Author Topic: Switchmas Eve Rumors and Speculations Thread  (Read 663883 times)

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Online ThePerm

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well there goes backwards compatability.....

does it rely on the server for processing to some degree?

then again why not release a usb 3.0 external optical drive for classic games? People who want it buy it, people who don't do not. There were only 3 generations of optical drives for Nintendo. There's still time to make Wii U backwards compatible with GameCube too.
« Last Edit: August 21, 2015, 08:15:11 PM by ThePerm »
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Offline Enner

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This is a reminder that patents could mean anything or nothing, and that they are terribly vague because patent law is messed up.

So patents are smoke and mirrors... until they aren't!


well there goes backwards compatability.....

does it rely on the server for processing to some degree?

then again why not release a usb 3.0 external optical drive for classic games? People who want it buy it, people who don't do not. There were only 3 generations of optical drives for Nintendo. There's still time to make Wii U backwards compatible with GameCube too.
There's always eShop versions of games.


As for cloud processing, that is definitely a very un-Nintendo thing to guess in a time when eShop gets taken down every Christmas.

Offline MagicCow64

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One of the external threads I read about this was speculating about references to comparability with optical drives or devices with optical drives, as well as a feature of the processor that would control its speed to sync up properly with (theoretically) an external optical drive or hard drive.

If that's the case, I'm wondering based on Perm's post if they couldn't indeed have a say ~$100 optical add-on that would also have some of its own processing power that could emulate Wii and WiiU games natively. Would keep the cost down on the new console unit, while providing an option to new adopters to take advantage of the WiiU's strong (if small) library. This would be an annoying backwards compatibility option for WiiU owners, but there aren't that many and while the Xbone's upcoming feature is better, this NX option would be preferable to the lousy streaming rental system on PS4.

Offline Evan_B

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I'm guessing that the memory card comment is for SD cards, and not actual memory cards or game carts.
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Offline ShyGuy

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It could be both

Offline Adrock

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I can't see Nintendo dropping physical media before Sony and Microsoft do if only because it has the worst online presence of the three. This would be a ballsy move, but it isn't the kind Nintendo would make.

Nintendo never wanted to adopt optical media in the first place. Even when forced to by an evolving market and consumer expectations, it refused to embrace it entirely with smaller discs on GameCube and a staunch refusal for music and movie playback. The writing was on the wall once cards reached DVD-levels of storage. Capacity and speed continue to rise while cost drops. It still costs more than optical discs, but Nintendo never cared about cost when it came to physical media (maybe Nintendo should). It cared about control. Nintendo likes controlling its media even at the expense of third parties. Digital releases allows Nintendo to have its cake and eat it too though having a physical presence in stores helps tremendously.

If anything, this lends credence to the handheld-and-console-play-the-same-games concept. Optical media doesn't make sense in a handheld.
« Last Edit: August 22, 2015, 08:18:46 AM by Adrock »

Offline NWR_insanolord

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Nintendo's online presence is the worst in terms of multiplayer (and even then, the Wii U got it up to fairly close), but I'd argue navigating the eShop is a significantly more pleasant endeavour than going through Sony or Microsoft's store. If DeNA don't screw up the account system, I'd argue they're probably in the best position to make that move. Also, with the way Nintendo designs hardware, they'd be in the best position to offer retailers better margins to get them to stock the system without physical games.
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Offline Nile Boogie Returns

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This could be 2 things:


"New" Wii U Slim: This would allow Nintendo to continue to support the Wii U brand and offer those few hold outs that are waiting for a price drop to jump in at a discounted price. $199.99 preloaded with "Select Nintendo games" I'd put this at about 35%.




Nintendo ibrydia : (Codename NX)


I 'm in line with the Hybrid console and there are a few bits in that patten that tend to point there for me. The most is the memory card with first and second basic programs(mobile and console code). Server App could mean the docking station, which I am a firm believer is a part of this unit. Also the mass-produced price of new age cartridges and not so out of line with Vita and 3DS that Nintendo could be going back. Plus you can't really max out a cart and they have faster speeds than Blu-ray Disc




Offline ShyGuy

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Dropping the optical drive means:

- less power needed
- more reliable
- cheaper to build

Nintendo loves all those things

Offline Adrock

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"New" Wii U Slim: This would allow Nintendo to continue to support the Wii U brand and offer those few hold outs that are waiting for a price drop to jump in at a discounted price. $199.99 preloaded with "Select Nintendo games" I'd put this at about 35%.
I'm not sure Nintendo would deem a digital only slim model viable or necessary. That's a lot of time, effort, and money to try to eek out some extra sales of a faltering product.

Offline Evan_B

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Dropping physical media would be a retail suicide, as far as I'm concerned. Something Microsoft and Sony actually do well is dominate shelf space in stores like GameStop while Wii U takes up a sad corner. It would only be another nail in the coffin.
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Offline Shaymin

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This is a reminder that patents could mean anything or nothing, and that they are terribly vague because patent law is messed up.

So patents are smoke and mirrors... until they aren't!

This.

The next console is going to have some sort of support for physical media, whether it's BluRays, carts or frickin' SD cards.
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Offline Nile Boogie Returns

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I don't imagine Nintendo is dropping physical media for the NX. I speculate that future support for the Wii U will be significantly scaled down. Also this might be the console they are preparing for the new Chinese market.

Offline Stratos

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"Unprecedented partnership with Square Enix" makes me worry it will be like EA's "unprecedented partnership" this gen.
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Offline NWR_insanolord

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"Unprecedented partnership with Square Enix" makes me worry it will be like EA's "unprecedented partnership" this gen.

Well it wouldn't be unprecedented then.
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Offline Shaymin

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Square supporting a Nintendo console to the point they're dropping numbered Final Fantasies on it as a second choice behind PlayStation? That's the unprecedented part.
Donald Theriault - News Editor, Nintendo World Report / 2016 Nintendo World Champion
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Offline Parallax Scroll

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I do not believe in the hybrid theory because it goes against what Iwata had consistently said in 2013 and 2014.

Quote
As you might already know from some newspaper reports, we will reorganize our development divisions next month for the first time in nine years. Two divisions which have independently developed handheld devices and home consoles will be united to form the Integrated Research & Development Division, which will be headed by Genyo Takeda, Senior Managing Director.
Last year we also started a project to integrate the architecture for our future platforms. What we mean by integrating platforms is not integrating handhelds devices and home consoles to make only one machine. What we are aiming at is to integrate the architecture to form a common basis for software development so that we can make software assets more transferrable, and operating systems and their build-in applications more portable, regardless of form factor or performance of each platform. They will also work to avoid software lineup shortages or software development delays which tend to happen just after the launch of new hardware.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/130131/05.html

Offline NWR_insanolord

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Beyond that, Nintendo at least tries to make money from hardware sales, which means they'd very much prefer to sell you two pieces of hardware than just the one.
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Offline Parallax Scroll

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Yep^

Offline Nile Boogie Returns

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Beyond that, Nintendo at least tries to make money from hardware sales, which means they'd very much prefer to sell you two pieces of hardware than just the one.

There is still two hardware pieces in my theory. The NX I and and NX II. The I will be a self-sufficient portable device capable of working independent of the NX II. The II is a docking station that "unlocks" the beta code (second basic program) and creates the scalable assets needed for high resolutions and more complex algorithms. In theory this would be like a built in cross buy system. My theory has huge wrinkles in it but the basic premise is there. There also may be a Server/Set Top Box required for the long anticipated NINTENDO ON DEMAND STREAMING SERVICES.

Believe you me, Nintendo has plenty of hardware to sell us.  Also I predicted Amiibo (not in name but in design and execution over a year before official announcement... there is a natural progression to Nintendo's thinking and I have cracked the code.

Offline Enner

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Dropping physical media would be a retail suicide, as far as I'm concerned. Something Microsoft and Sony actually do well is dominate shelf space in stores like GameStop while Wii U takes up a sad corner. It would only be another nail in the coffin.

Think of all that Wii U and 3DS shelf space that could be amiibo and other Nintendo merchandise! Also, new game discs are a low margin anyway, so Wal-Mart and Target probably wouldn't mind carrying less of those. And GameStop sees the writing on the wall for used game discs.

For Nintendo in particular, they have always kept the size of their games very small relative to their peers. Only games like Bayonetta 2, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and Xenoblade Chronicles X break the 10/20 GB barrier.

This has me revisiting a daft idea I had that is a compromise between the all-digital future and retail stores. The idea is kiosks in the store that locally stored the data for a lot of video games. You can purchase games from the kiosk, have it loaded on to your special cartridge, USB stick, or (maybe special?) SD card faster than it would take to download it, and then bring that data back home to your system. Of course, there will be redundancies to ensure the purchase is tied to your Nintendo account; the locally stored data is for those with poor (or maybe no) internet connections. These kiosks can have chain-specific sales too.

I say this is daft because there are security issues, you still have a retailer as a middle-man, you will need to train retail staff to operate and maintain the kiosk, and this process is too complex compared to buying a disc or from the eShop.

Offline Adrock

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This has me revisiting a daft idea I had that is a compromise between the all-digital future and retail stores. The idea is kiosks in the store that locally stored the data for a lot of video games. You can purchase games from the kiosk, have it loaded on to your special cartridge, USB stick, or (maybe special?) SD card faster than it would take to download it, and then bring that data back home to your system. Of course, there will be redundancies to ensure the purchase is tied to your Nintendo account; the locally stored data is for those with poor (or maybe no) internet connections. These kiosks can have chain-specific sales too.

I say this is daft because there are security issues, you still have a retailer as a middle-man, you will need to train retail staff to operate and maintain the kiosk, and this process is too complex compared to buying a disc or from the eShop.
I don't think that's a daft idea if only because Nintendo already tried a similar service with the iQue Player in China which was meant to curb piracy in that region (as well as circumvent the now lifted console ban). Perhaps security can be handled similarly to how eshop cards have no value until purchased. Say you buy a download card from the store employee then you go to the kiosk and insert the card like you would an ATM, it reads the barcode (so you're not actually typing anything) then a slot opens for an SD card or USB port.

The main issue I see is how long will it take to copy multiple GBs of data from a kiosk. I recently backed up a few GBs of music onto an SD card and it took 20 minutes. Synching pretty much the same data onto an iPod Touch via USB was much faster. My MacBook Pro is roughly five and a half years old. With newer tech, this may not be a problem. I'm hoping Nintendo adopts USB Type-C.

Offline Nile Boogie Returns

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No way Nintendo goes all Digital with this console, no way.


We are not (yet) in a world where all info and advertisements come from online.

Posted by: Enner

For Nintendo in particular, they have always kept the size of their games very small relative to their peers. Only games like Bayonetta 2, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and Xenoblade Chronicles X break the 10/20 GB barrier.


If Nintendo wants the NX to succeed they must adapt to the wants of the developers that create content. 50GB should be the standard, which poses a real problem from an all digital standpoint. There are legit Millions of DS, Wii and owners who only have DSL or less. Not a really good option for those folks who could just drive to walmart, gamestop and best buy. Hell I get pretty solid speeds in Philly and I hate having to download and wait.


Welcome Back Cartridges! My old friend, you have been missed.

« Last Edit: August 23, 2015, 11:54:43 AM by Nile Boogie Returns »

Offline NWR_insanolord

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Yeah, designing hardware based on how Nintendo makes games and ignoring what everybody else wants is what got them into this mess in the first place. They need to make something so easy for third parties to work with that they see it as worth porting things to even if they don't expect it to sell huge. Assuming it's going to have physical media, it pretty much has to be discs to fit that criteia.
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Offline Stratos

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This has me revisiting a daft idea I had that is a compromise between the all-digital future and retail stores. The idea is kiosks in the store that locally stored the data for a lot of video games. You can purchase games from the kiosk, have it loaded on to your special cartridge, USB stick, or (maybe special?) SD card faster than it would take to download it, and then bring that data back home to your system. Of course, there will be redundancies to ensure the purchase is tied to your Nintendo account; the locally stored data is for those with poor (or maybe no) internet connections. These kiosks can have chain-specific sales too.

I say this is daft because there are security issues, you still have a retailer as a middle-man, you will need to train retail staff to operate and maintain the kiosk, and this process is too complex compared to buying a disc or from the eShop.
I don't think that's a daft idea if only because Nintendo already tried a similar service with the iQue Player in China which was meant to curb piracy in that region (as well as circumvent the now lifted console ban). Perhaps security can be handled similarly to how eshop cards have no value until purchased. Say you buy a download card from the store employee then you go to the kiosk and insert the card like you would an ATM, it reads the barcode (so you're not actually typing anything) then a slot opens for an SD card or USB port.

The main issue I see is how long will it take to copy multiple GBs of data from a kiosk. I recently backed up a few GBs of music onto an SD card and it took 20 minutes. Synching pretty much the same data onto an iPod Touch via USB was much faster. My MacBook Pro is roughly five and a half years old. With newer tech, this may not be a problem. I'm hoping Nintendo adopts USB Type-C.

Nintendo also used the idea of special re-loadable cartridges in Japan as well with the N64DD. I'm not sure how far it was implemented since the system failed, but that was supposed to be a key concept for the system. I don't see it flying because technology is quickly passing any need for that type of system.


If they truly want to go all digital I see them still supporting retail by shipping boxes that have download codes in them, but no actual discs.
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