talking about AMD, because that is about all but confirmed now, safe for the official announcement and some optional surprise twist in the tale, hence not completely 100%.

I am indeed 200% sure that we are getting 2 dedicated devices, cartridges, some interaction with mobile/smart devices, and besides that, I'm also pretty much on board with the whole DMP for handheld thing.

Keep an eye out for DMP stocks rising. That could easily be tied into their confirmed semi-custom design win for gaming being for Nintendo, and their renewed alliance is indeed a good incentive for stocks to rise...

And I really need to get you off of that other 50%, unless you're a notoriously difficult person, in which case halfway is already quite an achievement...

@rjejr Oh yeah, forgot to answer that one for you: 4G could indeed work for streaming a game on the go, and I'm pretty sure that DeNA would be a massive help to Nintendo in that department.

But like Wifi, 4G also doesn't have complete coverage all over the globe, so that is where a little bit of the puzzle still lies and why I haven't quite nailed that bit yet. But the dedicated handheld and console will indeed be able to play from the same cartridge, with the handheld being the most likely candidate for also being able to accept 3DS cartridges, because of the whole DMP thing, since they also made both the original and the new 3DS.

@ThanosReXXX I'm staying at 50-50 b/c then I can't be wrong.

Question - do you think the hold-up could be bundling? Do you think even though there are a separate Home and Away Nintneod has considered bundling hem together like a Wii U 2 for $400? Or maybe they don't know whether to reveal 1 or both at the same time? It's going to be confusing no matter what it is, so maybe it's taken them awhile to settle on a bundle price? Not big stuff, but SD card size and the like? And now that they've settled it, they don't know when the best time to announce it is?

11 months.

@ThanosReXXX So if the handheld can accept 3D carts does that mean it has 1 or 2 screens? 2DS proved you can play 3D games w/o 3D, but a lot of those games have 2 screens. I think it could be a selling point for owning both Home and Away, 3DS games on the TV. And some Wii U ports we'd have to buy.

Like I said 11 months ago, it always gets tricky when you get down to the nitty gritty details of making stuff work. Whether it's 1 console or 2, Nintnedo has a history now of 2 screen games. Can they throw that all away for only 1 screen?

200% for 2 devices and 90% AMD makes sense. Got it now. Those OS guys are going to earn their paychecks making 1 game cart work on both AMD and DMP me thinks. Well not the cart part, USB and SD work on everything, but the game coding.

@rjejr "Question - do you think the hold-up could be bundling?"

Honestly, no idea, but that to me would fall in the category "planning" and a little bit in my own category marketing. But the plans should be ready before they'd ever reach the marketing department, so normally I would say no.

As for a reveal of either one or both, that could easily be done, as long as both are released in 2017. Console in March, handheld in November/December.

And if they're smart, they will put no cap on SD card size. 132GB cards are already available, so there's no reason not to support that, especially thinking of the future and the average lifespan of handheld devices.

"So if the handheld can accept 3D carts does that mean it has 1 or 2 screens?"

Haven't quite figured that one out myself yet. Could be that they add some mode to it that enables the device to switch to another screen when you need the bottom one or maybe part of these options can be displayed on the buttons or beside the buttons, but I don't want to go there, because then I'm also going to become a patent conspiracy guy...

But as far as throwing that away for one screen goes, if anyone could pull that off, then it's Nintendo.

"Those OS guys are going to earn their paychecks making 1 game cart work on both AMD and DMP me thinks. Well not the cart part, USB and SD work on everything, but the game coding."

Well, according to most tech guys I've spoken to, and IT guys like SMD and HNF, who is a programmer himself, the challenge lies mainly in porting up, from handheld to console (because that will probably be from x86 to ARM). Porting down is relatively easy, because you go from weaker hardware to considerably stronger one.

The architecture in itself isn't really the issue, and that is also where the Vulkan API comes in. It is both used for creating next gen 3D graphics on a range of platforms, but also for easy transfer of code between variable architectures.

But porting down takes more optimization, which is why that is harder to pull off. But not impossible...

In layman's terms, all they have to do is create a basic layer on both devices, that can run the operating system (NinOS) and that can then read and process the data from the cartridge.

By the way: did someone at NLife suffer a bit of a heat stroke, resulting in a slight attention deficit?

@ThanosReXXX I didn't mean what size SD card the console could handle, I meant what size to bundle w/ it in the box. Or what size to build into it. You are probably still thinking large 500GB HDD which is probably why you misunderstood me. Even if there is a home console it will still be BYO like Wii U w/ a bare minimum built in, 64 or 128. Hopefully not 8 or 32 again, that won't fly. Handheld could have a 16GB built on board plus a slot.

@rjejr Forgot to react to another bit:
"I'm staying at 50-50 b/c then I can't be wrong."

I've always learned that you should never be afraid to make mistakes. It's not about how many times you fall, it's about how many times you get back up again. And sometimes being wrong makes you human, while always being right makes you that annoying guy that everybody loves to hate...

And either way: with 50/50 you'd only be either half right or wrong, also not a good position to be in. Unless you're able to switch camps really quickly right before the reveal...

As for the SD card: of course I was thinking of what the handheld can handle, since that is how it reads. I wasn't thinking about the console or an internal 500GB HDD at all.

In fact, I've always said that it may very well not have an internal HDD again, but only some solid state memory, with either a 32 or 64GB capacity at the very least. That type of memory has recently become a lot cheaper, so maybe they might even go up to 128GB internally for the home console, and 32GB for the handheld, with both offering expandability through SD cards, and the console having USB 3 ports for external HDD's.

@rjejr Oh, and a 32GB SD card in the box with the handheld and a 64GB card in the box with the console. Although knowing Nintendo, they will either have no SD card with a home console, or at the most a 32GB one...

@ThanosReXXX USB 3

Man I hope so. My motherboard died, which had USB 3 slots, and I replaced it w/ a cheap one that had USB 2, and it's so slow.

Here's a thought, lets agree they go w/ carts, wouldn't a HDD be slower than a cart, so people who buy digital would be penalized? You really don't want to penalize people for buying digital, they are already being forced to pay MSRP on the price. I know an internal would probably be faster than an external, but something solid state would be faster, but a lot more expensive. I'd rather have a nice quiet fast 128B SSD than a loud slow 500GB HDD. Just not sure on the cost.

@ThanosReXXX Well I would think a SD card in the box for either the Home or Away, would come down to home much storage is built in. If Home has 128GB it doesn't really need a card, I'll get my own on AMaozn thanks. The handheld might only have a card, no on board, like the Vita at launch, and I think the 3DS still.

Oh, and I'm 50-50 b/c it's easier than making a decision. W/ all this reading and typing I don't really have time to ponder. Too many variables. It's like trying to solve for X+Y=Z when we don't know what X, Y or Z are, b/c we don't.

Here's the Gamestop Expo news for today (I think it'r eal, but who knows)

Kevin: "You guys want some NX news?"
points to Nintendo exec on stage
Exec (didn't remember name): "Not yet, but very soon"

@rjejr Well, at least "very soon" should mean this month and not November, or shouldn't it?

@rjejr My 3DS XL had a pack-in 32GB SD card, but I have the special edition with Monster Hunter 3 pre-installed.

But so many years later and at the current prices, a 32GB card for a next gen handheld should really be something that is on their checklist. 16GB will be too little, assuming that the downloads for complete games and DLC will be more than the 3DS cartridges are now. And the 3DS cartridges max out at 8GB.

@rjejr And if the home console has any internal storage, it will either be solid state, which is just as fast as SD cards, or it will be a modern HDD, which comes pretty close speed-wise. But I have a feeling that they will go with solid state memory or drives.

@ThanosReXXX "very soon"

Don't ask me, I'm one of those idiots who when at E3 2015 Reggie said - "dedicated game platform codename NX, which we'll tell you more about, in 2016" - thought he meant at E3 2016, not waiting until autumn, which it will be in about a week.

It starts at the 9:57 mark, words at 10:39.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C73f618-3pk

"dedicated game platform" grrr

@ThanosReXXX "a 32GB card for a next gen handheld should really be something that is on their checklist"

I may laugh out load if their next handheld comes w/ as much on board storage or SD card storage as their current home console.

Your right, it should have 32GB, that's fine, but it does highlight how inadequate Wii U was, and for that price. I really don't think they gave enough forethought into what that Gamepad was going to do to the price. Or how to make it work adequately w/ most of their games. TVii, camera, mic, too much emphasis on the incidentals, not enough on the game usage. Wiimotes may be mocked, but they were useful both for motion and pointing.
Gamepad was useful for off-tv play, but that didn't really affect the game play per say, a 3DS does off-tv play, and better.

Whatever it is, lets hope it's game centered and focused.

@rjejr Amen to that...

@rjejr @Captain_Gonru Wow, HNF is really racking up the number of posts on his blog. No more crazy new videos, but he makes up for that by putting a new post on his blog every day, so we're at a total of five now...

Obligatory reading for people like us, and thankfully, all his posts are clear and short, so no need to decipher any messages like in his videos.

http://happynintendofan.blogspot.nl

@Captain_Gonru I remember posting a few crazy pics of hardware swaps awhile back, that would be the only reason for me why I would like detachable controllers, for going from horizontal to vertical like you said.

Last post on the page.

https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/nintendo-nx/is_this_the_nx_controller?start=120

Here's my favorite crazy design. If anybody would try such a crazy thing, it's Nintnedo.

@Captain_Gonru "a new way to play"

You know what? Screw their new way to play BS. Sony has announced PS4 SLim, PS4 Pro and PSVR. MS has announced Xbox One S and cropio and they are working diligently on Hololens and PC being interchangeable w /X1S. And they did smartglass years ago.

Whatever Ntinedo's new thing is they are hiding, no company is going to be able to steal the idea and put it on the market before March if Nintedo were to announce it today. Or yesterday. Or last week or last month. Sony and MS are very busy going down their paths. Whether Nintneod announces last month or next month, neither of those companies is going to be able to get it to market before March.

#justtellus b/c I'm really ready to just move on.

@Captain_Gonru Can't argue w/ a ranting venting man, and no point trying.

@Captain_Gonru These are the ads we'll have to look at for the next 3 months, this one courtesy of PC Richards.

http://news.pcrichard.com/public/viewmessage/html/34747/cfjg8l2o9key7dmhmv0qoufxbgrwr

@Captain_Gonru I will play 2 on there, Uncharted 4 and FFXV, and possibly Mafia 3 if 3 years from now I get it free w/ PS+. I'm a sucker for a 70's soundtrack. And it doesn't bother me so much that Wii U isn't on there, but thats still a whole lot of games this holiday that Wii U isn't even getting ports of. I know they are the "family console", and I'm fine w/ that moniker, but families still need their sports games. It's ads like that which really make me wonder why Nitneodo would bother to make a home console unless it had those sports games locked up. Or it played 3DS carts on TV. But then what does it use for a 2nd screen, b/c it won't come w/ one and be a Wii U 2. 3DS, Gamepad, Away? There's always a catch.

Moving on. Could't find the Nitneod aisle in my big Target today, was pretty sure they dropped it, finally found it taking up space in the Sony aisle. And I broke down and bought an amiibo. Out of literally 60 AC amiibo I saw 1 re-skinned green girl inkling. I felt bad for her, so for $3.88 on clearance I picked her up. Hopefully she be useful in Spla2oon. I may even do her challenge in Spaltoon. WE have the pink one but my wife brought it to work to put on her desk w/ her other girly toys.

Thoughts on amiibo on NX. While it's just deductive reasoning and not the official word you are waiting for, Cloud, Bayonetta and Corrin are way overdue. AC are not selling, Cloud will sell a ton, even to Sony fanbois who would never even consider a Nintneod console just b/c it's Cloud. Bayonetta may sell some like that as well if they sexy her up enough and don't turn her into Toon kid link or just make one of young Cereza. Though I would buy 1 of her too. So, why aren't they out yet making Nintnedo money? And w/ NX only 6 months away? I feel confident they are saving them for the NX reveal to promote SSB:NX edition. MAybe to unlock the characters in game. I think they sell SSB:NX w/ all Mii crap included, but the 7 DLC characters will unlock w/ amiibo. Which gives them an excuse to resell the other 4 again, Ryu, Lucas, Mewtwo and Roy.

So there ya go. As long as we haven't seen those amiibo before the NX reveal date is announced, thats almost guaranteed. Of course if we do see those amiibo before then, well that's not good.

Sorry it's still not confirmation, but I think my logic is pretty sound. Even if Nintneod includes all the DLC in SSB:NX they could still sell the amibo to play alongside them like it currently works. Though I'm betting the original 44 or whatever only get cards, just the 7 DLC get toys.

#justtellus

@Captain_Gonru 16:10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8VTZEsPOD0

@Captain_Gonru Well it was a top 10 list, not an in depth review. Just the fact that he counted backwards from 10 probably took a lot of effort.

Slow news week. Slow rumour week. Slow leak week. I think Nintendo made an effort to avoid TGS week.

When you were a kid did you rush each week to check the new issue of TV Guide in the hopes that it was "monster movie week"?

I check this site all day every day in the hopes of finding NX news like this.

Slow week = me straining real hard to make nonsense on topic.

Edit - This should help jog your memory, the best thing about after school.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2es-lfRSDOI

@Captain_Gonru @rjejr PlayerEssence's latest vid:

@rjejr Sound reasoning on the whole Amiibo on NX thing, hats off to you.

@rjejr REALLY don't like PBG, though. Annoying face, annoying voice and annoying videos. Tries too hard to be funny, which makes it rather abrasive in my opinion.

"Just the fact that he counted backwards from 10 probably took a lot of effort."

You know who also counts backwards from 10 with a lot of effort?

Ron Jeremy...

@ThanosReXXX I liked PBG more until I figured out he's just a thin version of JonTron, who I dont 'really watch or know who he is, but hes the original PBG. Really I dont watch any Youtube vids except the ones you link to, my kids watch on the kitchen PC while I cook breakfast, lunch and dinner so I see and here it all.
Going to go listen to PE now. I'll be back.

@ThanosReXXX Watched the vid.

Have to agree w/ almost everything he said, since it's what I said all of 2015 and probably the first half of 2016. And I'm pretty sure after all of my comments you told me, no, that can't be it, there's nothing "special" about Home and Away playing the same games.

On the flipside hybrid side of things, I think he misconstrued a few things.

Yes, a $399 handheld would be dead in the water, but he seems ok w/ $399, or more, for 2 consoles that REDUNDANTLY play the same games. Why wouldn't people just want 1 hybrid system to play games both Home and Away for $399 instead of 2?

And while $399 would be dead in the water, what about a $299 handheld that had TV out? Based on your power comments it sounds to me like Wii U power could be had in a portable for $299. That would dwarf what Vita can do. So I don't know why he kept talking about $399 when we can all agree that doens't make any sense. Oh yes, I do know why, b/c if he gave a realistic price of $299 for the hybrid then his augment isn't as strong. Spending 2 or 3 minutes talking about how bad a $399 hybrid would be is a wasted 2 or 3 minutes if they come out w/ a $299 hybrid, which would be much more likely.

Now personally, I think even a $299 hybrid is dead in the water. $249 is more likely, which is why they've kept 3DS XL at $199 after all these years w/o a price cut. If the old system is $199, new powerful system at $249 doesn't look so bad.

Now, it's possible $249 in a handheld isn't going to do a very good job of TV out. So that's where the dock comes in, AKA the SCD. $99 for more RAM, power supply and fan for cooling while the system runs faster. Maybe $149 w/ a little more oomph. That brings us back to PEs $399 bundle which he seemed people would gladly pay for.

And that's how 1 console gets past the diversification issue. B/c even though it is only 1 console that makes or breaks the company, it's really 2 sold seperalty. A $249 powerful handheld, which people will obviously buy as Ntineod has sold 60 million in the 3DS family for nearly that price, w/ a super lame 240p screen. But then you can buy that handheld or $249, add a dock for $149, so that's $399 for a Home console that should be powerful enough for Home players, yet lets you take it w/ you anywhere you want to go. For the same $399 PE said people would pay for 2 consoles, but this way it's only 1.

Looking at this from the other direction. You say the SCD is coming and you believe that's real. (At least I think you've said that.) If Nintendo is making a separate Home and Away, lets say AMD in Home, DMP in AWay, then why should they worry about SCDs now? Why make that an issue now? Woudl' tthe SCD only come into play years orm now? Wouldn't people b eupset if right from the start they wer etold - buy this powerful Home console - but you'll also need to buy a SCD to make it pwoerful?

PS never mentions the SCD in that vid. And he probably doens't b/c an SCD really only makes sense for either a handheld or hybrid that needs that extra power to do TV out. And if you have a handheld that does TV out w/ the SCD (aka dock) then that handheld is a hybrid and you don't need Home.

The hybrid IS Home and Away. It is mostly 2 consoles, it just needs the SCD to play on TV, like Gamecube needed the Gameboy Player to play Gameboy games on the TV.

If you don't like the idea of a hybrid I'll put it this way - Nintnedo is getting out of the home console business. They are getting into the handheld business only, and they'll sell an expensive SCD dock for people - like me and other of our old friends - who want to play games on their TV. Yes they are putting all of their eggs in 1 basket, but they arne't, b/c the hybrid can still be sold as 2 units, $349 Home or $249 Away, just depends on the bundle.

So yes, everything PE says makes sense. But that's what happens when you leave out half of the story - your half, the SCD - and tweak things a little bit - $399 hybrid, you make sense. Go to any debate team tournament in the world, HS, college, wherever, and listen to only 1 side of the story. It's very likely that whichever side you her, it will make sense. Nobody on the internet ever debates them-self, they just focus on their side. PE tried, I'll give him credit, he mentioned both sides, but he spent more time on his own side, and made that sound better.

And that's why I'm at 50-50, b/c both sides make sense to me. Really, this being Nitneod, it will have to be something else entirely b/c they never do anything that makes sense to me.

@rjejr Okay, my friend, put on your seat belt, because it's going to be a long and bumpy ride. But you asked for it...
(I sure hope it doesn't trigger another rant mode)

In general, I really like your steadfastness/tenacity, but at times I have to wonder if I have to applaud it or make fun of it, if you understand what I'm saying.

First off, the reason that he built the video around that specific price point is because Michael Pachter mentioned it, so it is a reaction to his statements. Naming other prices would make it irrelevant in regards to what Michael Pachter has said.

And of late, you are talking (or seem to be) more often in certainties of what NX is going to be: it's going to be a hybrid, it's going to have a dock, the dock will be the SCD, and by FAR the worst offender: Nintendo is getting out of the home console business. (although I know you meant that last one in a certain context)

These past few months I gave you more than enough material to almost decisively conclude that it is NOT going to be a hybrid. Not because that isn't what I personally don't want it to be, but simply because it makes no sense. Not from a business point of view, not from a marketing point of view and most importantly: not from a financial point of view, so it's simply not going to happen. And yes, I'm talking in certainties too, but that is only because more facts support the other idea...

If for some odd reason they DO decide to go that way, then I expect their market share to plummet like crazy, because like I already told you a couple of times, a handheld with a to TV component still won't make a full fledged home console, not even with a dock that upgrades it to have somewhat similar graphics/power.

Just review the facts here: the handheld will at most be around Wii U level, which for a handheld is more than fine and will indeed be the handheld to beat all handhelds, but to turn that into a complete home console experience, you would need a dock with so much extra power in it, that it would ramp up the price of that dock several times, because $149 will be FAR from enough to account for the necessary hardware, so that would probably cost in excess of $350, because to offer a similar experience, they would have to add a pretty hefty CPU/GPU and amount of memory. In case of a portable Wii U, a "little more oomph" to turn it into a home console simply won't suffice.

A Wii U like handheld would only have around 2GB memory that they would need to upgrade to 8GB, the Wii U processor is 5 times weaker than current consoles, so the upgraded part in the dock also needs to take care of that, and the same goes for the GPU, so everything needs to be AT LEAST quadrupled in power, and on a technical level, I don't even know if that's possible for any acceptable price point in today's market.

I'm guessing it's not, because you would then have an external device that's (more than) four times as powerful as the actual part that is playing the game, and at a cost to match.

So you could see how ridiculous that really is to expect something like that to become a reality. Not to mention that the dock, obviously having some form factor, would hold back the variation in form factors of any devices to come after that, because the idea is that NX is to become a shared environment for both current and future devices, so in 5 to 8 years time, newer devices would also still need to be compatible with these components.

And then there is the of late often mentioned battery life, which according to the latest hybrid lovers rumor mongers is quite bad. That doesn't sound like something that Nintendo would do with a handheld. Most of their portable consoles have a great battery life, so it seems highly unlikely to happen, and that only strengthens the belief that it is more likely that there will be no hybrid, because in order for them to go there, they would have to sacrifice the handheld part's battery life in order to be able to provide for a decidedly average home console experience.

To me and many others, none of that sounds like Nintendo.

And the SCD's is something that I indeed mentioned as more than likely being real, but there as well, some things don't compute if I try to fit them in with the hybrid/dock concept. Besides the aforementioned MASSIVE power leap that thing would need to offer, you would also need quite a bit of space for cooling of such powerful hardware, which would make that dock look like some big, bulky and ugly box that you would put a sleek, supposedly "tablet-like" component in to play it on the TV, and that would look like crap...

Again: none of that sounds like Nintendo.

A separate SCD could be as small as two or three of these small portable HDD's stacked on top of each other, and it could simply be placed either beside or behind the console, where you would never even have to look at it.

And you also made one rather big mistake that such a device would only make sense for a handheld. On the contrary, my friend: according to the official documents, the SCD's are specifically meant to future proof the console, much like Microsoft and Sony are now doing with the upgraded versions of their current consoles. It is not meant to add power to a handheld in order to make it a still decidedly sub par home console.

And besides future proofing, the whole concept of sharing power online is to create a stronger sense of a Nintendo community and earning points through that, something that does indeed sound like what they would want to do.

Personally, I can't see what's not to understand about that, because it's crystal clear to me. Nintendo CANNOT and WILL NOT come out with yet another considerably weaker device again, or they will indeed be dead on arrival, and not just because of any less than favorable price point...

The SCD is a WAY more elegant solution in that regard, because you can keep your current NX instead of having to buy the "NX Pro", you would just invest in a SCD and hook that up to get the necessary power boost. And since the power difference between NX and the other standard models of the current consoles might very well not be all that big, especially if it is indeed AMD that they'll be using, the SCD's would only have to add a moderate boost of say, double everything, instead of 4 times or even more. Yet another thing that makes WAY more sense.

And not to mention that it would then also be more likely to cost only $100 - $150 instead of more than NX itself...

And there's no way in hell that you could market the same device twice towards two separate target groups. Whether it's a hybrid with or without a dock, it's still the same device, so it could NEVER be sold as two units. If I would have suggested something like that to my manager back in the day, he would more than likely have given the assignment to someone else, because he would probably think I had lost all my marbles...

Two bundles, yes, two different devices, no. Not at all, so that one is off the table. I like my 3DS, but I'm still much more of a home console player, so I would want that to be a capable device that offers me options, and not a so-so experience, which is what a slightly above Wii U powered device would give, in comparison to the PS4 Pro/Xbox Scorpio.

Why the hell would people want Nintendo to become a laughing stock yet again? In some ways, that even makes me somewhat angry, because it is so frustratingly incomprehensible.

That powerful handheld alone really isn't going to cut it or safe them, not at all.

And I don't know what debating clubs you frequent, but if one side of the story is BS, then there is no way it will ever make sense.

I know full well that I'm going out on a limb here, maybe risking some credibility here and there, but I'm an all or nothing kind of guy, so I can't go for less than that. And once I've made up my mind (of course only after a decent amount of research), people will be hard pressed to convince me otherwise, unless there is hard evidence to support it, in which case I am never too big of a person to admit I was wrong.

Right now, I still don't have that impression, and of course it's only strengthened even more because of my own research. Family members would more than likely say that it is simply because of the fact that I'm a Taurus, but luckily, I'm of the friendlier, more open-minded kind, so I'm not blindly storming into things.

But let's say I'm wrong: then I will just be some anonymous member of a website that was slightly delusional, whereas all these reputable websites and persons that do leave their own name and number online will look 10 times more stupid if they are wrong, so I'm not too worried or afraid to dive in completely.

And in the end I just hope that, whatever the outcome, we will once again get some truly great games, the likes of which only Nintendo can make.

To close things off on a positive note: completely agreed on it possibly being something else entirely because we're dealing with Nintendo here, and they indeed make no sense 9 out of 10 times. (or is that the Western vs Asian thinking issue again?)

And trying to make something out of that seems almost impossible: if it's not a dedicated console or handheld and not a hybrid, then what's left? I'm not even going to hurt my brain trying to make sense of that one...

@rjejr P.S.

And it also seems that you have already completely forgotten about this one:

If that doesn't spell two dedicated devices, NO hybrid, then I don't know what does...

@ThanosReXXX That might be a new record.

I think it's funny how you mock the hybrid people b/c they have no proof, yet you rely on them to tell you that the hybrid - which you say doesn't exit - has bad battery life.

"And then there is the of late often mentioned battery life, which according to the latest hybrid lovers rumor mongers is quite bad."

You don't believe them when they say there is a hybrid, but you believe them when they say it has a bad battery, how does that work?

I probably should have mentioned Pacther, you are correct, PE was debating Pachter, so his saying $399 makes total sense. But I wasn't debating Pachetr, who is usually wrong and hates Ntineod anyway, I was debating the 2 sides of what NX could be. And what it can't be is a $399 handheld, hybrid or home console.That's just too much for 1 piece of Nintendo hardware, and it isn't worth debating. That's a non argument. Less than $399, will use cartridges, will play the majority of the same games at home or on the go. Some things are pretty much a given regardless. Including amiibo support. Though I am open to debate whether said amiibo support will be built in or portable like the old 3DS and other consoles. Probably both if it's 2 consoles, no reason to make NFC built into a home console, though it could be in the controller, but Id prefer a portal.

Why does a dock have to be so expensive?

Xbox One S is $299, so that's my starting price. Take out the 500GB HDD, ultra blu ray drive. Shrink it down a lot w/ those 2 components removed. Where would that be? $199? And in out handheld w/ already have a CPU, GPU and RAM to almost be near that power based of DMP M3400, correct? So we really only need a small boost to make the hybrid/handheld innards upres to TV. So most of the CPU, GPU and RAM can be taken out of what's left of the $199 Xbox. I don't see why that can't be $149 if most of the power is in the handheld and the dock just needs a chip to upscale from 720p to 1080p. $25 DVD players do upscaling from SD to HD these days.

I can see why you think a hybrid makes no sense, but I've shown you Nintneod's home consoles sales #s over the past 30 years, and it should be obvious to anyone that a new Ninteod home console makes no sense. Consoles in general are fading, PS4 may match PS3, but X1S will likely not do Xbox360 sales, people like mobile. I want a home console, I don't want a handheld, but N64, Gamecube and Wii U sales make me want to yell out to Ntinedo - "Hey you idiots, nobody wants to buy your home consoles, stop making them, and devote your energies to good handheld games, not Federation Force!" - through a bullhorn outside of their office.

So just b/c you think a hybrid is doomed to failure, and maybe it is, that doens't automatically make a home console a success. It's more likely to die than a hybrid, for any # of reasons.

Too high a price
Lack of 3rd party support (yes, I know what HNF said, I also know what EA said on stage about "unprecedented relationship"
Nintneod forgets to market, again
All Home games on Away make Home redundant and therefore unnecessary
People think it's a Ouja b/c of no disc drive

So just saying "hybrid is doomed" doesn't equate to "Home will save Nitnedo". Home is doomed too. Unless it's a cheap 3DS Player that somehow also gets great 3rd party support. And I think those 2 are mutually exclusive.

I really don't understand why a "dock" has to be big and ugly but an SCD gets to be compact and attractive. If they can fit all that power in a little SCD can't they fit it into a dock? An attractive dock? OK, the dock won't be attractive, but it can't be any uglier than the new PS4 Slim. Have you seen that thing, its 'hideous. I'm probably buying it anyway, but it is hideous looking. And almost every Xbox has been big and ugly as well except the new S models, those are nice. But it took them like 5 tries to get there. Nintneod could start w/ an ugly dock and make a better one in a few years.

"And there's no way in hell that you could market the same device twice towards two separate target groups"

Aren't you the one always telling me how different Japan and the west are? Why can't they market it to the west as a portable Home and to the Japanese a portable with TV out? Have you seen the different commercials for the SAME GAME the west gets and Japan gets? I watch a bunch, and sometimes I can't even believe they are for the same game they are so different. If they can do that for games, they can do that for hardware. You did read my take on how the NDs would vary, didn't you? It's a home console in the west that you can take w/ you, it's a handheld in Japan that also plays on TV.

This will also be the case if Home and Away launch at the same time. Home will get way more coverage in the West, Away in Japan. That doesn't change.

@ThanosReXXX I was meaning to ask you about that. Where did it come from b/c Google couldn't find it. Not that I doubt you, I just wanted to see when it was from and why is some of it red or bold.

It certainly makes all the arguments for Home and Away clear as day. Well as clear as anything Iwata said can be, translations always worry me.

And if it does turn out to be 2 different consoles, Home and Away, that should work very well as Monday morning QB proof.

My only concerns are these 2 points.

One - "Last year we also started a project..."
He died a year ago, so this means he is talking about things that happened 2 years ago from now. A lot can happen in 2 years.

Where's my Wii U dual Gamepad support
Where's my Wii U Gamecube VC?
Where's my Wii Vitality Sensor?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRwarxMTxZg

That's Iwata on stage showing it off at E3, talking about using it in games on the Wii way back in 2009.

So you are tying to convince me that a piece of hardware we've never seen before is defintley coming out b/c Iwata alluded to it 2 years ago, a year before he passed away, but a piece of hardware Iwata himself showed on stage to a live audience never materialized. Can you understand why I might have a problem being 100% certain Nintendo is launching an unknown device, even 1 I named and was wholeheartedly on board with?

Two - Since you gave me that Iwata link twice, I'll give you this one twice.

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/140130qa/02.html

"Whether we will ultimately need just one device will be determined by what consumers demand in the future, and that is not something we know at the moment."

Even if 2 years ago Home was in the works, after the overall failure of the Wii U, the drop in sales of Xbox 1, and the continued success of Vita in Japan and the 3DS family around the world, Nintneod could have thrown i the towel. Or really Kimishima could have thrown in the towel, as it would probably be 100% his call.

If there is only a hybrid, 20 or 30 years from now there will be a book written about how far along Ntineod was with the NX Home console before they decided to shelve it. The book will talk about how Ntineod found they were able to cheaply get enough power into a handheld that they could do TV out, and therefore after watching the low sales of Wii U they decided to scrap the stand alone home console and focus exclusively on the handheld w/ TV out. Also, Ninntedo realized that there was money to be made in mobile game sales, the mobile market was getting robust, and as Nintneod focused on both the handheld and mobile markets they decided focusing on a home console as well would be stretching themselves thin once again. So NX Home went on the shelf next to Vitality Sensor and maybe QoL, whatever the heck that thing is.

And a sticking point for me now is, if it is just a Home and Away, why not tell us? They could just tell us about Home now, Away next year after 3DS runs out of games. Home won't hurt Wii U sales any, that thing is deader than dead. And if it's getting all of that 3rd party support, why not announce it so those games can be talked about at E3, Gamescon and TGS? Don't you think any rationale 3rd party company would say to Ninteod - "Look, we'll put our game on your home console, but you have to market it and explain it and get the word out there. you can't launch it out of the blue." Why support vaporware? Why not tell those Spaltoon people - "Winners get a NX console." They wouldn't even have to say "home console" or "handheld console", just say "console". But don't say "system", that's just being a d!ck.

I did like your idea about 3DS games. People might not buy a 3DS this holiday if they can buy a Home in March and play the games on the TV. But I only like it so much. I think the majority of 3DS owners like the portability, they woudlnt just drop 3DS to play on their TVs. So 3DS could still sell to those people who would pick up a NX later. So it's a reason, but not a solid reason.

If its a hybrid, w/ or w/o 3DS support, that could harm 3DS sales this holiday as people assume 3DS ports on NX. That to me would be a reason to hold off on announcing it. To me that's the "special" thing you want. There's hardly anything special about a Home and Away console. Let me rephrase that - the idea would be special, NX as a paltform would be special, but there would be nothing special about the "Home" console, not enough to get people to buy it if they can play the same games on NX Away. Or NX Away and PS4/X1S if 3rd party support is there.

Yes, Home and Away makes sense, I can see it happening, but the hybrid makes sense too, I can see that happening as well. Or as you pointed out, all 3, the hybrid is the kids 2DS replacement tablet w/ detachable controllers. You know, if anything kills the hybrid idea for me it's the idea of detachable controllers, that's just stupid. Then again, that's what a lot of people said about Wiimotes, and they sold 100mil. And probably most sane people thought Wii Balance Board was an actual April Fools joke, but that sold 40 mil. Don't know how, but it did. People.

I can't wait to see what NX finally is, what can it be that would surprise both of us? And be worth keeping hidden in the shadows for so long? hmmm

@rjejr "That might be a new record."

New record of or in what?

"I think it's funny how you mock the hybrid people b/c they have no proof, yet you rely on them to tell you that the hybrid - which you say doesn't exit - has bad battery life."

Well, because they both think it's a hybrid, but predominantly a handheld, and yet according to the rumors it is supposed to have a less than desirable battery life.

They are fighting so hard to make us enthusiastic and convinced that it is a hybrid, but also saying that this very hybrid is going to have a crappy battery life doesn't really inspire me to believe. To me that just doesn't add up.

If it is indeed primarily a handheld device, then you can be sure of it that Nintendo will make that have a pretty decent battery life.

So, people saying that it's going to be a device that is going to be rather risky for Nintendo to begin with, for many more reasons than the ones I already listed, who then compound that risk by also saying that the battery life is rather meh, certainly are worth poking a bit of fun at, because it's simply too dumb for words.

The price could indeed be debatable, but from a hardware component point of view, and from a supposed additional gimmick based on AR/VR, I honestly can't compute anything below $300 - $350, and not trying to be a smart@ss, but I know my hardware, and the gfx card, memory components and GPU alone already make up for that $249 that you mentioned, and that is Nintendo's purchasing price, so consumer price will add VAT and profit margin.

Like I said: it simply HAS to be a capable system, especially if it is indeed a home console. I haven't got a single issue with Wii U power in my hands, but I believe I've already mentioned that several times, that it would be a very powerful handheld, and I would be all for that, so no argument on that part.

But the contrast to turn it into a capable and competitive system (it will be, whether or not Nintendo or we want it to be. Both the market and the media will see to it that it will be positioned as such) will be so HUGE, that it simply couldn't work, UNLESS you explicitly stress that it's NOT meant to be a home console but simply a handheld with the added benefit of being able to play it on your TV in slightly upscaled settings.

And that will definitely NOT satisfy the majority of dedicated console gamers who couldn't give a rat's @ss about a handheld, and it seems to me that it's simply not done to bring a home console experience to a market at slightly above Wii U power while the rest of the market is already moving into 4K. And that would effectively put them roughly six years behind schedule. Completely unthinkable...

Nintendo will then not be able to cater to demand, and in the end, that's what it's all about.

With the Wii they (in my opinion) inadvertently caught lightning in a bottle, but I don't expect that to ever happen again, at least not in my lifetime, so they need to do as much "i dotting" and "t crossing" as they can manage, because they DO need to hit it out of the park, and in a BIG way. A hybrid just doesn't carry the amount of weight to be able to achieve that. This is my firm belief, and one would have to come up with ironclad reasoning to deter me from that.

And nothing is automatically a success, even the PS4 wasn't. It wasn't riding on any coat tails of a successful predecessor, because the PS3 only did good, but not great, and had Sony not had the smarts to let Microsoft shoot themselves in the foot with the introduction of the Xbox One first, then they would have received the exact same amount of backlash as Microsoft did.

Sony had also planned to have a pack-in motion camera and DRM measures, but when they saw the amount of flak that Microsoft got from the public and in the media, they quickly removed the camera from their PS4 starter pack and also made considerably more lenient DRM regulations.

And it was those measures, and those measures alone, that allowed them to make the PS4 a lot cheaper than the Xbox One, and hey presto! instant success, and the rest is history. But apparently, next to no one knows of these facts or wants to purposely ignore them, and simply claims that it is because of the better hardware and software, which might be a better story for the fans, but is in fact complete and utter BS.

I like facts, not crap that fanboys keep vomiting up to support their delusional ideas. Obviously I'm not talking about you, but I think you get the point. It even infuriates me while I'm typing this, because this too is beyond stupid.

"Amiibo support"

An NFC chip can be built into a USB stick if they wanted to, heck they're even in credit cards, so with game consoles, they can put them in just about any component, so indeed into the controller as well. And why would you not want that? It would be convenient while playing: just hold the Amiibo against the controller and you're done, why would you want a portal that would probably need to be connected to one of the NX's USB ports? And knowing Nintendo, they aren't going to put too much of those into the system to begin with, so better leave 'em free for more important peripherals...

"Why does a dock have to be so expensive?"

Well, I already explained that in my previous wall of text.
In short, you would want to cater to both third parties and the discerning fans that are only interested in a dedicated home console experience, and slightly above Wii U power 6 years after the fact just isn't going to cut it, not by a LONG shot.

Therefore, the dock, which you theorized could be the SCD, would have to provide for an upgrade that would at the very least bring NX up to par with the standard PS4, to appease developers and gamers alike and that would mean a quite hefty piece of hardware inside that very dock.

And you might probably think that it doesn't necessarily have to be within the ball park of the other two, but nearly the entire industry agrees that it will HAVE to, so I think I actually might have a point there. 3DS like third party titles ain't gonna cut it on the big screen. Those are decidedly different experiences.

And even if you and I don't play them, in general we really do need the sports games, the racers, the shooters, the platform adventures, the rpg's and the beat em ups in more or less the same form as on the other consoles, and not in an upscaled from handheld "last gen graphics" kind of way...

"Aren't you the one always telling me how different Japan and the west are? Why can't they market it to the west as a portable Home and to the Japanese a portable with TV out?"

Well, that is a different take on it. That is not what I got from "marketing the same device as two different systems". I read that as either in the Western market alone, or worldwide. I imagined Americans or Europeans seeing the ads and just thinking: "well, that's just the same damn device, except with a dock, they aren't fooling me those are just different bundles..."

And no, I didn't read your take on the varying ND's, but they're already different now, so how much more different would they need to get?

"I can see why you think a hybrid makes no sense, but I've shown you Nintneod's home consoles sales #s over the past 30 years ( ... ) through a bullhorn outside of their office."

This might surprise you (or not) but I don't give a damn about what the previous sales numbers were, and frankly, neither should Nintendo. It is exactly like we discussed last time, when we were both quoting mr. Iwata when he said that they should get out of the business if their only focus was getting better sales numbers than GameCube, and he was 200% right: numbers alone definitely aren't the most important factor and they shouldn't be the primary focus either.

In marketing, there's a saying that you are only as good as your last party, which means that with each new campaign and attempt to reach or improve your sales target, you have to start from scratch, because the old results don't count anymore and you can't keep your reputation alive based on those alone.

Another proverb in sales & marketing is "results from the past are no guarantee for the future" and that goes both ways, so good results last year don't automatically mean good or better results the next year, but bad results last year also don't automatically mean bad results next year.

Not going to comment too much on the Ouya and unprecedented support thing. That last one was entirely different for a multitude of reasons (if you wish I can elaborate in another comment, but for now I'll leave it at that) and the Ouya is nowhere near comparable to a Nintendo console, so to put them on the same level is kind of weird. It was a cheap @ss, open source Android console, with lousy hardware and games.

"I was meaning to ask you about that. Where did it come from b/c Google couldn't find it."

It comes from SMD's Twitter feed. It is a verbatim quote from this financial report:
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/130131/05.html
(last paragraph of that page, next to a slide that says "United Development Division to Integrate Platforms")

All Dave did was emphasize and highlight the parts of the text that matter to show people that a hybrid just isn't going to happen, and what the actual plan behind consolidating the handheld and console departments was, and most importantly: the idea of code name NX, which is a shared platform/architecture, and NOT one device sharing two functions. It is meant as their version of Apple OS, to be used across all Nintendo devices for the foreseeable future.

And if you're interested in the rest of the actual info coming from the house of Nintendo, bookmark all the reports and read 'em whenever you've got some time to spare. Most of the information that I base my opinion on is in there and you can even find some more lies in there if you look carefully, although I will bet that I could still explain these away...

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/130131/index.html
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/140130/index.html
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/140130qa/index.html

And like I also already told you: translations in financial reports are done by professional translators, such as Bill Trinen and mr. Iwata's personal assistant, so there won't be any errors in there.

If it would be an interview on a gaming website or an event that is translated by the people of the site themselves, then I would definitely be inclined to agree with you, but these kinds of reports are checked and double checked before they will receive the green light to be able to release them online so the public can read them, and the shareholders must also be able to rely on what's written in them.

The only thing that could differ is that in the meetings themselves, more is said or things are more elaborately explained, because shareholders will ask questions after the report is read to them, so that is stuff you won't be able to find in these reports, but that is not so much a matter of mistranslated text but potentially missing additional explanations, and only in the case of these explanations being needed for the shareholders.

If everything is clear for them the first time the report is read to them, then there will be no missing information to read for us either.

""Monday morning QB proof"

What? Don't know what that is. Remember: I'm Europea-fied, so some decidedly American things of the last couple of decades might elude me...

"Two - Since you gave me that Iwata link twice, I'll give you this one twice."

I already explained that one away the last time you sent me that. It doesn't mean what you think it means, "Whether we will ultimately need just one device" concerns the future devices that will come AFTER NX, not the devices currently being in development.

That trajectory is already WAY too far in progress to be so significantly modified in such a way that they would go from two devices to one. R&D of a new console starts the second that the current one has left the factory, so the process concerning NX was already quite far along when he said that, which is the exact reason why it doesn't relate to that device/those devices.

And mr. Kimishima hasn't changed any integral part of mr. Iwata's plan, as I have also already shown you a couple of times. I can of course imagine that any one can think: "yeah well, but things change and people say all kinds of stuff and I'm not going to just believe that without having any doubts or whatever" and I can stop no one from thinking such things, but I personally trust in mr. Kimishima's earnestness and his reputation, and those tell me that he is not a man to mince words or speak ambiguously.

If he says in an interview that only some minor changes were made along the way, but the overall idea and plan of mr. Iwata is still very much in tact and in progress, then I will believe that to be 100% true.

That Reggie talks BS or even mr. Miyamoto isn't entirely clear in his intentions all the time is known, but mr. Kimishima is an entirely different kind of person. He is way too serious and professional to be indulging in this kind of double speak.

He is a real director, mr. Iwata was more of a creator/developer and what I personally believe is that often times he let his enthusiasm get the better of him, as creative persons can do some times, so what that would mean is that he wouldn't really be lying, but more being a bit too quick with saying his ideas out loud, and then coming to the conclusion later on that it isn't really feasible after all, hence no dual GamePad support for the Wii U... (and that vitality sensor never even left the drawing board, or it is now a part of the whole Quality of Life thing, which according to mr. Kimishima is still very much alive and in progress)

As for what the whole reason behind the secrecy is if it is indeed only a home console and a handheld, albeit with some kind of special gimmick, I'm sure, that baffles me too, so I have no answer for you there. I'm beginning to think that it is what we agreed upon yesterday: that it's something ENTIRELY different from what we are all thinking and that they are just letting all the information and rumors run in circles to divert attention from the truth.

And if it's smart to wait so long with letting us know, is probably something that only time will tell. To be honest, I think that if it is something truly nice and inventive and if it catches on, we will soon forget all these annoyances and just be playing with a big grin on our faces, shaking our heads saying "oh, Nintendo, you naughty people. Why did you have to let us wait so long to be this content with your new hardware?"

"I did like your idea about 3DS games."

Thanks, but I see you did misinterpret it. I only see 3DS cartridge support for the handheld, not for console or on TV, because that would mean a couple of issues: no dual screen and no 3D on TV, unless you actually have a 3D TV and the hardware has some way to translate the glasses free 3D into "normal" 3D with glasses for your TV.

No, let's just keep handheld games for the handheld, shall we? ...

"Yes, Home and Away makes sense, I can see it happening, but the hybrid makes sense too, I can see that happening as well. Or as you pointed out, all 3, the hybrid is the kids 2DS replacement tablet w/ detachable controllers."

Well, if they give us both, then we will all be happy and all be right. But three devices might be too much of a good thing, so maybe those weird detachable controllers for other companies' tablets might make some sense after all. But I'm still going with the two dedicated devices theory.

To clarify: I don't want or need to be right because I want to feel smarter or better than anyone else, to me it is genuinely the ONLY conclusion you can come to when I add everything up, including my own findings and research. There simply is no hole left in my theory where I could fit in a hybrid just to make everybody happy, so to me it makes absolutely no sense at all...

And with that we arrive at what was said in PE's latest video: like him, I also believe that having this one device, the risk is multiplied by a factor "too dangerous to even consider trying" so they need to spread, and your theory of then possibly having one device that won't do so well won't matter because having two devices with one under-performing in sales, still means sales for two devices either way, and it means that one device is still doing just fine.

Having only one device and seeing that fail, is having only losses and having nothing else to remedy that, not even by marketing the device differently all of a sudden. That's just not how it works. I would have to honestly say that you will have to trust me on that one, even though I'm no expert in the video game business, but sales & marketing is the same across all businesses, so I can market and sell anything and the basic rules and dynamics are also the same across the board, so I can say that quite confidently.

Lastly, I definitely agree with you on being (way too) anxious to finally find out what NX is and I hope it won't disappoint, and personally, I won't mind at all if all of our guesses are all completely wrong and we will be completely blindsided by what NX actually is. I just hope it doesn't rely too much on its gimmick. The latest rumors do mention that it will be compatible with all previous gen's controllers, so pro controllers and such, which could mean that there is no obligatory weird controller to play with and you can just choose which controller you like best.

Besides that, I've been thinking on what would by now still surprise me and besides going totally wild and off the scales and expecting my own private version of Star Trek TNG's holodeck (because of the rumored mix of AR & VR), I can't for the life of me come to any sane conclusion of what or how, so instead of continuing to keep racking my brain, I've decided to let go, and I'll just stop resisting and let myself slowly drift along the information stream towards the reveal date, which is now rumored to be either the 22nd or 23rd, so here's hoping that there's some truth to that.

Otherwise we would have to take into account that it might be an October or even November reveal, the latter truly being the final month that they can possibly do a reveal, when taking the rest of the trajectory into account (manufacturing, marketing, distribution).

Unless they would have the gall to delay the NX itself...

Nah, just pulling your leg...

By the way, if by some insane turn of events it turns out that I actually AM right:
where can I safely email my home address to for that king size bottle of Bacardi that I will be expecting in that case?
(flying to the States to come pick it up would seem a bit too ostentatious, even for me... )

P.S.

Why not place a comment directly aimed at PE underneath that video, asking him the very same thing you asked me, concerning the parts that he left out, if only to see what his reaction will be?

@Captain_Gonru The Japanese Godzilla movie, or the one before the tie-in w/ King Kong?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm_XcSM5yVk

http://www.slashfilm.com/godzilla-vs-king-kong-2020/

@Captain_Gonru In select theaters next month. 1 by me, I may have to go see it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvFEspENxIU

@ThanosReXXX The "new record" was for how long that last post was, but after scrolling down 5 screens I'm pretty sure this is a post of length that will never be broken. I might need a bookmark for this one.

OK, first, I never knew I could search Youtube for Ninteod NX and have so much stuff pop up in chronological order, so that was a nice surprise this morning. Nothing about NX surprising, just that I could search Youtube. I always search Google and click on the links there.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nintendo+nx

@rjejr Yeah, sorry about that. I wanted to answer all your posts in a single reply, instead of making a couple of separate ones, and then I got enthusiastic with all the info and that's when it kinda became the text wall to end all text walls...

@rjejr Just out of curiosity: how could you not have known about the search function in YouTube? And the filtering options have also always been there. When I search for game footage, I always filter on upload date and HD, to get the best quality videos.

@ThanosReXXX oops, a little quick on the reply button on that last one.

"battery life"

I'm pretty sure unless Nintnedo lists the battery life as "forever" people are going to complain about it. 3 hours, 5 hours, 12 hours, whatever number they hear or read, they'll complain. I'm pretty sure every Nitneod console recently has had people complain about the battery life, they just do.

"then you can be sure of it that Nintendo will make that have a pretty decent battery life."

Why are we sure of that? Nitneod's last console, the 3DS, before New, XL and 2DS, was raked over the coals for bad battery life.

"The battery in the Nintendo 3DS is as bad as we had feared, and it's a major impediment to enjoying the system"
"The takeaway is that the battery drains almost before you know it, and Nintendo is aware that this is a problem. "

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/03/cradled-by-inadequacy-the-3ds-battery-put-to-the-test/

So people complaining about the NX battery life doesn't surprise me in the least, whether its a hybrid or handheld. I'd be more shocked to read people were happy about it.

price and hardware -

I know you know that stuff better than I, that's why I'm always asking you about that stuff. But still, you saying nothing under $300, well Pachter and PE were arguing $400, that $100 is a big difference. $299.99, people buy, $399.99, people hesitate. $349.99 the value proposition becomes more of an issue.

But for the 1 hyrbid vs 2 console debate, I think price is kind of moot, b/c if people have to buy 1 hybrid or 2 consoles the price should be about the same. Though of course a powerful hybrid would be much more than a low powered handheld. 2 end that discussion for now, I don't think price is the determining factor on what Ntinedo chooses to do, I think they mostly balance out. But admittedly that's more your area than mine.

30 years from now when they write that book about NX Home and Away they could very well say Ninteod wanted to do a hybrid, even made a dev kit, but in the end it proved too expensive so they went w/ plan A. Or B.

moving on -

I agree w/ everything you said about Sony, last minute decision to drop the camera and loosen up the DRM made them, MS was a disaster. But if you know Sony made those decisions last minute, "they quickly removed the camera from their PS4 starter pack and also made considerably more lenient DRM regulations." then how come every time I bring up Ninteod maybe changing stuff you say - "No, decisions were made 2 years ago, they can't be changed, Nintedo is a Japanese company, what's done is done."? Sony is a Japanese company too, no? Why can they change their mind but Nintedo can't? And I'm not talking last minute, I'm talking changing their minds 2 years ago?

amiibo chip vs portal

How many toys-to-life games have you played? I've played them all, and believe me, it is 100% better to have a dedicated portal than an NFC chip in a controller. Go watch a vid of Lego Dimensions, the portal is a major part of the game, ti's practically alive. Skylanders has keys and in Trap Team it even spoke. Gamepad works like crap, it's all but useless. Gamepad is fine for games that only READ to unlock money, like in Hyrule Warriors, but it is utter crap where you play as the toys and WRITE to the toys. Dozens of hours of firsthand experience.

I can't believe as a marketing guy you don't want to look at past results .That makes absolutely no sense to me. It's why Kodak went out of businesses, nobody bought film cameras anymore. But by your method Kodak would just keep going on selling cameras and the film for them. And people would still be selling horse drawn buggies b/c that is what they have always sold. You have to look at trends over 30 years, you just have to, there are no if and or buts abut that, past predicts the future, that's how everything works. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. You can't operate a company and ignore such an obvious downward trend. We will never see eye to eye on that one apparently.

@ThanosReXXX still going...

"and no 3D on TV, unless you actually have a 3D TV and the hardware has some way to translate the glasses free 3D into "normal" 3D with glasses for your TV."

See, this is what happens when you write really long posts in 1 shot, it's better to stop and take a break every now and then. That entire "3D" argument went out the door once Ntineod made the 2DS. They can't make and sell a console for $129 to play 3DS games w/o 3D and then say we can't play 3DS games on TV b/c of no 3D. That's way way way way way way wrong. 2DS killed that argument D. E. A. D. dead.

"No, let's just keep handheld games for the handheld, shall we? ..."

Have you seen the Wii U VC eShop for Gameboy and DS games? The list has gotten very long, so another DOA argument.

I was going to copy and paste the list here but it's TOO LONG.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Virtual_Console_games_for_Wii_U_(North_America)

You really do need to stop and take a break every once in awhile.

"But three devices might be too much of a good thing, "

But, but, but, Iwata said more than 2, You said whatever Iwata said goes. IOS, Android, all of those devices playing the same games. He never said there were only 2 brothers, "Brothers" is plural, the more the merrier and all that.

""Nintendo platforms should be like those two examples.""

Oh well, I agree w/ you more than Iwata on that one, I can't be arguing 1 and 3 at the same time now can I? But 3rd does work, they will need a childs toy 2DS replacement at some point. Hybrid would be the equivalent of "PSP Go". Though hopefully w/ much better sales.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/191719/article.html

Here are my 2 ND reveal ideas, west and Japan. #188, it's a fun read, I try not to take it too seriously. Wait, you did read it, you even replied, so you know what I meant about 1 device, 2 ways to present it.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/09/talking_point_what_approach_should_nintendo_take_with_its_nx_reveal

@ThanosReXXX the text wall to end all text walls...

My entire family gathered 'round and we counted page downs, 12. It was 12 pages of text. You may be the NL record holder. And that's about 11 more pages than we actually now about NX.

@ThanosReXXX I don't know why I dind't know about searching in youtube, just never had reason to before I guess? All Google, all the time.

@rjejr "My entire family gathered 'round.. "

Well, I'm so happy that I was able to provide you all with a little bit of saturday afternoon entertainment. Just glad I wasn't physically there to undergo the embarrassment...

Now, let's see if I can beat that record...

Okay, you got me on battery life, but personally, I never had the idea that play sessions on my 3DS XL were too short or cut short because of the battery life. So either I'm easy to please or the rest of the world is just a bunch of continuously complaining negative Nancy's. A small hint: I'm FAR from easy to please...

And people certainly DO like to complain, ESPECIALLY where Nintendo is concerned...

And about that price point: I said "I honestly can't compute anything below $300 - $350" already taking into account that $50 wiggle room, which it might very well have and/or need, so $300 is an absolute minimum for me. I'm fully expecting it to be more expensive, especially if it comes with some new gimmick.

And if it's a capable system besides that, with a good portfolio of games, then why should it be the cheapest system out there? If you ask my professional opinion on it, THAT is something that makes no sense at all.

But apparently, it is easier (or, dare I say it: more "logical") to see a Nintendo console as a cheap, under-powered device that looks like a child's toy instead of a serious home console. It genuinely makes me sad, especially considering their giant reputation and wonderful portfolio of IP's that easily dwarfs both of the other's combined...

But that price point is important, though. If it is a good system, making it too cheap can give the impression that it's actually not a good system at all, and making it too expensive could result in people not buying it at all until they see some proof of what it can do.

Yet in general, experience shows us that people actually will buy more expensive devices willingly, as long as these devices deliver something that is equal to the price which will subsequently justify the purchase.

"Sony is a Japanese company too, no? Why can they change their mind but Nintedo can't?"

Yes and no, Sony is (obviously) also a Japanese company. Except for one GIANT difference: they are a Japanese company that is almost entirely Westernized. They have no traditional Japanese company culture left, nor do they abide by these kinds of rules and morals. And the inherent nature of their company also doesn't allow them to do that anymore. The movie and music business are so intertwined with Western society, that the game business could only follow suit. Every console and every marketing campaign was already always very diversified and aimed at a worldwide audience.

Nintendo still is this ancient, traditional giant, and the fact that they even have some gaijins (foreign people) working for them, and even in higher positions, is nothing short of a miracle in their company. That difference is also noticeable in events. Sony comes out all guns blazing, full of Western bravado, and Nintendo just quietly goes about its business, not really paying any attention to the competition. They stay within their own lane, trying their utmost to keep their dignity, with varying results...

Suffice it to say, you can't compare the two or put them in the same boat.

And whether you rip a camera from a completed package or do a full stop on a process already quite a ways along (by my estimate AT LEAST 1,5 years) is a MAJOR difference. So Sony changing the contents of the PS4 package would certainly have had some impact for them, but none for the entire process, whereas doing a back to the drawing board, ditching an entire concept would be an ENORMOUS waste of time and money. And don't even try to fit that into the delay, because even the delay that happened according to Nintendo themselves won't account for enough time to get back on schedule again if they would have to start from scratch again with a redesign.

Nintendo can often come across as quirky and maybe even a little crazy, but I don't think that they are THAT crazy...

Concerning the Amiibo, I will gladly take the word of a seasoned toys to life user such as yourself over that of my own. I was just talking from a technical perspective, considering how and where NFC chips could be implemented, but if you say a dedicated device/portal is better and adds to the experience, then I'll believe you.

"I can't believe as a marketing guy you don't want to look at past results"

Well, believe it or not, but no good or experienced marketing professional does. We have to look to the future, NOT to the past. I can definitely imagine that this sounds weird for an outsider, but maybe a lot of people are mistaking marketing for financials, and although sales & marketing obviously overlaps with financials here and there, it isn't quite the same.

Re-read those marketing proverbs in that 12-page wall of text and try to really understand them, if you didn't already.

The sales world consists of snapshots, each and every day again starting from zero, being the best yesterday doesn't count at all: if you're yesterday's king but are performing like crap today, you're still crap.

But either good or bad, yesterday shouldn't have any effect on your performance of today, with the only exception being continuously trying to improve upon yourself...

And no, the past does NOT predict the future, not in sales.
In general life, the saying is "those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it" but that just doesn't count in the sales world, and remember to make that distinction between sales & financials, because like I said: that is where I think the misunderstanding comes from, or at least in part.

Just compare sales & marketing to walking, running or operating a vehicle: looking back too much is not only useless, it could also cause accidents or lesser performance.

Look forward, focus on the goal (eye on the price and all that) and get yourself in that winning streak, THAT is all that counts in sales. Achieving your daily target, or preferably beating your target...

And the marketing part of my job is organic, but also forward-focused: what makes people buy, interested or what doesn't. And the entire economy is constantly changing as well, which means consumer sentiment is also continuously changing and campaigns have to be adapted accordingly.

So, what it boils down to here, is not even a difference in opinion, it is simply a fact: I learned it, I live it, I use it, every damn day of the week. No offense, but you can't sweep almost 25 years of experience under the carpet just because you think it isn't how it should be. And I learned from the best in the business that were available here. So, even though I'm not too bothered by what you said on a personal level, you are kinda stepping on some professional toes here...

"See, this is what happens when you write really long posts in 1 shot, it's better to stop and take a break every now and then."

Well, actually it took me quite a while to make that reply, and I was scrolling up and down all the time to see what I was supposed to address next. And I did take some breaks in between, so the entire thing took up the better part of my evening...

But I'll meet you halfway on the 2DS comment. The thing is, that if people that have previously played on 3DS, are now going to buy an NX away which is compatible with these cartridges, they would not want their games to be watered down into a 2D experience, well at least most of them. If they didn't want 3D, then they would have all bought 2DS later on.

Most people I know that own a 3DS play with 3D switched on most of the time. But let's say that the away part can also do glasses free 3D (which is indeed rumored, by the way) but the home console can't, then that would not be good, because that would create a divide. Imagine playing on the go in 3D, and then having to switch and adjust to 2D when playing at home. Not good, not good at all. But admittedly, a small issue, which is why I can meet you halfway here...

And good point about the eShop. I overlooked that one because I don't have a Wii U, so that's my excuse.

"But, but, but, Iwata said more than 2, You said whatever Iwata said goes."

Actually, no. mr. Iwata has said that he doesn't know if they can support more than two devices, which is also the reason why I said what I said. Making some kind of controllers or device to be able to provide for smart devices and in that way incorporate them into the NX architecture actually also sounds a bit more plausible to me.

"Hybrid would be the equivalent of "PSP Go"."

Oh, please, God no. Kill me now...

"Here are my 2 ND reveal ideas, west and Japan. #188, it's a fun read, I try not to take it too seriously. Wait, you did read it, you even replied, so you know what I meant about 1 device, 2 ways to present it."

Haha, yeah, I see that, but that is already more than a week ago. Blame it on my age. I may not be as old as you yet, but I'm getting there. And in all honesty: I don't memorize ALL the conversations we have. Even for a brainy guy like me that is a bit too much of a good thing...

But glad to see that you like your own comedic touch...

Well, I guess I didn't achieve another 12 pages. I could pad the text out a little more, using some more elaborate sentences... but no, enough's enough...

P.S.

Looking at my own comments in that thread, I see that some pictures have been removed, and in place of them, it now says "untitled". I've seen that happen to others before and always wondered about it.

Have you ever had that happen to your embedded pictures and any idea what's up with that?

@rjejr Another thing to add to 3DS cartridge support for Home and Away: even though you made a good point with the eShop and plenty of DS titles being available there, I personally feel that a lot of handheld games aren't suited for the big screen. They are specifically aimed at handheld, and as such, my experience with them has always been different from home console games.

Even if you play them on the TV, it still very much feels like a handheld experience. And I think I'm far from the only one that believes that...

Also a little edit on the price point issue: you might just get your way because the more recent AMD cards are now available for around $149 MSRP, so Nintendo will be able to get cards like that for even cheaper when purchased in bulk amounts. And the nice thing for guys like me is that cards like that still offer more than enough "oomph" to provide for that competitive and future proof element...

In case you're interested, the card I'm talking about is the AMD RX 470. And that's a 5 Teraflop card, so that would fall right in the middle of the PS4 Pro/Xbox Scorpio range...

I also want to add to my earlier comment of what people seem to expect from Nintendo, that picture always being decidedly underwhelming. SMD64 made a video quite a while ago in which he explained why we should expect a lot instead of expecting it to be bad and I agree with him 200%.

People always defend themselves by saying things like "yeah, well, if I don't expect too much, then I also can't be disappointed" but that's really not the way to go about it. What you expect should be the same as what you can (realistically) wish for, and if you're a real Nintendo fan then you certainly wouldn't want to have a weak system, now would you?

And THAT is why I expect them to hit it out of the park. And just like all the Nintendo employees, we will then also be shouting "For Iwata!"...

And now I'm going to go into a self-induced coma by means of Bacardi, and I will wake up again around the 22nd, because I really, REALLY hope that the system will be revealed by then or the day after that...

EDIT:
Interesting bit of information in regards to that AMD card: it offers support for the Vulkan API, the very same interface that is going to be used by DMP's M3000 and is supposedly also going to be used by Nintendo...

@Captain_Gonru @ThanosReXXX I got this fortune cookie fortune the other day at lunch with my kids, they wanted me to share it with you, seemed NX rumour related.

Toil awhile...endure awhile...believe always...and never turn back.

You should never start with - "maybe I can break that record" - it makes me want to put it aside until I have time, which may never happen. Well at least not for the next 24 hours, so.... Monday morning. Maybe we'll know the answers to all the questions by then.

#justtellus

@rjejr " ...and never turn back"

A sales & marketing proverb if ever I saw one...
But it does indeed sound eerily NX related...

P.S.

I didn't break the record, so don't keep me hanging for the rest of the weekend... (just kidding, take all the time you need. I'm used to seeing you do that by now. I sometimes even have to re-read my own comments to see what the heck you're on about... )

@Captain_Gonru Some VERY good points, ESPECIALLY concerning price point, so all I can say is: my thoughts exactly.

As a professional I can see some marketing potential in you...

@rjejr Remember me mentioning having a friend with a YouTube channel who at some point got in touch with HNF?

Well, they have just finished their two hour live stream and I'm very happy to be able to tell you that they listened to my suggestion to do the stream in English, even though my friend's English isn't that good, but HNF's English is more than competent. (wouldn't expect anything else from a software engineer working for the Dutch government with contacts all over Europe)

Whenever you got the time to spend 1h46m on listening to it, I can highly recommend it. They discuss a lot of interesting stuff. All that HNF has learned about the NX will be discussed and also some new stuff and his view on the opposing (read: hybrid) side.

And just in case you're wondering: HNF is the guy with the beard...

@Captain_Gonru although it is not something I mentioned to you before, I wanted to share this with you too, so I hope you'll find the time to listen to it as well.

Well, it's time for me to get some shut eye, so I will leave you two gentlemen to your own devices for a couple of hours...

EDIT:
Actually posting that video link for you fine gentlemen might make finding it a hell of a whole lot easier...
So here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1K6SxzTl0s

@rjejr @Captain_Gonru Sorry people, forgot to mention: they messed up the first bit of the stream by playing the music WAY too loud, so fast forward to 15m19s where they start over. And that means that it's actually only 1,5 hours instead of 90 minutes...

Saved you guys 15 minutes there...

@rjejr Well, the Bacardi-induced coma didn't work. I just got out of bed a little later than usual...

And now that I have concluded my NX research (reveal is too close now to come up with anything new, so... ) I have decided to put HNF under the microscope, to see if I can find out where all his info is coming from, besides having IT contacts in tech forums and in other European governments.

And lo and behold, I think I may just have stumbled upon something that might explain his sources near Nintendo:

His brother, going by the alias of Mr. R, is a worldwide Smash Bros tournament player, and he is always ranked in the top 3. He goes to all kinds of Nintendo events, sometimes even on special invite and it would be no surprise to me if HNF tags along sometimes, but at the very least, he will be discussing some of the stuff he has seen or heard...

Here's the proof:
http://www.ssbwiki.com/Smasher:Mr._R
https://twitter.com/mr_rsmash?lang=en

@Captain_Gonru I agree with your points, but although it would seem smart to get something out to the public soon, I have no idea if they will or when, other than the rumored 22nd and 23rd of September dates.

Those would be good. Outside of the crowded news to follow from other systems and games, and with more than enough time to spare before the release to start the whole campaign surrounding it, including manufacturing and distribution.

@Captain_Gonru Well, I guess we'll know by the end of the week if any of these two rumored dates is actually the real McCoy.

And I hope to God it really isn't a hybrid device. Those a*holes at IGN are fanning the fire of that rumor again with their NVC videos...

@Captain_Gonru I thought Sept 27-29 a few weeks ago as that is the only week for the next 3 months open. Possibly the 30th as they had 1 for 3DS on Sept 1st and I'm all about the symmetry, but I don't think they do a lot of NDs on Fridays, no news coverage over the weekend.

But after no TGS plans I figured they'd let things cool down after that but the first week of Oct was too late b/c PSVR is out Oct 7 and VR is allover the place these days, no point running head on into that. Well unless NX is V-Boy2, then go for it.

If they are going to wait until Nov., well then just wait to Jan at the CES and try to market NX as a consumer electronic for everyone, not just gamers.

http://ces2017.org/#capability-resp-last

But Nintendo is guano crazy, so who knows, surely not I. How do you market a new console in an ND w/ 2 days notice, which is what it looks like they are going to do. But an update, not a game, an update for a 3 year old game, gets an ND notice 2 months before.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/09/animal_crossing_mini_nintendo_direct_confirmed_for_2nd_november_in_japan

guano y guano y mas guano loco

@ThanosReXXX Well. now I guess you'll have to put up Mr. R as a tenant as he goes on the run, at least until the NX reveal. Nice work.

Going in my usual backwards order this morning as I wait for the day long thunderstorms. I have a leak in my sons bedroom ceiling which I think I should have fixed by now, but I didn't, which I'm afraid its going to come back and haunt me.

I'l get to that extra long post after breakfast, I'm mostly caught up.

@rjejr "But Nintendo is guano crazy, so who knows, surely not I. How do you market a new console in an ND w/ 2 days notice, which is what it looks like they are going to do. But an update, not a game, an update for a 3 year old game, gets an ND notice 2 months before."

Maybe just as crazy as someone replying to messages in reversed order? (which is decidedly Japanese, by the way, so maybe that's the subconscious Nintendo fanboy in you... )

@ThanosReXXX OK, going to try and tackle this, but w/ thunderstorms all day I probably will loose power at some point, and I don't have a UPS so I'll lose all of it, then you'll never see it, but here goes nothing.

"And if it's a capable system besides that, with a good portfolio of games, then why should it be the cheapest system out there? If you ask my professional opinion on it, THAT is something that makes no sense at all."

B/c it say "Nintneod" on it, and since at least the Gamecube was selling for $99 that's what Nintneod is, the cheap alternative. Wii $249, Wii Mini $99, 2DS $79. Nintneod is the casual kid family game console. It doesn't do blu-ray or DVD, it's not meant for streaming Pandora music all over the house, Ninnteod is "fast casual", not premium steakhouse. If they go powerful hardware at a high price they are Nintendoomed. Sure, some vocal fanboys will be all woohoo!!, but then they'll look at Yoshi Wooly World, Kirby Rainbow Curse, Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, and then reality will set in, Nintnedo makes games for families and kids, so they should price their consoles as such. That's just the way it is. Get Witcher 3 Complete, GTAV, Destiny, then maybe we can talk price, but until then, Ninnteod is a gaming console, MS and Sony have gaming media machines, Nintnedo should be cheaper.

"Well, believe it or not, but no good or experienced marketing does."

OK, I have it now, thanks to your explanation, it does all make sense. Of course it also explains why marketing guys don't run companies, financial guys do. That was a major course of study in "business organizations". As a marketer, it's your job to focus on promoting the current product, doens't matter if it's an air conditioner in Antarctica or a sauna in Dubai, your job is to sell it. But people who run the company have to figure out not to sell ACs where it's cold or hot tubs where it's hot. Or not to sell home consoles to a population that doens' twant them. I'm sure MS marketing people are doing everything in their power to sell X1S in Japan, but that doen'st mean it isn't a lost cause, no matter how good the salesman is, people in Japan don't want X1S, period. And the way MS coudl have known that is not by looking at how good their salesforce is at thei rjob, but by looking at Xbox360 sales in Japan. Being a good or bad salesman has nothing to do with it, history is a better predictor than marketing.

So yeah, as a salesman you may not care about history, but everybody telling you what to sell to whom better care if they want you to be able to do your job.

"Have you ever had that happen to your embedded pictures and any idea what's up with that?"

No, I don't think so, but I've never gone back to look either.

2DS, 3DS, it's getting crazy. Even for us.

@rjejr Did you just post "untitled" at the end of your reply to freak me out?

@ThanosReXXX "I sometimes even have to re-read my own comments to see what the heck you're on about... "

Thats why I always try to copy and paste what I am replying to. I probably comment on here 20-30 times a day, it will probably hit 1,000 on the day of the NX reveal, and a lot of different people reply to those comments, and half the time I have no idea what they are talking about, even if it's 20 minutes later, I have zero short term memory.

Now what were we talking about? Might help if I was on topic occasionally, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

@Captain_Gonru "how low can you go before you start looking like those plug and play things that spend six weeks on the shelf before going straight to the clearance rack?"

I'd say $99, b/c at $79 2DS already looks like a toy.

Price, and hardware, does relate to 1 of my long running concerns, what it looks like. I still think it's going to look like a toy w/o a disc drive, and the specs will seem like a toy if it has 32GB storage again. I'm afraid it's going to end up on the end of this chart, not on a PS4 and X1S chart, even if it does have PS4 power in CPU and GPU but no HDD or disc drive.

PS4 Pro has been getting slammed as inadequate and it has a blu-ray drive, just not ultra. So how will NX fair w/ no drive at all?

http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/ps4-pro-ultra-hd-blu-ray-player-neo

@ThanosReXXX Well I tried listening to that vid to get a feel for it, but all I can hear was some R&B Reggae song about some guy being fooled by a girl. Why do a podcast when the background music is so freakin' loud you can't hear the people talking? At about 11:55 it cranked up even more and I had to turn it off. Props to the guys for doing it, but somebody needs to take that 90 minute file and strip out the music track.

@ThanosReXXX "Sorry people, forgot to mention: they messed up the first bit of the stream by playing the music WAY too loud, so fast forward to 15m19s where they start over. And that means that it's actually only 1,5 hours instead of 90 minutes..."

This is what happens when I try to do things in the proper order, which is why I normally do things backwards so I can read the edits before commenting. I'm going backwards from now on.

@ThanosReXXX Maybe just as crazy as someone replying to messages in reversed order? (which is decidedly Japanese, by the way, so maybe that's the subconscious Nintendo fanboy in you... )

Well, reverse order may be crazy, but it works. That makes 2 in a row now, maybe 3. I'm only going backwards from now on.

@ThanosReXXX "Did you just post "untitled" at the end of your reply to freak me out?"

Which reply, there have been like 27 the past 30 minutes. But no, I can't recall typing untitled, unless that was a really bad type for Nintnedo. There is no "u" in Nintneod, but who knows?

Did you not see my graphic? Does it say untitled where the graphic would be? I'm confused.

@rjejr It says "Untitled" at the end of comment nr. #183, and I thought you did that on purpose because of me asking you about it in that long comment of mine...

And I was just going to quote that bit about the video again, but you got there before me. Don't be so quick to react next time...
Thoughtful and relaxed is more becoming of people our age.

Agreed on Microsoft. People think Nintendo f-ed up their marketing, but Microsoft should also have known better when introducing the Xbox One, and they STILL went and did it... talking about crazy. But I guess once you start believing in your own ideas and them being the best for the consumer...

Might seem that Nintendo is on the same drug, but they aren't. They first need to get WAY more in touch with their audience, and I personally think that the mobile games and apps are giving them some information that might help achieve that.

We'll know in a short while how all of that has had any effect or not, but at least they are taking some steps to improve. Not in the communication department, though. Otherwise we would have known by now what NX is.

I think that is also what gives rise to the latest rumors of it being delayed to November, because like you also said to @Captain_Gonru, the time between any possible announcement of a reveal event and the actual reveal itself is VERY short, if it is still to happen this month. And then a release in March. Nintendo says they're still on schedule, but who knows?

I'm kind of annoyed currently, because thanks to IGN and their "Nintendo Voice Chat" channel, the hybrid rumors are being recycled again, because Peer Schneider, one of IGN's founders, has now also talked to developers and they've told him this.

So, you might still get your hybrid after all. I have no idea how so many people are willing to believe a rumor that is only based on hearsay and a couple of reasonably reliable websites, instead of information that either comes from Nintendo itself, or is related to the games industry and points to Nintendo, it's not even that hard to connect the dots.

All systems except NX are already revealed, AMD and DMP have some still unrevealed but confirmed design wins, Nvidia isn't focusing on gaming at ALL, and in "reliable" source land, it's about 50-50 with the two sides. Or it could be 60-40 for hybrid by now, although there is nothing tangible to be found there, which is why it strikes me as so strange that people would rather want to believe that.

Reputation is no guarantee for confirmation...

Aka just because a big site says so we don't have to believe everything they say, if they can't even give us the tiniest shred of tangible proof. And the fact that they are even siding with ms. Rogers, calling her a "credible" Nintendo insider is beyond laughable.

Totally disagreed on the sentiment surrounding the price point. @Captain_Gonru gets it. Then again, his job and mine overlap, so we get each other, which is nice. As for NX: you can't go that cheap if it has the tech and/or power and Nintendo should definitely NOT position itself as a child's toy. And GameCube never launched at $99, so that's no frame of reference either.

Nintendo actually IS the prime rib steakhouse, people just forgot, and so did Nintendo themselves, to some extent. Hunting for the rather vaporous casual market instead of actual console gamers. They are the original company, the real deal, the ONLY dedicated console & video game manufacturer left in this world, and they should be regarded as such too, but admittedly and like I already said, that is also for a large part their own fault. I was certainly never a fan of their "marketing campaign" surrounding the Wii U. Like watching a car crash that you knew was coming, but for some reason you couldn't do anything to stop it and instead you're just glued to your seat watching it happen...

But NX lacking a drive will definitely not make it look like a toy, that's ridiculous (or just your opinion) and @Captain_Gonru gets that too.

The shape of a console is not specifically determined by the disc drive, so it could for example still have the same form factor as a Wii U, even if it only has a cartridge slot. In fact, it will probably be at least that big, since the more powerful hardware will need sufficient cooling, and those fans have to fit in some kind of box...

And if the graphics card alone is around $149 MSRP, and you have to take into account the rest of the components, then you would still end up with a total price of around $300, even though Nintendo would obviously not have to pay the full price on that graphics card.

If they would sell for a cheap price, then expectations will be set accordingly, meaning that you will not have any kind of wow effect or positive vibe surrounding the NX, and that would be very, VERY bad.

Mr. Kimishima himself said that they were seeking a balance because they didn't want to make the device too expensive, but they weren't going to sell at a loss either. And this device is certainly going to be a hell of a whole lot more powerful than a 2DS or 3DS if it can play Breath of the Wild, so taking into account the prices for these devices, I definitely expect it to be a considerable step above that in price. Assuming it won't makes no sense.

That chart you showed @Captain_Gonru tells me nothing, other than that these devices are seriously lacking in a number of departments, memory being one of them. I'm expecting a modern HD device to at the very least conform to some standards, and memory is dirt cheap nowadays, so it wouldn't be that hard to equip NX with either 4 or 8GB RAM.

CPU's in those devices are also rather mèh, being quad core at the most where current consoles are all eight cores. And they are all based on Android/iOS, also not good. You REALLY don't want to have Nintendo's alternative for the Ouya...

Oh, and you're getting close on understanding my profession and modus operandi, but not quite yet: I (or we marketing people in general) aren't entirely unaware of the financials part of the story (I'm pretty sure @Captain_Gonru can add something to that as well) but it just isn't that much of a deciding factor for us.

Like driving a car, you look in the mirrors every now and then, but in general, you keep your eyes on the road in front of you most of the time. I am astutely aware of my surroundings and of my past achievements as well as of my plans and strategy for the near future. It's just that especially the things that are ahead of me are more important for me to be successful and actively busy with what I'm striving to achieve.

And in large companies, the financial guys (CFO's) actually give us the specific parts of the info we need, and that is what the sales targets should be for the next month or quarter, so in that sense we are also very much aware of it.

@rjejr And I hope you find the time to listen to that recorded live stream that HNF did with that buddy of mine. Skip the first 15min and there will be no annoying music.

The stream has been well received by many people, including PlayerEssence and SMD64, who have both complimented HNF on the way he discussed all the topics and how he openly answered all questions.

My friend has told me that he is going to try to remove the music from the first 15min also, because some interesting stuff was also discussed there, so if he manages to do that, I'll let you know.

@Captain_Gonru "But, I still want at least a cartridge slot."

Oh, there will be a cartridge slot. I'm even more sure of that than the amiibo reader.

Then again, Ninnteod Logic, so who knows, if NX is 2 separate devices, Home and Away, no reason for NX Home not to have a slot. Gives them the ability to sell each game twice, disc for home, cart for handheld. Though that really doesn't make any sense and I really think it needs just a slot. A hybrid gets no slot, but the dock could still have a slot. Though making a dock w/ a slot that only plays those games dics when the hybird is in it makes even less sense, so just forget I said anything except as far as ruling the idea out. No matter how crazy an idea is I still always feel the need to vet it to exclude it happening. No stone unturned.

And I'm fine w/ just the cart slot, but expect a lot of comments along the lines of "ooh, a purty little catridge slot, isn't that a quaint little cart slot" in a Sylvester and Tweety kind of voice and attitude. Or simply "No disc drive = not a true console".

1 device or 2, it plays the same carts. And 3DS carts, though maybe not at launch. I'm still considering how 2 screens work - Gamepad support, 3DS support, hybrid and TV? So that might be later.

As for the reveal, nobody cares about Forza, it's just a game Nintneod announced SMR hours before the PS4 Slim and Pro unveiling, so Forza don't matter none. And FIFA would benice tohave on NX, so that could make or a nice tie in, even if it won' trelease for anothe r6 months.

But Nintneodneeds to pick a date, and w/ all the new hardware out I don't think they cna concern themselves w/ every game, it's fall, games are out ocnstantly.

Oh, and besides PSVR, PM:CS is that Friday, so no point killing that games abysmal hype w/ an NX reveal Oct 3rd. If NX is getting a port ,that still kills 1 of Wii Us last game exclusives, if not the last. They could wait until mid-Oct to let PM:CS shine, wife and kids will be home Oct 12th for Yom Kippur, so that would be a good day, as long as they are willing to aggravate every Jew on the planet. I'm guessing there isn't a big Jewish population in Japan. I guess Oct 19th could work, but after that just wait until CES.

But freakin' #justtellus Not even what NX is, just the date of the reveal, THAT can't be too much to ask. Nov 2 ND AC update, so it can be done. Gamefreak (they of the year long Pokemon hype) would have revealed it long ago, they know how the indutry works. Well they arne't perfect, they release all their games on time.

@ThanosReXXX This is the end of comment #183

"So yeah, as a salesman you may not care about history, but everybody telling you what to sell to whom better care if they want you to be able to do your job.

"Have you ever had that happen to your embedded pictures and any idea what's up with that?"

No, I don't think so, but I've never gone back to look either.
2DS, 3DS, it's getting crazy. Even for us."

@ThanosReXXX I'll try to listen to the vid while eating lunch and cooking dinner.

@rjejr "This is the end of comment #183"

Yup, and it says "Untitled" at the end of it, AGAIN.

@rjejr "No disc drive = not a true console"

I'd say only for fools and amoeba, and I don't consider you to be either one of those, so coming from the mouth of an intelligent person, it's even worse.

A disc drive is no discerning factor to decide whether or not it is a "true" game console.

Consoles have had cartridge slots for longer than they've had disc drives. A disc drive isn't even a necessity or a want anymore, other than to be able to install your game, because you can't play games straight off the disc anymore, so it's more of a medium that completes the verification circuit in order for you to be able to play your game.

And being able to play disc-based media in the age of Netflix and HD streaming is even less of a distinguishing factor in the entire picture, so in real life, no disc drive = not really all that important and CERTAINLY not a decisive factor...

P.S.

And nobody tells me what to do. Kinda hard to do if you are the boss of your own company...

@ThanosReXXX "They first need to get WAY more in touch with their public"

Like, not announcing any details about their new console(s) less than 6 months before launch? Must be fun to be your counterpart at Nintneod right now -
"OK, I have a Wii U w/ only 1 game PM:CS for all of Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan and Feb, to sell the console; and another console (or 2) in March we really need to sell a ton of, but we can't b/c we won't tell anybody what it is. Fabulous."

"being delayed to November"

Sorry to ask, but you mean the reveal being delayed until Nov 2016, not NX being delayed until Nov 2017, correct? I think NX launch could get delayed, but I like August. Delaying the reveal until Nov? What's the point, just wait until Janauary. Though please tell us that, put out a press release, NX will be revealed in January, launching in August. Seriously, I wont 'survive all these comments w/ you until Nov, I'll get carpal tunnel syndrome.

"I'm kind of annoyed currently"

Well that's what you get for going on IGN, that place is a cesspool. So what's more annoying, the fact that it might be a hybrid, the fact that you could be wrong, or the fact that there are so many stupid people in the world, b/c trust me on this, the world is chock full of stupid people. My wife calls it the 7/8th rule. (She would be banned on here in about 3 days, she'd be calling everybody an idiot. Not our group, just all the really stupid people. People who mistake opinion for fact really p!$$ her off.)
Don't know why you'd be annoyed now, practically the entire internet besides HNF, PE, SMD and you are 100% hybrid, I'm still 50-50, so that's the way it's always been, all hybrid, all the time.

One thing I really do wonder about though, all of these western leaks. Nintnedo is in Japan, hardware is made in China, how would Europeans know anything? I think they are all still Po'D about losing planetary relevance. China just sent up another space station, their world domination is imminent, they already own the US. Sure, western devs need dev kits, but they aren't final, and Nintnedo is so 1st party focused there's nobody in the EU they give a darn about who would be up to date w/ things. So for all we know they could have NEW 2DS dev kits.

" the financial guys (CFO's) actually give us the specific parts of the info we need"

Yes, but they shouldn't give you a product you can't sell b/c nobody wants it. Gamecube didn't launch at $99, I have no idea what it launched at, I only know there was a big marketing push at $99. And Wii had a big marketing push at $249. And Wii Mini was on store shelves at $99. That's what Nintneod is now, the low cost alternative for 1st party games. When McDonalds opened it wasn't a fast food chain, fast foo dchains didn't exist, McDonaolds invented fast foo dchains. Now sart peopel don't eat there b/c there fo dsucks, but billions of pepel still eat there each year. That's what Nintneod is now, they were the market leader for video games, they practiaclly invneted home consoles w/ NES, but nobody wants @D platofrmers w/ cartoon graphics anymore, only the slobs who shop at Walmart adn eat fast food. Nintnedo is never going to compete w/ Metal Gar Solid, they ar egoing to make Super MArio Run on iOS. Even they know they aren't a prime steakhouse, they are Taco Bell, fast food, trying to make it as a "fast casual", b/c Ouya and the others in that chart are the true fst food, Nintnedo needs to be fast causal, Call of Duty is prime steak, even if they are yearly recycled garbage, that's where the industry is today.

The only reason Nintneod hasn't gone 3rd party like Sega is b/c Wii and DS did so well, but that's the only reason, money in the bank. But I don't see them being the home console industry leader ever again, unless that industry is mobile games. I know that sounds depressing as all get out, but that's my view. Home consoles are dieing, Nintnedo is dead in the dwindling home console market. They may make another 1, b/c that's what Iwata wanted, but I don't see an expensive home console taking off. Like Pachter said $399 is too much. A $199 NX Away Player w/ 3DS support. A $300 console, I just don't know how that sells.

time for lunch then things to do, I'll try and fix that pic for you, maybe you can't see links to my US twitter account, not sure why

@ThanosReXXX OK, I'm trying 1 mor etime, got it from my Twitter to my Facebook, wasn't easy for some reason, but here goes.

@rjejr "They first need to get WAY more in touch with their public"
I meant to say audience, but you probably already got that. Corrected it anyways...

And personally, I would have fired my counterpart at Nintendo for "marketing" the Wii U...

@rjejr Yes, I meant the reveal being delayed to November, but that could possibly also have an effect on the release.

Well, if the industry is at where you say it is, then it is a sad time to live in, for sure. Blandness, DLC-centered, bug-ridden, day one patches to replace almost the entire game and tired sequel upon sequel having a major impact and largely being responsible for death to creativity and pure, unadulterated fun.

I'm glad there are still gems like Playtonic giving all consoles the kind of games that we secretly all enjoy to play. But when our "grown up" friends come over, we have to quickly boot into a "hardcore" game, so we won't be laughed at...

Oh, and I never said they would become industry leader again, nor do they have to. If they can cater to their own public, both handheld and console owners, then they will at least sell around 40 million systems, whether these are dedicated or hybrid.

And Pachter said a $399 hybrid won't work, he never said that it wouldn't work if it is a dedicated console.

But even if he did, since when are we taking that fool into account? Proving a point can be done on your own account, I think?

And your picture finally showed up now, nice jab. Don't know what the issue was before. I always use this site: https://postimage.org
Works like a charm, unless you use the delete link like I did with that secret NX screen shot that I sent you a while back...

But I would go for a slightly more positive twist to the guano loco. Mix it in with a few things you never thought possible, sprinkle a little bit of that Nintendo magic on top and you'll end up with something like this:

The Nintendo Difference...
To this day, impossible to capture for others, but these quirky little Japanese guys keep pulling it off...

@rjejr "Well that's what you get for going on IGN"

I didn't go to their site: I was looking for new NX videos and their video was on the right side next to the video I was watching, so that is why I decided to click on it. And the name Nintendo Video Chat didn't really ring a bell either, so I didn't know that it was an IGN channel at first.

And what I am annoyed about is both not knowing what NX is and also about all the misinformation that is being spread without a shred of tangible proof.

If it really is true that NX is this weak, totally un-Nintendo like piece of crap that EuroGamer proposes, then at least reveal your sources or show documents that support your claims. Much like the so-called "debunked" YouTubers are doing almost on a daily basis. Yet somehow, that proof ain't enough, even though they DO show documents, links, sources and what not.

Wtf kind of world is that, in which we believe hearsay before tangible evidence?

Don't expect me and others with an above average intelligence to just take your word for it. I categorically refuse to do so. Might make me look stupid in the end, but at least I won't forego my principles and standards of logic and basing statements on facts and facts alone.

Can you tell I'm still annoyed?

There, now that I'm done with my mini rant, I can include @Captain_Gonru again for the rest of today's news bits:

Meanwhile, instead of actually telling us something useful, Nintendo of Europe decided it would be a good idea to be a bunch of smart@sses and have some fun at our expense:
https://twitter.com/NintendoEurope/status/777824686415552512 (okay, so maybe I'm not quite done being annoyed yet... )

A new conspiracy theory concerning the reveal popped up on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoNX/comments/52wfvc/fun_fact_nintendo_was_founded_on_september_23rd/lets

Alex Osborn made a short video on it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_XIeSVdCIc
Some other NX stuff also popped up on Twitter, courtesy of Amazon, now removed again (obviously) but someone has been smart enough to make a screenshot of it to safe it for posterity: https://twitter.com/Plushieluver17/status/775794618738872321

@Captain_Gonru The shrugging monkey was kinda hard to find, other than this one:

But maybe we should take a hint from this monkey instead:

And agreed on media input, but then again: I was already in the cartridge camp since day one of that rumor, so you don't have to convince me...

As for the dates: so before I had the 22nd and the 23rd as rumored, and now we can add the 21st to that.

Going to be a busy week keeping tabs...

@Captain_Gonru You're most welcome. Actually had some laughs myself while browsing through "shrugging monkey animated gifs". There were funnier ones, but they didn't apply...

Good point about the date/announcement thing. I think it's just that people expect it because they always give a heads up, like with the Directs. They haven't done any surprise announcements in ages, if ever.

But having said that, I wouldn't mind. By now I just want to know, make an end to the rumors and discussions about it. And there has been surprisingly little new info added since this weekend, other than the live stream I linked to you and @rjejr...

So apparently even the rumor mongers are kinda done, or perhaps they are taking a break. Or..... the hybrid huggers found out they were wrong, and so they decided to remain quiet in order not to look even more stupid than they already do...

@ThanosReXXX "Or..... the hybrid huggers found out they were wrong, and so they decided to remain quiet in order not to look even more stupid than they already do..."

No way that statement could ever turn around and bite you in the behind.

On the bright side, I do feel like if it is a hybrid, it's DMP M3000 series powered. Still working out the details in my head, but I feel like the fact that there are 3 models - M3000, M3200, M3400 - has to mean something. 1 each in the handheld and dock, maybe the same, maybe more powerful. If you don't like "dock" I'm fine w/ SCD.

@rjejr "No way that statement could ever turn around and bite you in the behind."

That's why I added the sarcastic smiley at the end of it, to signify I was only half serious...

But who's reputation is going to suffer more? Mine, being an anonymous online game site member, or all the big names and web sites that are the aforementioned hybrid huggers? EXACTLY.

I'll survive, although not happily, because I want my premium, full blown home console experience, not some kind of gimmicky, detachable and probably highly breakable controller tablet kind of thingy that you can connect to the TV with a Fisher Price dock.

And no, I don't like dock. A dock is for charging or keeping a system in an upright position so you can still use it while it's sat in there. Just think of a laptop docking station: charge while you work...

And the patent of the SCD's makes no mention of charging or connecting to the TV anywhere, so it's not meant for that, which means that dock and SCD is definitely not one and the same.

And I also already previously explained to you the hardware reasons of why that would make no sense, let alone make it possible. All the extra needed hardware (and I even forgot to mention a network card/adapter the last time I told you this) would make for a really bulky "dock" so that can't be it.

And remember: the patent is cleared for completion and paid for by Nintendo to use AS IS, so it's literally what the patent says it is: not a battery charger or a tablet kick stand but a Supplemental Computing Device, meant to give extra power to the standard setup and linked to other SCD's online it can also do this for other NX users, giving the owner of the SCD rewards in return, to be used either in game or in the eShop/MyNintendo shop.

@Captain_Gonru "We don't need an announcement of an announcement, either."

Man, it must be the meds, send some over.

You can't not pre-announce. 1500% of all news these days is learned via twitter feeds for anyone under 30. You can't not have a ND w/o live twitter comments, that's just just... oh I can't even go there. Plus you need CNN and CNBC on board to cover it. And for a console launch you even need Redbook and Ladies home Journal or whatever my mother keeps in that wicker basket in the living room these days. Everybody is going to want an article on it, and the publishers need time to give assignments to cover the announcement.

Now I don'think any of us want 3 weeks notice like Sony or Apple may give, but 48-72 hours for a ND. HAS TO BE. I hope you ain't driving on those meds.

Oh, and if Nintneod did have Space World in early Nov to foil Sony's expected PSX event in Dec (though no word as of yet for this year) it would need at least 3 weeks notice. And the 3 weeks notice isn't for hype, it's for employees to buy plane tickets and book hotel rooms, so those 3 weeks notice make practical sense. If it's just a ND, 48-72 hours. But it must have time for all of us to call in sick and kids to plan to play hooky and watch at their friends house. New hardware launch is like the Academy Awards, you don't just do it w/o prepping your audience first. Capisce?

@ThanosReXXX "And no, I don't like dock. A dock is for charging or keeping a system in an upright position so you can still use it while it's sat in there. Just think of a laptop docking station: charge while you work..."

As I've said before - that's why I dont' like a hybrid in a dock. I don't want to pay $50 or whatever the cost is for a screen I'll never use if it's wired into the TV, and another $35 or whatever for a battery I'll never use. And why should my kids have to pay for a dock they'll never use as they only play on the handheld? Each of us would be spending a lot of money for things we'll never use.

So if it is a hybrid, I hope they sell the hybrid separate from the dock to save my kids some money. And i hope they sell the dock separalty if later on my kids change their mind. And i hope they sell it together so I can save a few $ from buying them separatly. Which makes the 3 skus rumoured.

That also makes me think if ti is 2 devices, a true home and away, the home won't be that powerful or expensive, it will just be the handheld w/o the screen or battery, which should shave off a few $. Though ti will need to be bundle w/ a Pro, so there goes a hunk of the savings. But it could probably be a $249 Home or Away, I think, but yout the money tech guy. Point is, not more powerful home, like PS4 Slim and Pro, just more fps or res. I think Pro is 2x Slim or somethig. DMP M3000 Away, DMP M3400 Home. I don't like mixing and matching AMD and DMP, though I'm sure it would work.

Just b/c SCD patent drawing didn't have a dock doesn't mean it couldn't. Maybe it hooks up to the dock, or hooks up to the handheld while it's in the dock. I don't see them as mutually exclusive.

@ThanosReXXX Oh man, that red face avatar is SO you.

That Amazon leak was apparnetly confirmed fake on Neogaf, whatever that means.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/189706-nintendo-nx/74275115

"Wtf kind of world is that, in which we believe hearsay before tangible evidence?"

I'm pretty sure that's the way the human brain works, hence religion and a 6,000 year old flat Earth. Why think for yourself when you can be told what to think? Sheeple.

@Captain_Gonru "Nintendo needs to drop their NX news like Lemonade"

I have never heard that before, but no, they don't.

And besides, wouldn't you RATHER know now they aren't announcing it until CES in January than deal w/ this nonsense every single day? By saying you just want it whenever it comes, well what if it isn't due until Feb? I'll die. Seriously, I'll dehydrate and starve to death at this keyboard if I have to wait. Even if it's October, just tell me that now, give us the DATE ASAP, whenever it is. Popping it out there on youtube it will get lost under Trump-Hillary debate coverage or something. This is a big deal for them, they need the hype, even if we don't.

@rjejr So now you're saying that there's a dock AND an SCD? Oh, man my head is about to explode today, what with all the idiots everywhere online shouting "HYBRID CONFIRMED!" with an almost maniacal glee.

I'm going to answer the final 5 comments in my backlog here, and then I'll move quietly into the background for a while. I need to be able to focus on my work, now that the summer holidays are over, and money has to be made.

All this negatively centered NX news isn't helping me achieve that. I'm pretty much done. Change the red avatar into either a nauseous green one, or a blue crying one, because I haven't even got the energy left anymore to become angry...

#fugtheinternetandalltheidiotsthatpopulateit

@rjejr "Oh man, that red face avatar is SO you."

It is now, yeah. Before all this NX lunacy, I was tranquility itself. People that know me, always call me one the most relaxed and positive people they have ever met. But on the other hand, passionate about things too, and it is that very part which inspired me to start my own research and it is also what is now slowly taking over my sanity, so I need to bow out and focus on the more important stuff that occupies my days.

@ThanosReXXX Yooka-Laylee is probably my most wanted game right now, after FFXV went all season pass, additional DLC, 2 month delay. The true Wii U swan song maybe.

@rjejr Wut? Oh, wait, I remember saying something about Playtonic some 30 - 40 comments ago. That's what you get when you answer messages backwards...

As for Wii U's swan song: I actually think that might be the Darksiders 1 remaster, since that will come out later than any of the other big games still to come to Wii U. And other than that, it's only a couple of Indies and the Wii U is done.

Or of course Zelda Breath of the Wild...

@rjejr P.S. How did you like my picture representation of guano crazy Nintendo in comment #202?
Doesn't it immediately remind you of a certain Wii U game?
I thought it was a nice metaphor for the feat of improbability realized, something that Nintendo is quite good at, if they are at the top of their game...

@ThanosReXXX I thought you were taking the rest of the day off to work and calm down? I'm going thru my old emails, down to 99.

that pic was cool, reminded me of King Kai's planet.

But yes, now that you mention it, CT:TT as well.

@rjejr "DMP M3000 Away, DMP M3400 Home. I don't like mixing and matching AMD and DMP, though I'm sure it would work."

The different chipsets in the M3xxx series from DMP don't differ all that much in power, AND more importantly, these SoC's are specifically geared towards mobile devices, so indeed handhelds, but also camera's, phones, tablets and such.

And the Vulkan API and XilinX will take care of the "mixing and matching" between the hardware. That is specifically what it was designed for. It creates a software application layer upon which the programs/games can run, regardless of what architecture or hardware.

To simplify: just think of it as making a fence out of two or three different types of wood, or new 2 by 4's and old ones, the older ones being slightly faded by the weather. The different kinds/colors of wood represent the different chipsets/architectures. (AMD/x86, DMP/ARM)

The Vulkan API is the primer that you use to even out the base coating so that when it has dried, you have one even surface and you can then apply one color of paint (software/games) across the entire fence without having to worry about seeing the different shades of the original wood underneath.

Hope that makes sense, otherwise I'll make up another equivalent for you...

@rjejr "I thought you were taking the rest of the day off to work and calm down?"

Well, it's late over here, did some TV watching and I've calmed back down again, so I'm good.

And I was indeed going for Captain Toad. Just in case you're interested or curious, the painting is part of a series called "Gravities", done by a Spanish female artist by the name of Cinta Vidal.

Funnily enough, I came across the images thru WeTransfer, which I use to upload large files to people. They always have backgrounds of artists and so on.

Here's her own page:
http://cintavidal.com

And here's the WeTransfer page:
https://wetransfer.com/thisworks/2016/08/29/cinta-vidal/

Her own page has more paintings on it, but the WeTransfer page has some pictures in a larger size, if you right click them and select "view image".

@ThanosReXXX No more fence analogies, please. Xilinx stock doing pretty well this week, read up a few articles earlier looking for clues, but couldn't find any.

If all the DMP versions are too similar I'll take your word for it, and that it can work w/ AMD, if it's 2 consoles. I can't see them putting AMD in a dock that needs a handheld to run games.
75 emails to go, I think they're all from you. -)

@rjejr What's your aversion to fences? Because you're 50-50?

Wanted to share a bit more Cinta Vidal with you. She also makes these cool semi 3D floor paintings that look like these old picture popup books:
http://www.9views.com/bbs/data/attachment/forum/201512/09/163020t0904sdn0jsody0p.jpg
And for an artist, she doesn't even look half bad:
http://arrestedmotion.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/comp-3518.jpg
Must be the Spanish roots...

@rjejr "I can't see them putting AMD in a dock that needs a handheld to run games."

See? And that is why there will be no dock at all...

Good riddance if you ask me. Would have made it look cheap as hell too. Paint it red and white and call it My First NX...

And because I am not allowed to mention fences anymore, I will switch to another NX rumor that I've come across today. Also a "sort" of a hybrid...

@rjejr "Xilinx stock doing pretty well this week"

And not at ALL a coincidence with DMP's stock also rising after the announcement of their semi-custom design win in gaming. Something that HNF already hinted at some time ago...

@ThanosReXXX I like the motorcycle, we should run w/ that.