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What we know so far about the Nintendo NX with sources

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But they did announce Mother 3 for NA & EU right?

Right????

It was fucking weird, man. Nintendo had very little presence in general. Their booth looked like the Nintendo section of a retailer. None of the demo stations were on. They were giving away Wii U's. They were teaming up with Amazon. And for some reason, they were shipping fans to E3 in boxes. Refrigerator boxes completely crammed with people who were finally happy to be out of there.
 

Pinky

Banned
It was fucking weird, man. Nintendo had very little presence in general. Their booth looked like the Nintendo section of a retailer. None of the demo stations were on. They were giving away Wii U's. They were teaming up with Amazon. And for some reason, they were shipping fans to E3 in boxes. Refrigerator boxes completely crammed with people who were finally happy to be out of there.

Lol, that's messed up!

anigif_enhanced-27876-1443629267-2.gif
 

blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
Nevermind, I didn't read the whole conversation.

Or just provide USB3.0C to USB cable for example. Besides, the micro USB has somewhat limited current output comparatively.
Indeed. It's the main reason barrel power connectors are still widely used in a bunch of small electronics.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
It was fucking weird, man. Nintendo had very little presence in general. Their booth looked like the Nintendo section of a retailer. None of the demo stations were on. They were giving away Wii U's. They were teaming up with Amazon. And for some reason, they were shipping fans to E3 in boxes. Refrigerator boxes completely crammed with people who were finally happy to be out of there.

Probably the most realistic prediction in this thread.
 
How come? Micro USB is gonna go the way of the dodo and the Type-C connector is fantastic.

Would be nice, but this is a company that used USB Mini on a Controller the year before BOTH their competitors launched with USB Micro on theirs. Big N is never quite that far ahead on the "new tech" curve.
 

Somnid

Member
As long as it charges the fucking thing, who cares, what would be the benefit of C?

USB type C is generally synonymous with USB 3.1 (not exactly but nobody is mixing ports and specs). USB 3.1 has higher bandwidth and can do things like provide an HDMI signal or any other user defined signal over it. This is of benefit to Nintendo who can use it as a high-speed accessory port. For example if you were to plug a handheld into a dock or console, or if you wanted to have AV out on the unit. But in general, mini USB is going away, it's not the biggest deal if they went with it but no 2016 phone will have a mini USB port, it's dead.
 

blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
It was fucking weird, man. Nintendo had very little presence in general. Their booth looked like the Nintendo section of a retailer. None of the demo stations were on. They were giving away Wii U's. They were teaming up with Amazon. And for some reason, they were shipping fans to E3 in boxes. Refrigerator boxes completely crammed with people who were finally happy to be out of there.
That's how booth babes are dispatched at E3. Or were.
 

10k

Banned
Refrigerator boxes crammed with people? Sounds like your dream was symbolic for Nintendo's higher ups echo chamber thinking.
 

thefro

Member
Really. Unfortunately we have no clue

Too late now, but we should have set up a fake company to sponsor DICE (you can be an associate sponsor and get passes for like $2000-$3000) and sent some GAF members in suits to troll for information out of executives there.

We'll have to do that for the next Nintendo console launch.
 

Thraktor

Member
Actually, as we're talking BoMs and 14nm, I might as well get into why I think Nintendo should go for a 14nm SoC on their handheld.

Basically, I think the default option for Nintendo is to use a single ~4.5" 540p capacitive touch screen on their handheld, like the one used on the 2nd gen Moto E, which sells for as little as $75 off-contract. Taking the SoC and RAM out of the picture for a little bit, the BoM for the Moto E and a simple Nintendo handheld wouldn't be all that different. The handheld wouldn't need the modem, and would probably end up with a slightly smaller battery, but would add physical buttons and sticks and would probably have a little bit more internal flash memory. With the Moto E selling for that little, I can't see the total BoM for a straightforward 540p handheld (excluding the SoC and RAM) being much higher than $40-$50.

Even on the worse end of the spectrum for 14LPP yield estimates, you could squeeze a pretty nice 14nm SoC and some LPDDR4 in there in late 2016 without having to lose money at $199. The alternative, of course, is that the "spare cash" goes to a more modest 28nm SoC and some kind of special feature, be it a freeform display, 3D, or whatever else Nintendo may have up their sleeve. Hence, my argument is effectively that Nintendo should forgo any kind of expensive special functionality this time around and focus on designing a straightforward handheld with the highest performing SoC possible.

I don't say this out of any belief that this would help the handheld in isolation (in fact history has taught us that, if anything, handheld performance is irrelevant to sales at best and inversely proportional at worst). With AMD being very bullish about the low-power performance of their Polaris GPUs on 14nm (particularly notable that they're choosing Samsung/GF over TSMC for GPUs for the first time), I would be reasonably confident that a Polaris-based 14nm SoC with 4 CUs could both fit Nintendo's thermal requirements and come pretty damn close to one quarter the performance of the home NX (assuming maybe 12 CUs there, clocked lower than XBO).

A 540p handheld with the same GPU architecture, but running at a quarter the performance of a 1080p home console is pretty much the platonic ideal of straight-forward multi-device development. It doesn't make it trivial to develop a game for both, but with good tools it would bring the additional development work required to support both of the devices down pretty much as low as it can go.

The point of this isn't necessarily to help Nintendo's first party games (although it would reduce development costs a bit). The point is to get as many third parties as possible to get on board with supporting both devices. If Nintendo release a handheld with, say, an entry-level Adreno or Mali GPU alongside a home console with a >1 TFlops AMD GPU, then I think it's safe to say they'd get few to no third-party developers properly supporting the multi-device paradigm. For console focussed developers the resources required to properly optimise for the handheld would be excessive and they'd simply release console-only games. Meanwhile, handheld-focused developers may make their games playable on the home console, but would be unlikely to put the resources into re-writing their rendering pipeline or producing higher-quality assets to make proper use of the performance available on the home console. People who own one or both NX devices would end up with a lot of Nintendo games which are properly optimised for both devices, and then a hodgepodge of third party games which either only work on one device or just look like crap on the home console.

With a 14nm Polaris GPU in the handheld, though, the third party situation would be quite different. Home console focussed developers would be able to use the exact same rendering pipeline and lighting techniques/shader code/etc. as on the home console, and with proper tools scaling down the assets for the handheld would be near trivial. And for that small amount of effort they'd have a substantially larger audience for their game, if historical home/handheld splits for Nintendo are to continue. The handheld developers would still go with simple ports to the home console, but with modern lighting and shader techniques the result would be a lot more passable at 1080p on a big screen, even if polygon counts and texture resolutions aren't quite up to snuff.

What I'm getting at is that having some kind of fancy tech on the controller won't make Rockstar more likely to start bringing games to Nintendo consoles, and having a free-form display won't cause players to start buying CoD on NX rather than PS4. Giving Rockstar easy access to a market of 70 million users instead of 12 million users might make them think again, though, and allowing CoD fans to play their copy of the game both on the home NX and (in non-diluted form) on a handheld might get some of them to switch to NX as their platform of choice. I don't expect Nintendo to suddenly pick up every single multiplat going, but if they want to start clawing back third parties onto their platforms they need to give those third parties an incentive to develop for NX, and they need to give gamers an incentive to buy those third party games on NX. I don't believe that expensive specialist display technology or anything similar would achieve either of these goals, but I do think that a 14nm AMD SoC might, by making their multi-device strategy as seamless as possible for developers. Reducing costs for their own software development would just be icing on top of that.

Note: One thing I haven't mentioned above is CPU comparisons between home console and handheld. Unlike GPU performance, CPU-bound code doesn't generally scale with resolution in games, which means you can't just get away with a substantially less powerful CPU in the handheld than the home console. This is a tricky situation, as if Nintendo went with eight A72 cores in the home console, then it would be effectively impossible to get the same performance out of a handheld CPU. Even in they crammed eight A72's in the handheld as well, the performance differential would still end up three-fold or more, due to the differences in clock speeds required. This isn't something that would be easily worked around, but my own inclination would be towards a lot of A53s in the handheld (I'd literally consider 12 A53 cores, with two reserved for the OS and the remaining 10 for games) at whatever clock speed can be squeezed out of them, and a mild gimping of the home console's CPU to reduce the performance gap.

For multiplat games, then, simply getting "close enough" to PS4's CPU performance would do the job, even if Nintendo could squeeze more than that out of the home console. A rough DMIPS estimation would give a hypothetical 1.5GHz 10-core A53 slightly better performance than the seven 1.6GHz Jaguar cores available to developers in the PS4. Of course, I'd take that statistic with a grain of salt, not only because DMIPS is far from an all-encompassing benchmark, but also because my google search for 'jaguar dmips mhz' directed me to my own post on the old Wii U Technical Discussion Thread, and it's never a good sign when I'm the best source Google can find on a subject.
 
Okay, I need to catch up. Anyone able to help me round up the newest stuff? I'll worry about the organizing, I just need to know the what and from where, thanks. :)
 

10k

Banned
Actually, as we're talking BoMs and 14nm, I might as well get into why I think Nintendo should go for a 14nm SoC on their handheld.

Basically, I think the default option for Nintendo is to use a single ~4.5" 540p capacitive touch screen on their handheld, like the one used on the 2nd gen Moto E, which sells for as little as $75 off-contract. Taking the SoC and RAM out of the picture for a little bit, the BoM for the Moto E and a simple Nintendo handheld wouldn't be all that different. The handheld wouldn't need the modem, and would probably end up with a slightly smaller battery, but would add physical buttons and sticks and would probably have a little bit more internal flash memory. With the Moto E selling for that little, I can't see the total BoM for a straightforward 540p handheld (excluding the SoC and RAM) being much higher than $40-$50.

Even on the worse end of the spectrum for 14LPP yield estimates, you could squeeze a pretty nice 14nm SoC and some LPDDR4 in there in late 2016 without having to lose money at $199. The alternative, of course, is that the "spare cash" goes to a more modest 28nm SoC and some kind of special feature, be it a freeform display, 3D, or whatever else Nintendo may have up their sleeve. Hence, my argument is effectively that Nintendo should forgo any kind of expensive special functionality this time around and focus on designing a straightforward handheld with the highest performing SoC possible.

I don't say this out of any belief that this would help the handheld in isolation (in fact history has taught us that, if anything, handheld performance is irrelevant to sales at best and inversely proportional at worst). With AMD being very bullish about the low-power performance of their Polaris GPUs on 14nm (particularly notable that they're choosing Samsung/GF over TSMC for GPUs for the first time), I would be reasonably confident that a Polaris-based 14nm SoC with 4 CUs could both fit Nintendo's thermal requirements and come pretty damn close to one quarter the performance of the home NX (assuming maybe 12 CUs there, clocked lower than XBO).

A 540p handheld with the same GPU architecture, but running at a quarter the performance of a 1080p home console is pretty much the platonic ideal of straight-forward multi-device development. It doesn't make it trivial to develop a game for both, but with good tools it would bring the additional development work required to support both of the devices down pretty much as low as it can go.

The point of this isn't necessarily to help Nintendo's first party games (although it would reduce development costs a bit). The point is to get as many third parties as possible to get on board with supporting both devices. If Nintendo release a handheld with, say, an entry-level Adreno or Mali GPU alongside a home console with a >1 TFlops AMD GPU, then I think it's safe to say they'd get few to no third-party developers properly supporting the multi-device paradigm. For console focussed developers the resources required to properly optimise for the handheld would be excessive and they'd simply release console-only games. Meanwhile, handheld-focused developers may make their games playable on the home console, but would be unlikely to put the resources into re-writing their rendering pipeline or producing higher-quality assets to make proper use of the performance available on the home console. People who own one or both NX devices would end up with a lot of Nintendo games which are properly optimised for both devices, and then a hodgepodge of third party games which either only work on one device or just look like crap on the home console.

With a 14nm Polaris GPU in the handheld, though, the third party situation would be quite different. Home console focussed developers would be able to use the exact same rendering pipeline and lighting techniques/shader code/etc. as on the home console, and with proper tools scaling down the assets for the handheld would be near trivial. And for that small amount of effort they'd have a substantially larger audience for their game, if historical home/handheld splits for Nintendo are to continue. The handheld developers would still go with simple ports to the home console, but with modern lighting and shader techniques the result would be a lot more passable at 1080p on a big screen, even if polygon counts and texture resolutions aren't quite up to snuff.

What I'm getting at is that having some kind of fancy tech on the controller won't make Rockstar more likely to start bringing games to Nintendo consoles, and having a free-form display won't cause players to start buying CoD on NX rather than PS4. Giving Rockstar easy access to a market of 70 million users instead of 12 million users might make them think again, though, and allowing CoD fans to play their copy of the game both on the home NX and (in non-diluted form) on a handheld might get some of them to switch to NX as their platform of choice. I don't expect Nintendo to suddenly pick up every single multiplat going, but if they want to start clawing back third parties onto their platforms they need to give those third parties an incentive to develop for NX, and they need to give gamers an incentive to buy those third party games on NX. I don't believe that expensive specialist display technology or anything similar would achieve either of these goals, but I do think that a 14nm AMD SoC might, by making their multi-device strategy as seamless as possible for developers. Reducing costs for their own software development would just be icing on top of that.

Note: One thing I haven't mentioned above is CPU comparisons between home console and handheld. Unlike GPU performance, CPU-bound code doesn't generally scale with resolution in games, which means you can't just get away with a substantially less powerful CPU in the handheld than the home console. This is a tricky situation, as if Nintendo went with eight A72 cores in the home console, then it would be effectively impossible to get the same performance out of a handheld CPU. Even in they crammed eight A72's in the handheld as well, the performance differential would still end up three-fold or more, due to the differences in clock speeds required. This isn't something that would be easily worked around, but my own inclination would be towards a lot of A53s in the handheld (I'd literally consider 12 A53 cores, with two reserved for the OS and the remaining 10 for games) at whatever clock speed can be squeezed out of them, and a mild gimping of the home console's CPU to reduce the performance gap.

For multiplat games, then, simply getting "close enough" to PS4's CPU performance would do the job, even if Nintendo could squeeze more than that out of the home console. A rough DMIPS estimation would give a hypothetical 1.5GHz 10-core A53 slightly better performance than the seven 1.6GHz Jaguar cores available to developers in the PS4. Of course, I'd take that statistic with a grain of salt, not only because DMIPS is far from an all-encompassing benchmark, but also because my google search for 'jaguar dmips mhz' directed me to my own post on the old Wii U Technical Discussion Thread, and it's never a good sign when I'm the best source Google can find on a subject.

I think both handheld and console are gonna use octo-core A53's. The CPUs have to be on par I believe. The differences will be in RAM, clock speeds, and GPU's.

If Nintendo wants 1080p ports they're gonna need to be closer to PS4's 1.8TF gpu than XB1's 1.3TF.

Console:

Octo-core ARM cortex v8 A53 clocked at 2.0 GHz at 14nm
8GB DDR3 (I don't see Nintendo going for DDR4 because they're Nintendo lol)
32mb eDRAM
1.5TF GPU
500GB HDD

Handheld:

Octo-core ARM cortex v8 A53 clocked at 1.5Ghz at 14nm
540p free form Sharp LCD display at 4.88" (3DS XL size) capacitive touchscreen
4GB DDR3
16mb eDRAM
400GF GPU
8GB SD card
 
James Scott and others--how can the NX console launch in March? Missing the holiday season is a brutally risky move.
Although I really hope it's 2016, especially with Zelda's release tied to it, but I have a feeling that it's not ready. If it's not ready, it's not ready.
As for March specifically, I don't think they'll want to wait much longer and they've launched systems in March before like the 3DS.
Wii U launched when it wasn't ready and the hardware and software likely suffered because of it. I remember I kept saying that "Wii U should've launched a few months later" with a lot of software being buggy and the OS being terribly slow which turned away a lot of people.
 

Thraktor

Member
I think both handheld and console are gonna use octo-core A53's. The CPUs have to be on par I believe. The differences will be in RAM, clock speeds, and GPU's.

I disagree on the home console front. Even if Nintendo decided they only needed to match 8x A53 performance in the home console the better way of doing that would be with two or three high-clocked A72s. They'd have plenty of thermal headroom available.

If Nintendo wants 1080p ports they're gonna need to be closer to PS4's 1.8TF gpu than XB1's 1.3TF.

Console:

Octo-core ARM cortex v8 A53 clocked at 2.0 GHz at 14nm
8GB DDR3 (I don't see Nintendo going for DDR4 because they're Nintendo lol)
32mb eDRAM
1.5TF GPU
500GB HDD

Handheld:

Octo-core ARM cortex v8 A53 clocked at 1.5Ghz at 14nm
540p free form Sharp LCD display at 4.88" (3DS XL size) capacitive touchscreen
4GB DDR3
16mb eDRAM
400GF GPU
8GB SD card

Both of those would be very expensive. On the console side of things there doesn't seem to be anyone planning any large-die chips on 14LPP this year, which means that a console SoC on 14nm would be much more expensive than an equivalent SoC on 28nm (and it's not like you need 14nm to compete with XBO and PS4). On the handheld front with an extremely powerful SoC and a free-form display you'd probably be pushing $300, which I don't think anyone is expecting. Besides, eDRAM isn't available on 14nm (nor, as far as I'm aware, on 28nm).
 
NX Console holiday 2016 for North America, Zelda, Smash Bros, Galaxy 3 at launch. Nintendo needs that revenue since the President is expecting to report big profits before the end of fiscal year of March 2017.

NX Handheld holiday 2016 in Japan, Monster Hunter NX at launch, Nintendo will put themselves in a position to sell out hardware based on demand.

March 2017 NX handheld for North America is released just like N3DS and many other SKU for the DS in the past.

March 2017 NX Console is released in Japan with same games as North American launch but also Monster Hunter NX and Dragon Quest XI.
 

Eradicate

Member
Okay, I need to catch up. Anyone able to help me round up the newest stuff? I'll worry about the organizing, I just need to know the what and from where, thanks. :)

I'll try my best, but I'll inevitably miss some things, and I'm not sure what all you've already got collected!


IHS analyst saying it's likely the handheld will be released this year.


Forbes (I know) on launch date and shipping goals.

What follows are a bunch of CV-related things, which may not be what you're going for, but they point towards work being done on NX:

aa25dc77d7752ade253a4168ccd7906e.png


I'm sure this guy's linkedin has been posted already. ( a banned site did a topic on this yesterday) But I stumbled across this dude whole resume online. Must. Resist.. urge.. to.. contact.

obama-sweating-2-e1427916038978.jpg


Do employees have any linkedin profiles from the 3DS era where they said they were working on "next-gen handheld"?

I ask because we've heard Kimishima, Reggie, Tanabe, Koei Tecmo president, and now a bunch of LinkedIn profile referring to it as a console.

Edit: I'll try to gather all the sources referring to it as a console

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/20...think_nx_is_a_home_console_first_and_foremost

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/06...ls-aime-talks-amiibo-and-the-skylanders-deal/

(handheld games don't take three years to make)
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-06-17-next-proper-metroid-prime-would-likely-now-be-on-nx

(no mention of saying they're not building the next version of 3DS

http://www.techradar.com/us/news/gaming/nintendo-nx-release-date-news-and-rumors-1289401


http://www.stevenchith.com/resume/

(ohh, consoles, it's plural.)
http://nintendoeverything.com/ninte...gen-unannounced-consoles-on-linkedin-profile/

(NX confirmed to lay the smackdown on PS4 and XB1 confirmed!) (probably is Google AR device or Steam machine)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivanandh-ramadass-5b036425
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-VYlwzUS-M

And tons of other linkedin profiles lol.

+ Steve Rabin


+ Tanner Stevens


Not sure if there is something interesting. Maybe you'll find something else on their profile.

If it helps that text is still present on the profile (when I click through).

There's also this profile. Note that the game mentioned has yet to be announced yet.

Kh1qLxD.jpg

39f55bc468b812a0ef73a9985e216aaf.png


For whatever reason this comes up under search but when i view the actual profile this is gone. But before you get too excited...
http://www.h2flowgame.com/#/w

Probably nothing, but someone named Steven Chith works on Nintendo as Associate Software Development Engineer.

The description is quite funny. Not even Nintendo employees know what's NX : P

1455051446-1.png


There are also many software engineers developing the "next generation gaming device".

1455051732-2.png


It seems Nintendo hired most of them on January of this year.


As i said, it's nothing, so please be gentle.

Hmm, this is mildly interesting. http://www.stevenchith.com/resume/



Then, there was the recent investor's meeting:

From the recent Investor's Q&A

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/160203qa/index.html

So, we can infer this is basically a confirmation NX will be launched before march 2017, right?

There's another indie hoping to release for NX.

Indie release hopes.

Aaaand, that takes us back to page 83! Again, I don't know how far back you've logged or anything, but I hope this helps and gives you a marker!
 

Thraktor

Member
Here's the thing that doesn't sit well with me regarding a split launch. If the handheld launches in November 2016 and the home console in March 2017, and if they do have a completely shared library, then Nintendo would effectively be releasing software for the NX home console for four months before allowing you to buy the hardware. They'd be trying to sell people on a Wii U for the holiday season while actually releasing games for its successor (and those games would potentially even be on store shelves, if they go the whole hog with game cards for both devices).

Generally the big issue with console launches isn't getting the hardware out the door (and in this case there's no reason to expect the home NX to contain anything that couldn't be released this year), it's in making sure there are enough games there to support it. It would therefore strike me as bizarre to leave hardware unreleased when the game library is already building up. Perhaps put them a month apart to simplify logistics, but the logical approach is to get both pieces of hardware out as quickly as possible.
 
I'll try my best, but I'll inevitably miss some things, and I'm not sure what all you've already got collected!

Thanks! :D I've seen most of that. I just wonder if it's wise to highlight linkedin resumes of folks who obviously shouldn't be talking about NX. Don't want them getting into trouble.

Also I try to focus on what's been said by Nintendo and other official sources directly.
 
Although I really hope it's 2016, especially with Zelda's release tied to it, but I have a feeling that it's not ready. If it's not ready, it's not ready.
As for March specifically, I don't think they'll want to wait much longer and they've launched systems in March before like the 3DS.
Wii U launched when it wasn't ready and the hardware and software likely suffered because of it. I remember I kept saying that "Wii U should've launched a few months later" with a lot of software being buggy and the OS being terribly slow which turned away a lot of people.

Call me optimistic, but there seems to have been a huge internal shift at Nintendo. I'm not going to go out and say that everything is going to go smooth out of the gate, but I do believe Nintendo sense the gravity of this launch and the importance of the console releasing this year. Wii U may have been half-baked as far as OS and dev tools, but the hardware itself released a year too late, according to many fans.

What I am banking on is that much of the work they put into Wii U's dev environment will be carried over. That means better Visual Studio integration, which they started transitioning to a year or so back now. It seems they may decide to use Vulkan API, which would be a huge plus in adopting an industry standard (and a high-performance one at that). They've got Unity already and I think most here are optimistic on the issue of UE4 support judging by the Dragon Quest XI "announcement".

Despite all of that, I expect many western third parties to take a wait and see approach. Nintendo are likely aware of this and are likely prepared for a strong launch composed of software from first party teams and their close partners. We may see a repeat of Nintendo's N64 "Dream Team" strategy where they work closely w/ key developers, such as Capcom, Square Enix, and Bandai Namco. Couple that with a strong launch of their services/online component and a healthy dose of indie support and it may be enough momentum to convince other publishers that there is a market.

So yeah, I am expecting quality over quantity at NX launch.
 
Here's the thing that doesn't sit well with me regarding a split launch. If the handheld launches in November 2016 and the home console in March 2017, and if they do have a completely shared library, then Nintendo would effectively be releasing software for the NX home console for four months before allowing you to buy the hardware. They'd be trying to sell people on a Wii U for the holiday season while actually releasing games for its successor (and those games would potentially even be on store shelves, if they go the whole hog with game cards for both devices).

Generally the big issue with console launches isn't getting the hardware out the door (and in this case there's no reason to expect the home NX to contain anything that couldn't be released this year), it's in making sure there are enough games there to support it. It would therefore strike me as bizarre to leave hardware unreleased when the game library is already building up. Perhaps put them a month apart to simplify logistics, but the logical approach is to get both pieces of hardware out as quickly as possible.

I been wondering about the shared library stuff. I think we will see a lot of smaller games/indies in the vain of Mario Vs Donkey Kong being the shared games rather than full games.

Obviously unifying the architecture / software development makes it a lot easier for Nintendo to share assets between the two, but also third parties have less work to do in releasing say SteamWorld Dig on both E-shops.

I don't think we will see bigger titles shared between the two. It be more "indie" stuff.
 

10k

Banned
I disagree on the home console front. Even if Nintendo decided they only needed to match 8x A53 performance in the home console the better way of doing that would be with two or three high-clocked A72s. They'd have plenty of thermal headroom available.



Both of those would be very expensive. On the console side of things there doesn't seem to be anyone planning any large-die chips on 14LPP this year, which means that a console SoC on 14nm would be much more expensive than an equivalent SoC on 28nm (and it's not like you need 14nm to compete with XBO and PS4). On the handheld front with an extremely powerful SoC and a free-form display you'd probably be pushing $300, which I don't think anyone is expecting. Besides, eDRAM isn't available on 14nm (nor, as far as I'm aware, on 28nm).
Perhaps the handheld will just have a regular touchscreen then and the free form is just the controller screen? Are 4 A72's enough to match 8 A53'a assuming both are clocked at 2.0ghz on the console? And I guess 28nm for both SKU's would be more reasonable.
 
Really good points, but then it brings up the ultimate question...if the library is shared across NX devices, would this entirely matter right off the bat? Assuming they can get the handheld powerful enough to get FFXV and Zelda, I'd assume they'd go ahead and release it for the "platform" regardless. I could see a battle with the consumers in their eyes that "the handheld version is different," but if "platform is king," then maybe the game launch timing may not matter as much in the end?
Despite more than likely having a shared library, I don't think all the games will be on both systems. I don't think that, even if SE wanted, that they could squeeze XV on a handheld. Has a hard enough time trying to run on PS4. I imagine Zelda would be a similar situation.
Maybe something they could do is make a separate game for the handheld?
Maybe for those big games they can do like Metroid prime/fusion? Would be interesting if they would be willing to invest extra into games like that.
 

Peru

Member
Would be interesting if they would be willing to invest extra into games like that.

But that's what they're doing now. A Zelda for handheld, a Zelda for console. A Sonic for handheld a Sonic for console. A Mario Kart for.. etc

It's what they're moving away from. Hopefully. And most likely. Because it just locks up enormous resources.
 
But that's what they're doing now. A Zelda for handheld, a Zelda for console. A Sonic for handheld a Sonic for console. A Mario Kart for.. etc

It's what they're moving away from. Hopefully. And most likely. Because it just locks up enormous resources.
I don't think LBW took a lot of resources, but it would probably be best if there was just one Zelda team. But yeah, you're right. I don't think they'll make two MK game this generation and Sonic might move to being like that as well but in the case of games that likely can't run on a portable they might have to do something else (or leave the portable without a Zelda)
I been wondering about the shared library stuff. I think we will see a lot of smaller games/indies in the vain of Mario Vs Donkey Kong being the shared games rather than full games.

Obviously unifying the architecture / software development makes it a lot easier for Nintendo to share assets between the two, but also third parties have less work to do in releasing say SteamWorld Dig on both E-shops.

I don't think we will see bigger titles shared between the two. It be more "indie" stuff.
I think Nintendo will make most of their games for the portable/console this time around.
I think a lot of their games the previous generation weren't too ambitious where they couldn't run on a new gen portable if you exclude Zelda and Xenoblade at least.
That and major 3rd party multiplats would likely stay as is on the console.
The console would likely be more expensive and would need more reasons to be desirable.
 

Malus

Member
Despite more than likely having a shared library, I don't think all the games will be on both systems. I don't think that, even if SE wanted, that they could squeeze XV on a handheld. Has a hard enough time trying to run on PS4. I imagine Zelda would be a similar situation.
Maybe something they could do is make a separate game for the handheld?
Maybe for those big games they can do like Metroid prime/fusion? Would be interesting if they would be willing to invest extra into games like that.

People keep saying that about Zelda but Nintendo put Xenoblade Chronicles of all things on 3DS and its not like Zelda is a full fledged NX title like a FFXV.

Also I thought devoting resources into making 2 games for the same series is exactly what they're trying to avoid.
 
Here's the thing that doesn't sit well with me regarding a split launch. If the handheld launches in November 2016 and the home console in March 2017, and if they do have a completely shared library, then Nintendo would effectively be releasing software for the NX home console for four months before allowing you to buy the hardware. They'd be trying to sell people on a Wii U for the holiday season while actually releasing games for its successor (and those games would potentially even be on store shelves, if they go the whole hog with game cards for both devices).

Generally the big issue with console launches isn't getting the hardware out the door (and in this case there's no reason to expect the home NX to contain anything that couldn't be released this year), it's in making sure there are enough games there to support it. It would therefore strike me as bizarre to leave hardware unreleased when the game library is already building up. Perhaps put them a month apart to simplify logistics, but the logical approach is to get both pieces of hardware out as quickly as possible.

Here's an old quote from Iwata on the split launch of new 3DS. I don't know what we can necessarily conclude from it, but he did highlight some of the challenges.
Iwata said:
Regarding New Nintendo 3DS, the quantity that was produced before the end of last year or the amount that was delivered to consumers, was limited, and overseas, in Europe or the U.S. for example, it takes longer than in Japan for the products to be produced in China and to actually arrive and be lined up in stores. Hence, we had to make a difficult decision on whether it was acceptable or not to cause a worldwide shortage of New Nintendo 3DS. As a result, (based on the different diffusion levels of the preceding models,) we made the decision to launch it in 2015 in Europe and the U.S. In hindsight, the actual results and the reactions to the launch of New Nintendo 3DS tell me that you are absolutely correct in assuming that the results would have been different if it were launched within 2014. In addition, the fact that putting effort into attracting attention to New Nintendo 3DS became an obstacle to selling Wii U in Japan has made us once again understand the difficulty in staggering the sales peaks. We have many issues to reflect on, and I think we could have tried harder.

The other fact worthy of note is that Japan has Dragon Quest XI lined up for release this year on 3DS. Unless NX has BC (which it might), that might offer a distraction to the handheld's launch this year. Similarly, it seems vital to release the home console this year in the west. Hmmm
 
People keep saying that about Zelda but Nintendo put Xenoblade Chronicles of all things on 3DS and its not like Zelda is a full fledged NX title like a FFXV.

Also I thought devoting resources into making 2 games for the same series is exactly what they're trying to avoid.
I'm not sure 2D renditions of those franchises like Metroid and Zelda would take up a lot of resources
But sure, they don't need to.
Also, not sure XC3D is the best example, needed the extra power of the N3DS to actually run and wasn't an ideal experience.
I think DKCR3D is probably a better example of what to expect.
 

Eradicate

Member
Thanks! :D I've seen most of that. I just wonder if it's wise to highlight linkedin resumes of folks who obviously shouldn't be talking about NX. Don't want them getting into trouble.

Also I try to focus on what's been said by Nintendo and other official sources directly.

You're welcome! It sounds like you're basically up to speed then!

I agree; don't really want to spread their personal information around like that either! You're doing honorable work, a true Hero of Legend!

Despite more than likely having a shared library, I don't think all the games will be on both systems. I don't think that, even if SE wanted, that they could squeeze XV on a handheld. Has a hard enough time trying to run on PS4. I imagine Zelda would be a similar situation.
Maybe something they could do is make a separate game for the handheld?
Maybe for those big games they can do like Metroid prime/fusion? Would be interesting if they would be willing to invest extra into games like that.

A few other people already discussing this, but I can see your points. As far as making extra games that interact, I wonder if they'll reserve that more for handheld/console/NX platform interacting with mobile instead? For instance, Kirby's Epic Yarn NX could release with a Kirby: Canvas Curse Mobile game that interact when you have both.

Here's an old quote from Iwata on the split launch of new 3DS. I don't know what we can necessarily conclude from it, but he did highlight some of the challenges.

The other fact worthy of note is that Japan has Dragon Quest XI lined up for release this year on 3DS. Unless NX has BC (which it might), that might offer a distraction to the handheld's launch this year. Similarly, it seems vital to release the home console this year in the west. Hmmm

Great find! I really think/hope they learned from that and are applying it this time around! It doesn't seem like Kimishima is changing the course of direction based on when he came in, at least (I feel) regarding this upcoming NX release.
 

Pokemaniac

Member
People keep saying that about Zelda but Nintendo put Xenoblade Chronicles of all things on 3DS and its not like Zelda is a full fledged NX title like a FFXV.

Also I thought devoting resources into making 2 games for the same series is exactly what they're trying to avoid.

Definitely most series wouldn't require 2 games to be made anymore, but there are a few things like what is currently handheld and console Zelda, and 2D and 3D Metroid, where the two types of games are distinct enough where it makes sense to still make both.
 

Thraktor

Member
I been wondering about the shared library stuff. I think we will see a lot of smaller games/indies in the vain of Mario Vs Donkey Kong being the shared games rather than full games.

Obviously unifying the architecture / software development makes it a lot easier for Nintendo to share assets between the two, but also third parties have less work to do in releasing say SteamWorld Dig on both E-shops.

I don't think we will see bigger titles shared between the two. It be more "indie" stuff.

Despite more than likely having a shared library, I don't think all the games will be on both systems. I don't think that, even if SE wanted, that they could squeeze XV on a handheld. Has a hard enough time trying to run on PS4. I imagine Zelda would be a similar situation.
Maybe something they could do is make a separate game for the handheld?
Maybe for those big games they can do like Metroid prime/fusion? Would be interesting if they would be willing to invest extra into games like that.

The thing is that is just doesn't make sense for Nintendo to make one X game for the home console and one X game for the handheld when they can just make a single game and release it for both. I was going to use Mario Kart as an example there, but to be honest, it works for pretty much every one of their franchises. There are inevitably going to be a small number of games that only run on one or the other, but the point of my longwinded post above was that they should do everything they can to make as many games as possible, both first and third party, work across both devices. They don't have the resources to keep two separate ecosystems afloat anymore, and there's no longer any technological need to.

Here's an old quote from Iwata on the split launch of new 3DS. I don't know what we can necessarily conclude from it, but he did highlight some of the challenges.

The other fact worthy of note is that Japan has Dragon Quest XI lined up for release this year on 3DS. Unless NX has BC (which it might), that might offer a distraction to the handheld's launch this year. Similarly, it seems vital to release the home console this year in the west. Hmmm

The new 3DS wasn't quite that big a deal, as it wasn't a completely new console. I would also imagine any shortages were down to the newer 3D screen, which was a fairly specialised component, and ramp-up from Sharp may have been slow. I suppose if the NX controller does have donut screens or something that may impact manufacturing, but if it doesn't have any unusual specialised components in there, then there's no reason they couldn't stockpile a sufficient supply for a worldwide launch.

Definitely most series wouldn't require 2 games to be made anymore, but there are a few things like what is currently handheld and console Zelda, and 2D and 3D Metroid, where the two types of games are distinct enough where it makes sense to still make both.

Even in the unlikely scenario that Nintendo starts making both 3D and 2D Metroid games again, why limit the 3D game to the home console and the 2D game to the handheld? Why not release both games on both devices?
 

Lonely1

Unconfirmed Member
I think both handheld and console are gonna use octo-core A53's. The CPUs have to be on par I believe. The differences will be in RAM, clock speeds, and GPU's.

If Nintendo wants 1080p ports they're gonna need to be closer to PS4's 1.8TF gpu than XB1's 1.3TF.

Console:

Octo-core ARM cortex v8 A53 clocked at 2.0 GHz at 14nm
8GB DDR3 (I don't see Nintendo going for DDR4 because they're Nintendo lol)
32mb eDRAM
1.5TF GPU
500GB HDD

Handheld:

Octo-core ARM cortex v8 A53 clocked at 1.5Ghz at 14nm
540p free form Sharp LCD display at 4.88" (3DS XL size) capacitive touchscreen
4GB DDR3
16mb eDRAM
400GF GPU
8GB SD card

That handheld would burn a hole through your desk with how hot it would get, let alone your hands. :p

Both of those would be very expensive. On the console side of things there doesn't seem to be anyone planning any large-die chips on 14LPP this year, which means that a console SoC on 14nm would be much more expensive than an equivalent SoC on 28nm (and it's not like you need 14nm to compete with XBO and PS4). On the handheld front with an extremely powerful SoC and a free-form display you'd probably be pushing $300, which I don't think anyone is expecting. Besides, eDRAM isn't available on 14nm (nor, as far as I'm aware, on 28nm).

I expect the console for 2017, though.
 
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