This news about the Nintendo NX could very well be truth or fiction. Nintendo has neither confirmed, nor denied this report, so take it at face value for right now.
What the Nintendo NX is has been rumored for awhile. The speculation has been all over the place. Now I am more excited about what the Nintendo NX could be and how the decision of going hybrid may be the best thing for Nintendo. This is a great idea for Nintendo, I really like it.
When you look at Nintendo’s track record when it comes to handhelds it is second to none. Since the introduction of the Game & Watch, various Game boys, and DS/3DS families no other company has come close to the success Nintendo has had. The introduction of Mobile gaming has taken its fair share of the handheld gaming market from Nintendo. Though the 3DS has not sold at the rate of the Nintendo DS, it has still sold exceptionally well.
It gives Nintendo an out when it comes to power. The Nintendo NX may not be the most powerful home console of this or the coming generation, but it will be the most powerful dedicated gaming handheld. With system power comes the worry of battery life. The more graphics intense the game the more power gets used, so finding a happy medium is important. The display can’t be the latest and greatest because the worry of battery life. The original PS Vita had that issue because of it’s OLED screen.
Was it absolutely gorgeous to look at? Yes, but the Vita really was a power-sucker. Sony replaced the OLED screen with an LCD screen in the second iteration. While it lost the vibrancy and pop of colors, the LCD screen was just fine. It didn’t take away anything from my gaming experience; it added to it simply because I could play for longer. With the power not going all out, the screen doesn’t need to go all out either; which means more battery power and lower sale price.
The Nintendo NX will need to avoid a huge pitfall of the PS Vita. When the Vita released it was the most powerful gaming handheld created up to that point. Landing somewhere between the PS2 and PS3 in terms of power. Most likely closer to the PS3; and that was the problem. The PS Vita was too powerful for its own good. The concept of console gaming on the go is awesome, yet developing the AAA titles are expensive. Why would a company spend X amount of money to release a PS Vita game when throwing in X amount more would give it the time/graphics/polish to be released on consoles? Add that to the (very) poor sales of the PS Vita it just doesn’t make financial sense for companies to sink money into a high-end handheld system.
The Nintendo NX needs to avoid this at the cost of losing players. The Nintendo NX will be all Nintendo has in the future. Do you really believe Nintendo when they say the NX is just a third pillar? That support for Wii U and 3DS will continue? I’ll answer that question will another question. The Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo DS were supposed to exist concurrently. How’d that turn out? The Nintendo DS was always intended to replace the Game Boy Advance I don’t care what Nintendo says. Why else would it have a GBA cartridge slot built into it?
The Nintendo NX is being built to merge both the handheld and home console into one pillar. With the possibility of the Nintendo NX becoming the only Nintendo console to develop for. This forces those developers used to the Wii U and 3DS to change. While the Wii U suffers greatly from lack of third party support, the Nintendo 3DS has no such problem. Hopefully the handheld third party support will carry over to the Nintendo NX. It also removes some unnecessary decision making. For years Nintendo has had to worry about developing games for two systems. They no longer have that problem. With the focus on one system Nintendo no longer has to pick and choose which titles go where.
This was a problem with the Wii U and 3DS. Kirby and the Rainbow Curse and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker had no business being on the Wii U. Those games, according to me at least, were built to be on the 3DS. Kid Icarus: Uprising would have been so awesome on the Wii U. The controls would have been so much better (my only issue with the game). The prospect of finally (kinda) getting a “console version” of Pokémon is almost enough to the sell the system outright. If the third party support isn’t there (again), the droughts that plagued the Wii U won’t be gone. As I said before the Nintendo 3DS has had good third party support, it just doesn’t seem like enough. Nintendo could make games at a faster pace (it’ll seem faster I guess) since games will be releasing on one system instead of two.
If Nintendo does what they usual do with their handhelds, there is no need to worry about what the Nintendo NX is going to become. This has the potential to bring Nintendo back in a big way.Maybe not the heights of the Wii or Nintendo DS, but high enough to finally be taken seriously again. Myself and Nintendo fans can feel hopeful that Nintendo can catch lightning in a bottle at least one more time. Believe me when I say Nintendo is about to make another big splash in the blue ocean.
