Nintendo's NX Console: What It Needs to Win

[Mike Andronico]

Nintendo's upcoming NX console could return the company to its former glory, but it's going to take some major changes by the gaming giant.

Nintendo's NX Console: What It Needs to Win : Read more

 

[de5_Roy]

i can only speculate on the hardware parts. here goes nothin'

a semi-custom amd soc with 8x 2.5-3.5 GHz zen/excavator/arm a57/arm a72/arm k12 cpu cores. a strong cpu will help with rendering, multitasking as well as possible VR.

on the gpu front - 2048-3072 gcn 1.2 cores derived from the fiji gpu.

on the vram front - 4GB HBM or 8-16 GB latest GDDR5 or 4GB HBM and 16GB DDR4 or 8GB GDDR5 (as system memory).

the tablet/handheld joystick was an amazing idea but ahead of times and available hardware. now, the handheld's soc can be 8x 2.0 GHz ARM a53 cores and 4 GB LPDDR4 system ram with expandable flash storage up to 128 GB. or if nintendo wants to keep everything closed off, 16-64 GB flash storage. the igpu could be 512 cores of gcn 1.2 uarch or mali/adreno/low power maxwell.

handheld screen: 480p to 720p IPS or AMOLED 5.5 - 8 inches (diagonal).

if it's not AMD semicustom, then 8x ARM A72 or A57 cores with 8x A53 cores and the rest of the specs for the base station same as above. nvidia can supply the cpu with a maxwell derivative with HBM or likely GDDR5.

 

[Vlad Rose]

Talked to the local video game shops. The biggest thing they said Nintendo will need to do is add Blu-Ray (preferably 4k 3d Blu-Ray) support to their console.

One of the Playstation 2's biggest selling points was DVD support for movies. Xbox, Gamecube, Dreamcast did not. PS2 won.

The Playstation 3 added Blu-Ray Support. 360 only had DVD and HD-DVD via an addon. Wii had none. PS3 eventually won.

Playstation 4 adds 4k and 3d Blu-Ray support, as well as TrueHD and DTS-HD MA. Xbone doesn't have TrueHD and DTS. PS4 is currently winning. Nintendo will need to have these features at the very least.

 

[Mike Andronico]

Both good suggestions @de5_Roy and @Vlad Rose. The NX simply needs to be more powerful, and it wouldn't hurt to make it a better media machine. Be careful though Roy, you just gave Nintendo the perfect blueprint for building their next system

 

[de5_Roy]

an x86 based platform will be very powerful, capable of outclassing both sony and microsoft in terms of raw performance. an arm v8 based platform would be slightly cheaper, widely fabricable (thanks to arm's involvement with foundries) but quite a bit less powerful. less powerful doesn't mean worse, per se, except it will have nothing to distinguish itself from the tablets.. and no company other than amd can build a proper console soc. nvidia has the gpu ip but not the cpu (their own project denver cpu goes up to only 2 cores and was widely ignored by the public).

there is a 3rd option - nintendo goes full custom with proprietary cores and once again underpowered gpu - their recent undermining of VR (virtual reality - which demands a lot of performance) makes me suspect that they may be going this way. if nintendo goes with amd, it will have access to amd's v.r. i.p. along with a proven track record of designing console hardware. fingers crossed.

 

[weirdeyedkid]

Nintendo definitely needs power or they wont succeed, they cant just try to be a gimmick again for the third time or else the amount of users will be less than Wii U and their install base will dwindle until they can no longer be hardware devs like SEGA ( except with more succeess). They need power but i think being a hybrid and backwards compatible is also necessary. ASUS makes the ASUS Padphone which is an Android based Phone/Tablet hybrid so I know its possible to plug in a mobile device to a more beefy device and output to a screen. They can fold 3ds and Wii U games into the NX and make it backwards compatible like Nintendo platforms usually are, this will allow them to continue supporting 3ds and Wii U (Maybe not Wii U) for those that have those consoles. I disagree with the Bluray drive however, Nintendo can make all of its games downloadable only (although I prefer disk); By cutting out thr Bluray they can save some money on the price. The console needs to compete so it have to be a hybrid and backwards compatible as well as being as strong as if not stronger than PS4 and X1 because it will be out 3 years after them. It will also need to compete price wise, so Nintendo should make it cost a lot to produce and little to buy, maybe $350 because you will be able to get a PS4 for $300. They will also need games which i doubt will be a problem, we are still waiting on the new Pokemon which was said to be different than past games and Zelda will probably come out for both NX and WiiU and if they do it right you will be able to play all the usual 3rd parties. If Nintendo did all this, the console would KILL IT and I would buy day 1.

 

[Vlad Rose]

Nintendo definitely needs power or they wont succeed, they cant just try to be a gimmick again for the third time or else the amount of users will be less than Wii U and their install base will dwindle until they can no longer be hardware devs like SEGA ( except with more succeess). They need power but i think being a hybrid and backwards compatible is also necessary. ASUS makes the ASUS Padphone which is an Android based Phone/Tablet hybrid so I know its possible to plug in a mobile device to a more beefy device and output to a screen. They can fold 3ds and Wii U games into the NX and make it backwards compatible like Nintendo platforms usually are, this will allow them to continue supporting 3ds and Wii U (Maybe not Wii U) for those that have those consoles. I disagree with the Bluray drive however, Nintendo can make all of its games downloadable only (although I prefer disk); By cutting out thr Bluray they can save some money on the price. The console needs to compete so it have to be a hybrid and backwards compatible as well as being as strong as if not stronger than PS4 and X1 because it will be out 3 years after them. It will also need to compete price wise, so Nintendo should make it cost a lot to produce and little to buy, maybe $350 because you will be able to get a PS4 for $300. They will also need games which i doubt will be a problem, we are still waiting on the new Pokemon which was said to be different than past games and Zelda will probably come out for both NX and WiiU and if they do it right you will be able to play all the usual 3rd parties. If Nintendo did all this, the console would KILL IT and I would buy day 1.

One of the top selling BluRay players out there is the Playstation 3; mainly because it can be upgraded with firmware and can play games as well. For the average consumer, the less electronics they have connected to their TV, the better.

Yes, games can be digitally downloaded for a console, but not everyone in the US has a high speed connection to download that large of an amount of data without it taking days to weeks. I know if I still lived where my parents do, I would most certainly be in that situation and would buy a console that used physical copies of the game.

The Wii got bashed for no DVD movie support; same with the Wii U for no DVD or BluRay. For a small addition in price to the console, to not have BluRay support would be a killing point against it. Even Microsoft followed suit and started supporting BluRay.