Topic: The OFFICIAL Big N rumor thread *bring your own salt*

[Stratos]

The prevailing NERD theory is all cartoon characters are fifth dimensional imps who are not governed by the laws of physics, but by comedy and story.

Didn't the Disney cartoon Bonkers the Bobcat kind of cover that strange physical behavior Toons had versus humans? I also remember a humorous episode of Darkwing Duck where Darkwing was trying to explain the different between 'cartoons' and their own 'reality' to his daughter.

So could this game be taking place in Mickeys afterlife? Because he committed suicide it ruined the world in some way and he now has to make it right to redeem himself?

I think of a movie called 'Wrist Cutters Society' (I think it was called that) where all people who commit suicide go to this alternate 'purgatory-like' world similar to ours except no one ever laughs or smiles. It is just a bland life. One guy there apparently thinks his girlfriends is somewhere else in the world and set's out with a friend to find her. It's a really strange movie.

[EasyCure]

I think of a movie called 'Wrist Cutters Society' (I think it was called that) where all people who commit suicide go to this alternate 'purgatory-like' world similar to ours except no one ever laughs or smiles. It is just a bland life. One guy there apparently thinks his girlfriends is somewhere else in the world and set's out with a friend to find her. It's a really strange movie.

Sounds like a Hot Topic.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I didn't find a movie on Netflix that goes by that name.

[Stratos]

Oops, it's called Wristcutters: A Love Story.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Nvidia Tegra system on a chip to power Nintendo's Next-Gen DS System?

When Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder and CEO of nVidia announced that he expects to see Tegra capturing 50% of nVidia's revenue within the next couple of years, a lot of people thought that this is a smoke screen to sway the attention from its battles against AMD and Intel.

Incredibly how it may sound, from what we are hearing nVidia is dead on achieving its course. With a very aggressive approach, the company managed to sway not just Microsoft with the Zune HD multimedia player  [based on Tegra APX 2600], but also a long-time IBM and ATI customer - Nintendo.

Launched in 2004, the Nintendo DS and its two latter redesigns [DS Lite and DSi] sold in massive 111.49 million units. With almost 40 million handheld consoles sold in United States alone, Nintendo DS owns 68.3% of worldwide market share.

As the time passed by, Nintendo started to work on the successor of its handheld console with a debut planned for late 2010 [Tokyo Game Show?]. According to our confidential sources, Nintendo is going to use Tegra System-on-Chip processor for the successor of DS/DSi handheld console. Unlike the current design, nVidia offered a single-chip proposal to Nintendo, a company famous for keeping the hardware platform absolutely simple.

Given the fact that Nintendo DS hardware is based upon 16-bit and 32-bit ARM cores, it looks like Next-Gen DS could be backwards compatible with the DS application library. According to our sources, all of the apps that came for old DS could run on a single ARM11 core, yet alone the next-gen CorTex-A9-based Tegra, leaving graphics subsystem to do "something smarter".

[...]

Now, the billion dollar question is: if Nintendo chose nVidia for the handheld console, does that mean nVidia may have an entrance into the lucrative Wii business? Bear in mind that Wii console was sold in 53.97 million units, taking almost half of current console market [48.4%, according to VGchartz.com]. Also, we wonder what is going to be in next-generation PlayStation Portable...

I would love to see Nintendo put some horspower into the next DS even if they themselves don't plan on using much of it for graphical purposes. It would be nice to see developers not having to worry about system constraints right from the start, even if that does sometimes lead to creative ways of doing things.

[Stogi]

I'm more concerned with Nintendo's "late 2010" deadline. I don't know how many people bought the DSi, but if a better version of it comes out next year, that'll piss off all of them.

All in all, I think Nintendo is just teasing Nvidia in order to get a better deal out of ATI.

[BlackNMild2k1]

But does ATi have anything to do with the handhelds?

Their teasing might get a better deal for a super charged Wii (Wiix5 glued together, no more GC's no more duct tape), but I don't think ATi provides the ARM chips for the handheld sector.

edit: Arm is it's own company and provides chips to all sorts of things we see in the market everyday
http://www.arm.com/
http://www.arm.com/markets/showcase/

[Stogi]

Oh I know. But having Nvidia produce graphics cards for handhelds takes them one step closer to producing for consoles; ie stepping on ATI's toes.

ATI made a **** ton this year, thanks to the Wii. You think they want their biggest competitor doing business with their favorite company?

Nintendo's just doing good business.

[Mop it up]

I'm not surprised to hear that they have a new handheld planned for 2010. This is what Nintendo does with handhelds. The DSi really is like the Game Boy Color, only with a lot less games.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Look more like planned for 2011, debuted at TGS(?) 2010, or more likely GDC 2011 (Jan.)

[Stratos]

Yeah, 'debut' could simply mean that Nintendo announces a name or what the system looks like.

[Louieturkey]

This is good business. When they negotiate with ATI for their next home console, they can use nVidia as leverage to get a better deal with ATI.  "You're only offering this price? Well nVidia told us that they would offer us this price for their comparable chipset." 

Nintendo didn't become the greatest company on Earth by being stupid.

[Stogi]

No, just lucky.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Don't forget that Nintendo owns the design to the chipset they have in the Wii. I'm sure they could spend the time for Nvidia to backwards engineer it and then upscale it, or just scrap it and build something powerful enough to run that emulator that is already out the upscales all the Wii games.

But at the same time, Nvidia is having quality control issues, so whatever Nintendo does with them, I hope Nintendo outsources the manufacturing to a different company.

[ShyGuy]

Matt and Craig on IGN's NVC podcast mentioned an unannounced 2009 Wii title coming out. Craig said "It's not a B title" implying it's an A-grade game. Speculation?

I vote for Kirby Adventures or Dynamic Slash.

[BlackNMild2k1]

What would an example of a  "C" grade title be?

[Stogi]

Is it what Retro's been working on?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!???!!!!!!!!

[broodwars]

What would an example of a  "C" grade title be?

From Nintendo?  Odama, Chibi Robo, at this point probably Star Fox, anything from Monolith Software...

[BlackNMild2k1]

Then what would an example of a "B" grade title be?

[broodwars]

Then what would an example of a "B" grade title be?

More successful titles (but not mega-hits), such as F-Zero; Kirby; Star Fox (in better days before that franchise got run into the ground); and Pikmin.

In general you can probably break the 3 categories down like this:

"C" Grade - Niche titles that sell to specific audiences, but aren't big money-makers.

"B" Grade - Very successful titles with good production values that sell to a wider audience, but don't have the sales to get the best production values and marketing attention.

"AAA" Grade - (for the platform) ultra-high production values, big marketing attention, very wide appeal, and extremely good sales.  System sellers.

[stevey]

Nvidia Tegra system on a chip to power Nintendo's Next-Gen DS System?

When Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder and CEO of nVidia announced that he expects to see Tegra capturing 50% of nVidia's revenue within the next couple of years, a lot of people thought that this is a smoke screen to sway the attention from its battles against AMD and Intel.

Incredibly how it may sound, from what we are hearing nVidia is dead on achieving its course. With a very aggressive approach, the company managed to sway not just Microsoft with the Zune HD multimedia player  [based on Tegra APX 2600], but also a long-time IBM and ATI customer - Nintendo.

Launched in 2004, the Nintendo DS and its two latter redesigns [DS Lite and DSi] sold in massive 111.49 million units. With almost 40 million handheld consoles sold in United States alone, Nintendo DS owns 68.3% of worldwide market share.

As the time passed by, Nintendo started to work on the successor of its handheld console with a debut planned for late 2010 [Tokyo Game Show?]. According to our confidential sources, Nintendo is going to use Tegra System-on-Chip processor for the successor of DS/DSi handheld console. Unlike the current design, nVidia offered a single-chip proposal to Nintendo, a company famous for keeping the hardware platform absolutely simple.

Given the fact that Nintendo DS hardware is based upon 16-bit and 32-bit ARM cores, it looks like Next-Gen DS could be backwards compatible with the DS application library. According to our sources, all of the apps that came for old DS could run on a single ARM11 core, yet alone the next-gen CorTex-A9-based Tegra, leaving graphics subsystem to do "something smarter".

[...]

Now, the billion dollar question is: if Nintendo chose nVidia for the handheld console, does that mean nVidia may have an entrance into the lucrative Wii business? Bear in mind that Wii console was sold in 53.97 million units, taking almost half of current console market [48.4%, according to VGchartz.com]. Also, we wonder what is going to be in next-generation PlayStation Portable...

I would love to see Nintendo put some horspower into the next DS even if they themselves don't plan on using much of it for graphical purposes. It would be nice to see developers not having to worry about system constraints right from the start, even if that does sometimes lead to creative ways of doing things.

Oh God NO!

The engineers that win the award for being absolutely the worst at their jobs are Nvidia's Electrical Engineers.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Should success and user reception even be part of the equation?  They don't come into play until after the game is released; many throw around the "triple-A" judgment on games prior to release, and it seems mostly indicative of the perceived work/progress/effort an upcoming game demonstrates.  "where are the triple-A games?"  "finally, this company looks like it providing a triple-A effort."

I doubt success can be part of the reasoning because many can point to some past games, consider them "A", and note how it flopped on the market.


Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii Fit... double-A?  single-A?  B+extra credit?

[broodwars]

Should success and user reception even be part of the equation?  They don't come into play until after the game is released; many throw around the "triple-A" judgment on games prior to release, and it seems mostly indicative of the perceived work/progress/effort an upcoming game demonstrates.  "where are the triple-A games?"  "finally, this company looks like it providing a triple-A effort."

I doubt success can be part of the reasoning because many can point to some past games, consider them "A", and note how it flopped on the market.


Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii Fit... double-A?  single-A?  B+extra credit?

Like I said, those were just generalities.  There are obviously exceptions, such as the Metroid franchise (which I don't think moved up from B to AAA status till Metroid Prime came out and made Metroid a system seller).  But if I had to label those games just using the 3 categories (I've never heard of a game just labeled an "A Grade"):

Wii Sports - AAA.  It is a system seller, without question.
Wii Play - B.  It is an extremely successful game on the Wii, but people don't buy the Wii to play it.  They buy it for Wii Sports.
Wii Fit - Probably AAA at this point.

[EasyCure]

No, just lucky.

"Leave luck to heaven"

I can't believe this wasn't said sooner..

[BlackNMild2k1]

Just remember that the Tegra chip is very energy efficient (1 watt), scalable and based off the ARM design.
Nintendo doesn't have to have Nvidia manufacture the chip, just provide a custom design of it (based on Tegra which is built on ARM) that is 100% backwards compatible with the current ARM7/9 that is in the DS/i right now.

I agree, sales have no bearing on the amount of effort that was originally put into it, so if you are trying to decide on what is an "A" "B" or "C" quality effort, then you shouldn't have to wait until 1 month after release to do so.