The Nintendo "NX"

[gf78]

Nintendo hasn't learned from their past mistakes.

I think they finally have.  That's a big reason that they aren't building an cheaper, under-powered machine this time around.  They are also trying to woo third party support by making the system easier to develop for. 

It may be their Dreamcast, but at least changes are coming.

I think the whole excuse that Nintendo makes under-powered hardware is ridiculous.  That wasn't true until the Wii.  The N64 - despite it's cartridge format with limited storage - had stronger and more advanced hardware than the PlayStation and Saturn.  The Gamecube contained more powerful hardware than the PS2 and sported a lot of the same graphical effects as the Xbox.  The SNES was also more powerful than the Genesis.

[ignition365]

Nintendo hasn't learned from their past mistakes.

I think they finally have.  That's a big reason that they aren't building an cheaper, under-powered machine this time around.  They are also trying to woo third party support by making the system easier to develop for. 

It may be their Dreamcast, but at least changes are coming.

I think the whole excuse that Nintendo makes under-powered hardware is ridiculous.  That wasn't true until the Wii.  The N64 - despite it's cartridge format with limited storage - had stronger and more advanced hardware than the PlayStation and Saturn.  The Gamecube contained more powerful hardware than the PS2 and sported a lot of the same graphical effects as the Xbox.  The SNES was also more powerful than the Genesis.

If I said under-powered I meant specifically they were behind in terms of media storage.

[gf78]

Nintendo hasn't learned from their past mistakes.

I think they finally have.  That's a big reason that they aren't building an cheaper, under-powered machine this time around.  They are also trying to woo third party support by making the system easier to develop for. 

It may be their Dreamcast, but at least changes are coming.

I think the whole excuse that Nintendo makes under-powered hardware is ridiculous.  That wasn't true until the Wii.  The N64 - despite it's cartridge format with limited storage - had stronger and more advanced hardware than the PlayStation and Saturn.  The Gamecube contained more powerful hardware than the PS2 and sported a lot of the same graphical effects as the Xbox.  The SNES was also more powerful than the Genesis.

If I said under-powered I meant specifically they were behind in terms of media storage.

In that case, I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment. 

[turf]

All the handhelds are underpowered and use old tech. Gameboy all the way to the 3DS.

It may be their Dreamcast, but at least changes are coming.

The NX would have to do really bad for it to be Nintendo's Dreamcast.

Sega was posting big losses around the Dreamcast's release.  Nintendo has been profitable lately, they'd have to fuck up pretty hard to hit SEGA lows.

I don't think they'll go broke. I just meant they may bail on the system market.

[kmacdw]

All the handhelds are underpowered and use old tech. Gameboy all the way to the 3DS.

It may be their Dreamcast, but at least changes are coming.

The NX would have to do really bad for it to be Nintendo's Dreamcast.

Sega was posting big losses around the Dreamcast's release.  Nintendo has been profitable lately, they'd have to fuck up pretty hard to hit SEGA lows.

I don't think they'll go broke. I just meant they may bail on the system market.

Some industry experts would say there won't be a dedicated system market post NX's life-cycle anyways.

That said, they said the same about PS4 and now they're convinced there will be a PS5.

[ignition365]

All the handhelds are underpowered and use old tech. Gameboy all the way to the 3DS.

It's hard to stuff new tech into such a small shell.

I don't think they'll go broke. I just meant they may bail on the system market.

SEGA didn't go broke, they bailed because they were losing so much money.  Nintendo won't bail on the hardware market unless they start losing big money consistantly because of it.

[gf78]

All the handhelds are underpowered and use old tech. Gameboy all the way to the 3DS.

It's hard to stuff new tech into such a small shell.

I don't think they'll go broke. I just meant they may bail on the system market.

SEGA didn't go broke, they bailed because they were losing so much money.  Nintendo won't bail on the hardware market unless they start losing big money consistantly because of it.

Well, those pesky shareholders may have something to say about it all.     But in all seriousness, Nintendo keeps lowering their sales forecasts and have actually taken a loss a few quarters now.  That was unheard of even just a few short years ago.  It doesn't matter how much money you have in your "war chest."  When shareholders and executives see that money keeps getting scooped out and not replaced, even if it's just a little at a time, they will act to plug that proverbial leak. 

[ignition365]

All the handhelds are underpowered and use old tech. Gameboy all the way to the 3DS.

It's hard to stuff new tech into such a small shell.

I don't think they'll go broke. I just meant they may bail on the system market.

SEGA didn't go broke, they bailed because they were losing so much money.  Nintendo won't bail on the hardware market unless they start losing big money consistantly because of it.

Well, those pesky shareholders may have something to say about it all.     But in all seriousness, Nintendo keeps lowering their sales forecasts and have actually taken a loss a few quarters now.  That was unheard of even just a few short years ago.  It doesn't matter how much money you have in your "war chest."  When shareholders and executives see that money keeps getting scooped out and not replaced, even if it's just a little at a time, they will act to plug that proverbial leak.

Yes, and generally that leads to restaffing and changing management.  Likely you'll see that before you'll see Nintendo leave the hardware market.

Around the time Sega left the hardware market they swapped heads of the company rather frequently, for various reasons.

Again, NX would have to fail pretty hard, Sega Saturn hard, to leave the hardware market.

[gf78]

Yes, and generally that leads to restaffing and changing management.  Likely you'll see that before you'll see Nintendo leave the hardware market.

Around the time Sega left the hardware market they swapped heads of the company rather frequently, for various reasons.

Again, NX would have to fail pretty hard, Sega Saturn hard, to leave the hardware market.

LOL...the Wii U is so close to the Saturn's level of fail.  Saturn sold around 10 million and Wii U is barely above 12 million in four years. 

[ignition365]

Yes, and generally that leads to restaffing and changing management.  Likely you'll see that before you'll see Nintendo leave the hardware market.

Around the time Sega left the hardware market they swapped heads of the company rather frequently, for various reasons.

Again, NX would have to fail pretty hard, Sega Saturn hard, to leave the hardware market.

LOL...the Wii U is so close to the Saturn's level of fail.  Saturn sold around 10 million and Wii U is barely above 12 million in four years.

Yes, but Sega handled the Saturn worse than Nintendo is handling the Wii U.  They burned way more bridges than Nintendo has.

[sin2beta]

Yes, and generally that leads to restaffing and changing management.  Likely you'll see that before you'll see Nintendo leave the hardware market.

Around the time Sega left the hardware market they swapped heads of the company rather frequently, for various reasons.

Again, NX would have to fail pretty hard, Sega Saturn hard, to leave the hardware market.

LOL...the Wii U is so close to the Saturn's level of fail.  Saturn sold around 10 million and Wii U is barely above 12 million in four years.

Yes, but Sega handled the Saturn worse than Nintendo is handling the Wii U.  They burned way more bridges than Nintendo has.

Depends on what bridges. SEGA burned them with retailers, EA, and a few others I'm sure I'm missing. Nintendo continues to burn the third party bridges (always have). I feel SEGA always handled third party companies better.

Nintendo has always been able to survive because of its first party content. The big question I have is, how long will that last? Honestly, I don't play games the same way anymore. Games are bigger and take more time. It is easier to have 1 main game whether it is Minecraft, Warcraft, DOTA, call of duty etc. This is bad if you rely on software sales for one particular console.

Maybe the NX will be able to bring back that one major month of third party support the WiiU had with Mass Effect and Batman...

[ignition365]

Yes, and generally that leads to restaffing and changing management.  Likely you'll see that before you'll see Nintendo leave the hardware market.

Around the time Sega left the hardware market they swapped heads of the company rather frequently, for various reasons.

Again, NX would have to fail pretty hard, Sega Saturn hard, to leave the hardware market.

LOL...the Wii U is so close to the Saturn's level of fail.  Saturn sold around 10 million and Wii U is barely above 12 million in four years.

Yes, but Sega handled the Saturn worse than Nintendo is handling the Wii U.  They burned way more bridges than Nintendo has.

Depends on what bridges. SEGA burned them with retailers, EA, and a few others I'm sure I'm missing. Nintendo continues to burn the third party bridges (always have). I feel SEGA always handled third party companies better.

Nintendo has always been able to survive because of its first party content. The big question I have is, how long will that last? Honestly, I don't play games the same way anymore. Games are bigger and take more time. It is easier to have 1 main game whether it is Minecraft, Warcraft, DOTA, call of duty etc. This is bad if you rely on software sales for one particular console.

Maybe the NX will be able to bring back that one major month of third party support the WiiU had with Mass Effect and Batman...

Nintendo only had issues with Amazon retailer wise, and they seem to be better because Amazon is now selling Nintendo hardware again.  Nintendo didn't burn any bridges with third party companies with the Wii U, 3rd party companies decided it wasn't worth it to port to Wii U.  That's not really burning a bridge.  Sega burned a lot of bridges with 3rd party developers with the Saturn, none of the developers knew the release date or were given dev kits early enough to get software out for launch, hence why the Saturn had such shit 3rd party launch support.  The fact that a lot of 3rd party companies are looking at the NX and think it looks promising proves that Nintendo is not "always" burning third party bridges.  Sega's third party support was so bad early on that several companies went and reverse engineered the Genesis so they didn't have to deal with Sega's ridiculous 3rd party restrictions.  Nintendo hasn't had that issue since the NES.

Don't fully understand your point on the second part, but yes, 3rd party support is crucial to be the best console in a generation (Like PS2 dominated in its generation)

I don't think that's the best analogy, Mass Effect and Batman were really poor ports and neither sold very well on the Wii U.  Probably the exact reason EA stopped producing content for Wii U.  I think WB produced more games and might still with Scribblenauts and what not.  Nintendo's current 3rd party support is almost non-existent, but WB and Ubisoft supported the Wii U for quite some time.  IMO, Nintendo's strongest trait this generation is their indie support, which is kind of hindered by their inferior DRM.  Both Xbox and Playstation have higher restrictions and longer processes than the Wii U in terms of producing and publishing digital titles. 

I applied to be an indie developer on all 3 platforms to publish a game.  Sony wouldn't talk to me, literally, they didn't respond to my request at all.  Microsoft accepted me into their program but told me they wouldn't sell me a dev kit until I published a game or launched a successful kickstarter... they may have had a 3rd method they would be willing to sell me a dev kit, but I don't recall... responses only through email, I still get ID@XBOX emails but they never got back to me on buying a dev kit.  Nintendo actually called me on the phone and spoke with me for about an hour to get to know me and my project, said they would be sending me an email to access their developer network with access to the tools and such, and that if I wanted to order a devkit that I could contact their sales department (probably not called sales department, I can't recall what they called it) and they could give me more information about pricing and such, as well they were willing to send me one for free on a probationary basis.

[gf78]

I don't think that's the best analogy, Mass Effect and Batman were really poor ports and neither sold very well on the Wii U.  Probably the exact reason EA stopped producing content for Wii U. 

Actually, the 3rd party games that arrived early on the Wii U were good quality.  The problem was that games like Mass Effect 3 and Arkham City arrived six months to a year late on the Wii U.  And whereas these titles were selling for around $30 each on the PS3 and 360, the Wii U versions were $60/full retail.  Same goes for Need for Speed, Call of Duty and all the other 3rd party games that appeared at the beginning.  Well, of course you are going to sell these old games for top dollar when the same game on a competing system is half the price.  So, they didn't sell and 3rd parties stopped making Wii U software.  It was both Nintendo's and the 3rd parties fault.

Now Nintendo is going to launch the NX (presumably) this year when the two competing systems have been on the market for three years.  Nintendo is not going to capture or convert PS4 and Xbox One users.  They may sell some NX systems as a secondary console to the PS4 and 'bone, but there isn't this pool of gamers out there waiting in the wings for Nintendo's new system to jump ship.  At best, they may get the 12 million or so Wii U users to buy an NX and again-PS4 and Xbox One owners to pick one up as a supplementary system on the side. 

I'm not trying to be an armchair analyst, but I don't think the NX has a snowball's chance in hell of making it big in today's market. 

[ignition365]

I don't think that's the best analogy, Mass Effect and Batman were really poor ports and neither sold very well on the Wii U.  Probably the exact reason EA stopped producing content for Wii U. 

Actually, the 3rd party games that arrived early on the Wii U were good quality.  The problem was that games like Mass Effect 3 and Arkham City arrived six months to a year late on the Wii U.  And whereas these titles were selling for around $30 each on the PS3 and 360, the Wii U versions were $60/full retail.  Same goes for Need for Speed, Call of Duty and all the other 3rd party games that appeared at the beginning.  Well, of course you are going to sell these old games for top dollar when the same game on a competing system is half the price.  So, they didn't sell and 3rd parties stopped making Wii U software.  It was both Nintendo's and the 3rd parties fault.

Now Nintendo is going to launch the NX (presumably) this year when the two competing systems have been on the market for three years.  Nintendo is not going to capture or convert PS4 and Xbox One users.  They may sell some NX systems as a secondary console to the PS4 and 'bone, but there isn't this pool of gamers out there waiting in the wings for Nintendo's new system to jump ship.  At best, they may get the 12 million or so Wii U users to buy an NX and again-PS4 and Xbox One owners to pick one up as a supplementary system on the side. 

I'm not trying to be an armchair analyst, but I don't think the NX has a snowball's chance in hell of making it big in today's market.

Maybe, but I don't think NX has released official specs yet, and I know I'm on the fence between PS4/X1, so Nintendo could steal it for me.  If they can for sure have a console that can compete specs wise, I'd probably buy my games for NX over PS4/X1, but that goes towards my Nintendo nostalgia bias.

[burningdoom]

http://dualpixels.com/2016/03/17/dual-pixels-exclusive-nintendo-nx-controller-leaked-photos/



OMG, that is one ugly hunk of plastic. I hope this rumor isn't true.

Nintendo seriously needs to stop with the gimmicks. Just give us a good, solid console with great Nintendo exclusives, and third-party support. It seems simple enough. Hasn't Nintendo learned from past mistakes?!