Nintendo announces DS successor: Nintendo 3DS

[Fox5]

No, the ignorance is sounding typical. Nintendo has always had more powerful hardware than their biggest mainstream rival in any generation UNTIL the Wii.

I was actually referring to the hardware specs being "best of breed", as opposed to better than the rivals.
A tegra 2, and some new, never used before screen technology, along with everything else that's listed for it? A tegra 2 is just about the fastest arm solution that can be had in the next year, every other nintendo system (handheld or console) was always substantially weaker than even the best hardware of that type available on the market. There's not much that could be done to improve on the 3ds specs, they're basically using the most powerful mobile processor available.

 

[CZroe]

I was actually referring to the hardware specs being "best of breed", as opposed to better than the rivals.
A tegra 2, and some new, never used before screen technology, along with everything else that's listed for it? A tegra 2 is just about the fastest arm solution that can be had in the next year, every other nintendo system (handheld or console) was always substantially weaker than even the best hardware of that type available on the market. There's not much that could be done to improve on the 3ds specs, they're basically using the most powerful mobile processor available.

I see, but I never look at those things directly. For example, the Genesis had a faster CPU than the SNES, but was much less capable. Even if PDA's had faster ARM7 CPUs when the GBA arrived (did they?), they were less capable in games. The hardware just wasn't built to display real-time smooth scrolling, scaling, rotation, etc, despite the fast CPUs. Genesis devs ran into other limitations, like number of colors on the screen, well before they ran into CPU processing limits. At least they could use the extra overhead capacity for sound processing, since it lacked a dedicated sound processor.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Microsoft seems to be pursuing the iPhone route as their gaming strategy with WP7. Not a bad plan per se...

Oh, I know. I was just saying, that if they wanted to actually make a portable Xbox, then basically cloning this new DS would be a good idea, as it should make porting games between the two systems easy, while they could also easily play the ones aimed at phones and similar devices. Pricing would be the big issue, but if they could keep it close to the iPod Touch and DS, they could be successful, as it would have a trump card over each of those that might get people to pay the extra.

 

[Narmer]

Oh, I know. I was just saying, that if they wanted to actually make a portable Xbox, then basically cloning this new DS would be a good idea, as it should make porting games between the two systems easy, while they could also easily play the ones aimed at phones and similar devices. Pricing would be the big issue, but if they could keep it close to the iPod Touch and DS, they could be successful, as it would have a trump card over each of those that might get people to pay the extra.

The big problem with the strategy is the lack of dedicated buttons for the games. Also, many of these iPhone games are either free or less than $10. Hence, it will be less involved games and I doubt they will be as profitable as Nintendo. Remember, Apple is a hardware company while MS is software so the model may not be as successful for MS.

 

[darkswordsman17]

The big problem with the strategy is the lack of dedicated buttons for the games. Also, many of these iPhone games are either free or less than $10. Hence, it will be less involved games and I doubt they will be as profitable as Nintendo. Remember, Apple is a hardware company while MS is software so the model may not be as successful for MS.

MS is hardware and software (they're planning on marketing their own phones even, and they also already have the Zune). This portable I'm talking about them hypothetically making would be like the DS in that it would have dedicated buttons and a touchscreen, so DS games would port over fairly easily, while it would also make use of Microsoft's new mobile marketplace. With a touchscreen and similar hardware, you could easily have those simpler mobile games that you find on mobile devices like smartphones, but it would also be able to do more in depth games. And it would have the multimedia benefits of Zune.

They could possibly even actually just do a dual touchscreen and have buttons on the display to mimic those of the DS. It could be like a mini-Courier (a dual touchscreen device that they're also developing).

I realize the chances of them doing this are small to nonexistant, I'm just saying Microsoft really wouldn't need to do much extra to support/develop this since it would take advantage of things they already offer or are in the process of offering. Also, if they mimic the DS, they could give it a boost by companies being willing to port their DS games over. Having the extra gaming capability gives them a leg up on Apple (namely the Touch), and having Zune features gives them a leg up on Nintendo.

 

[Narmer]

MS is hardware and software (they're planning on marketing their own phones even, and they also already have the Zune). This portable I'm talking about them hypothetically making would be like the DS in that it would have dedicated buttons and a touchscreen, so DS games would port over fairly easily, while it would also make use of Microsoft's new mobile marketplace. With a touchscreen and similar hardware, you could easily have those simpler mobile games that you find on mobile devices like smartphones, but it would also be able to do more in depth games. And it would have the multimedia benefits of Zune.

They could possibly even actually just do a dual touchscreen and have buttons on the display to mimic those of the DS. It could be like a mini-Courier (a dual touchscreen device that they're also developing).

I realize the chances of them doing this are small to nonexistant, I'm just saying Microsoft really wouldn't need to do much extra to support/develop this since it would take advantage of things they already offer or are in the process of offering. Also, if they mimic the DS, they could give it a boost by companies being willing to port their DS games over. Having the extra gaming capability gives them a leg up on Apple (namely the Touch), and having Zune features gives them a leg up on Nintendo.

I thought that Zune and WP7S shared different hardware so the software were incompatible. Also, considering the unpopularity of the Zune I think it's a non-starter. Worse, MS trying to compete against its own partners may have them running to Google. IMHO, they should just come out with a game console that happens to make phone calls, like Sony is rumored to be doing.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I thought that Zune and WP7S shared different hardware so the software were incompatible. Also, considering the unpopularity of the Zune I think it's a non-starter. Worse, MS trying to compete against its own partners may have them running to Google. IMHO, they should just come out with a game console that happens to make phone calls, like Sony is rumored to be doing.

I guess I should point out that when I mention Zune, I'm talking about ZuneHD and the changes it brought specifically.

The ZuneHD uses similar hardware as smartphones (Tegra is just ARM CPU paired with an nVidia GPU, with some extra dedicated hardware components). Its actually more robust than plenty of smartphones, but most smartphones are moving to similar setups. Tegra 2 should be the choice for plenty of smartphones and it is probably better than say the similar chipsets from other companies that will be using similar CPUs (which will be paired with different graphics processors, which everything I've seen indicates them being inferior to even Tegra 1). Since the wireless (cellular/wifi/bluetooth/etc) are done on separate chips, the other SoC's don't offer anything that Tegra doesn't/can't. The main factor being cost.

Funny thing, Google did exactly that, they have their own branded smartphone (Nexus). It did initially cause a bit of negativity, but Google hasn't done anything with it that they're not letting carriers do. We'll see if Microsoft takes a similar approach. They've already set hardware requirements for WP7S, so I don't see them deviating from it much, which means other companies should be able to offer everything that a Microsoft version of the phone does.

The Zune's OS and WP7S are really similar, and I believe are based off each other (ZuneHD uses an early stripped down WP7S, which helped in developing the latter).

You're right in that the Zune hasn't been a huge success, but considering that Apple owns that market, I don't think they've been really overly disappointed (Zune is 2nd in marketshare in DAPs now). As far as I can tell, it was actually started as a tool for Microsoft branching out into portable devices and software. I believe its actually done well financially (helped buoy the entertainment division when the Xbox was losing them a bunch of money). But as the Xbox has proven, Microsoft doesn't have a problem going with something that doesn't necessarily make them money directly, as it pays dividends in other areas.

Wow, really sorry to derail this thread.