Topic: Switchmas Eve Rumors and Speculations Thread

[Nile Boogie Returns]

Furthermore, no big retailer is going to sell hardware and accessories for a console that they can't sell games for.

[NWR_insanolord]

Furthermore, no big retailer is going to sell hardware and accessories for a console that they can't sell games for.

People always say this, and I really don't get the logic. New games at retail have the smallest margins of anything in the game business, whereas they could stand to make good money on hardware and especially peripherals. GameStop wouldn't like it because it would cut off the used market, but most of the big retailers either aren't in that business or treat it as a relatively minor thing.

[BranDonk Kong]

I will make this prediction. If the patent filing is actually telling us something, and the console actually will not use physical games, then it will run some form of Android. An extremely locked down version of Android, but it will be Android.

[Stratos]

If that leads to better support for Android phones by Nintendo (versus only supporting Apple) then I will be all for it.

[NWR_insanolord]

That doesn't strike me as something Nintendo would want to do. They'd want something that was completely theirs.

[Mop it up]

Also this might be the console they are preparing for the new Chinese market.

That's what I was thinking. They've made something similar in the iQue Player for China.

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.

I don't think that's a daft idea if only because Nintendo already tried a similar service with the iQue Player in China

Nintendo have also done something similar in Japan with the rewritable cartridge called the Nintendo Power for the SNES and Game Boy. Of course, most of its games were only 1 MB or less back then...

[MagicCow64]

That doesn't strike me as something Nintendo would want to do. They'd want something that was completely theirs.

I'd be inclined to think so too, but the DeNA partnership thingy is a big question mark in my mind. If it's really embedded in the new systems, I thinks it's possible DeNA would have had some stipulations about using an OS platform that would have some continuity with phones.

[NWR_insanolord]

Yeah, I almost added that as a caveat to my post. If they really trust DeNA to do this for them, and DeNA wants to do it that way, they might go along with it.

[ThePerm]

Nintendo has an e-shop section at gamestop for classic games. Nintendo doesn't have to get rid of retail sales, they just have to get rid of discs and boxes. They could just sell cards with activation codes at the store and still occupy the same amount of retail space.

Nintendo could also sell preloaded SD cards, or non write non copy sd cards. Doesn't Nintendo already have a system in place so you cant copy your save files over and use them on a different console?

[TOPHATANT123]

Hmm, the Wii U basic was practically a disc only system without a hard drive, and then the premium was geared towards digital with it's extra storage but Nintendo being Nintendo messed it up with only 32 gigs, although the intent was there. Not really anything to do with the patent but a possibility for NX is a similar launch with one with a disc drive and then one without. They could even sell the discless system at a massive loss since all software purchases would be at full price through Nintendo rather than some middle man, and also it would cut down on preowned games sales since a lot of the user base is now exclusively digital.
How did retailers react to the PSP Go?

[ThePerm]

the only 32 gigs argument....you can just buy an sd card or usb stick and it takes care of that problem pretty quickly. These things are a very low price now.

[Nile Boogie Returns]

We are the 1% when it comes to Nintendo. Ask yourself  "Do I want a Nintendo system with no physical format?" Neither do I. I don't want any System without a physical format. As I've said before now is not the time for Nintendo to pioneer but reflect and adjust course.

[ThePerm]

if this was the thing Nintendo was pioneering..thats like better than other things it could pioneer

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011MLR1RA/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=

is this real?

[BranDonk Kong]

No.

[TOPHATANT123]

the only 32 gigs argument....you can just buy an sd card or usb stick and it takes care of that problem pretty quickly. These things are a very low price now.

Well you can't store Wii U games on an SD card since it's only for Wii mode and Smash screenshots for whatever reason. And Nintendo strongly recommends against using USB sticks as storage since there are issues with how many times you can rewrite them.
Last year I managed to get a 500gb harddrive with a y power cable and a white Wii U with 4 games for just under the price of a black premium bundle. I see no noticeable difference between games on the HDD or ones on the flash memory in terms of loading, so yeah I think flash memory was a very silly idea on their part.

[nickmitch]

I always thought it was inevitable that all video game systems would go back to cartridges.

Clearly Nintendo is with me on that.

[Adrock]

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.

It isn't so much the technology's existence itself than it is people's access to it. For those that do not have a fast, consistent connection, store kiosks are pretty much the only viable way to buy games on a console without physical media.

I always thought it was inevitable that all video game systems would go back to cartridges.

Clearly Nintendo is with me on that.

Yeah, I've dealt with discs due to the lack of options. My preference is cards/cartridges. A digital only future is inevitable, but I'd holding onto physical media for as long as I can. I'd be elated if Nintendo went with cards for its next home console.

[Ian Sane]

I won't buy an all-digital console and especially not one that uses any cloud based processing.  That goes for any company, not just Nintendo so I'm not holding them to a special standard.  I figure someday the industry will move in that direction but I'll be older and probably have less time for games anyway.  This concept is pretty similar to what MS first presented for the XB1 and it was so poorly received they completely backpedaled on it.  So Nintendo is now going to bust out concepts that were poison only a few years ago?  And again it's NINTENDO.  The guys that think voicechat is bad are going to suddenly be so competent with online gaming that they're going digital-only?  I'm not saying they won't for sure but you know they would completely **** it up.  If Nintendo is ever going to get up to speed on online stuff it will be noticeable over a period of several years.  They won't go from the clueless dipshits they are today to savvy online-only guys tomorrow.  They could try but they would fail for certain.  I don't think they have enough confidence in the online concept to even want to try that.  If anything I would expect them to continue being followers.  Online in general seems like something they never wanted to do and were more or less forced to by the market.

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.

I think we're well aware of what they NEED to do but that doesn't mean they'll do it.  If anything doing some goofy Nintendo-specific thing that completely screws up third party support is what I expect.  Should they use discs?  Yes.  Will they?  Beats me.  "That's stupid" is never a valid justification for assuming Nintendo is not doing something.

[broodwars]

I suspect the main reason Nintendo would want to go back to cartridges is that it means 3rd parties have to pay them for the only supply of the stuff. Hard to say one way or the other how I would feel about this patent being NX, especially since it's basically a glorified PSP Go. I prefer physical copies of my games where possible, but assuming the HDD size is right I'm not exactly opposed to a digital-only console. I just don't see the likes of Gamestop and Walmart stocking the thing, and bandwidth isn't really where it needs to be right now to support that kind of console.

[Adrock]

I suspect the main reason Nintendo would want to go back to cartridges is that it means 3rd parties have to pay them for the only supply of the stuff.

Nintendo gets so little support on its consoles that third parties probably aren't factoring much into such a decision. I'd say it has more to do with Nintendo not wanting to have to pay Panasonic for the disc drive and discs.

[Fatty The Hutt]

I could see digital only games because Nintendo loves to try and emulate Apple. Provided the interface to download is as "friendly" or at least as familiar as Apple's is for the average consumer, I could see people being OK with it because they are already used to it. And I can see Nintendo emulating Apple on the hardware side with releasing differently positioned devices (home and handheld) with basically the same OS environment. Just like Apple does with the iPad and the iPhone/iPod.
And retailers have no issues stocking Apple devices and also the iTunes cards that folks use to buy the digital games, music and other Apps. And don't forget, retailers are loving stocking Amiibos and will also probably love stocking the Happy Home Designer cards and similar "Amiibo 2.0" products.

[broodwars]

And retailers have no issues stocking Apple devices and also the iTunes cards that folks use to buy the digital games, music and other Apps. And don't forget, retailers are loving stocking Amiibos and will also probably love stocking the Happy Home Designer cards and similar "Amiibo 2.0" products.

Well, don't forget that Apple releases new versions of their devices every year, so retailers see a lot of new & used hardware sales from Apple. But why should Gamestop stock an NX when they can't sell Used games and Nintendo will probably only release a new hardware version every 2-5 years?

Plus, Apple's more perplexingly popular than Nintendo will likely ever be again, if we're being perfectly honest with ourselves.

[Nile Boogie Returns]

Target wont sell it flat out. Plus Nintendo knows that the bandwidth  infrastructure for all digital platform is not quite there yet. Also you must remember, retail space and physical media is also advertising. And lets not forget, most Apple downloads aren't near the 50GB mark and that's the future if Nintendo wants 3party support. DLC is one thing.

[Ian Sane]

No one ever sold used Mac software, at least not at a level where their business model pretty much revolves around it.  That's a big difference between Apple and Nintendo.  Unsurprisingly I didn't see record stores where their whole business was selling CDs pushing the **** out of the iPod like the general electronics stores were.

Thinking about it, Nintendo games rarely drop in price so I wouldn't be surprised if for GameStop used Nintendo games probably sell pretty well, at least if you take into account the smaller userbase.  I'm not going to bother to buy a game that it's in the Wal-Mart discount bin used but Nintendo games are practically never in there.  You want a cheaper Mario Kart you get it used.  When the Wii was hot GameStop probably made a killing on parents looking for used first party titles.

[Louieturkey]

Where do you get the idea that Target won't sell it?  Target sells (or at least sold) Kindles and they are digital only.  They also sell iPads.  Those don't have physical media either.