Neither a handheld nor a home console? The truth about Nintendo NX from clues

In the next-generation war, although Nintendo still holds the absolute right to speak in the field of handheld game consoles, the disastrous failure of WiiU in the home console market has undoubtedly dealt a heavy blow to Nintendo. In addition, 3DS has been squeezed by the rapidly developing mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablets, and has shrunk again and again. Even Sony has simply given up the handheld game console market, which also shows the urgency of the crisis in the handheld game console market.

Generally speaking, game consoles have a relatively long lifespan. For example, the lifespans of the previous generation consoles Xbox360, PS3, and Wii all reached 7 or 8 years. However, the WiiU console still had a dismal sales fate despite the support of major titles such as "Monster Hunter 3G HD", "Mario" series, and "Pikmin 3", which was unexpected. So much so that Nintendo announced the upcoming launch of the next-generation console NX when the WiiU had only been on sale for more than two years, completely ignoring the devastating blow it would have on the sales of the current console WiiU.

However, although it has been nearly a year and a half since the news of NX was released, and two E3s have been held in this year and a half, Nintendo has remained tight-lipped about the specific information of NX. Based on some rumors and the news of Nintendo's new patent application, players cannot even outline the outline of NX. There is even a year-long war of words over whether NX is a handheld or a home console.

Is NX a home console?

The unexpected success of NDS and Wii deeply shocked Nintendo's top management, and the concept of "new ways to play with outdated technology" gradually became a consensus within Nintendo. The N64 and NGC eras were disastrous, with low hardware costs, poor functions, and cheap game development costs. The huge success of NDS and Wii made Nintendo believe that it had found the right path, and Satoru Iwata, who was a programmer and then president, gradually became a god.

However, despite the notoriety of the "Three Grave Princesses" at the end of the Wii period and the objections of then Nintendo of America President Tatsumi Kimishima, Satoru Iwata launched the WiiU, which was far inferior to the PS4 and Xbox One in terms of performance and still focused on heterogeneity, into the market. Third-party manufacturers who had suffered enough from the Wii and players whose sense of novelty had faded quickly abandoned the WiiU and turned to Sony and Microsoft. The WiiU, whose sales were only supported by die-hard Nintendo fans, soon showed signs of fatigue, and its sales continued to decline. Even the PS4, which was shipped a whole year later, easily surpassed the sales of the WiiU more than a month after it was launched.

Nintendo realized the danger of hanging on a tree, no longer attached to the WiiU, and resolutely released the news of the next-generation console NX. Of course, whether there was a struggle between former president Satoru Iwata and current president Tatsumi Kimishima is unknown. In summary, it seems that there is no dispute that NX is a home console that will replace WiiU.

Is NX a handheld?

Ever since Nintendo's genius Gunpei Yokoi launched the Game & Watch series, from GB to GBA to NDS and now to 3DS, it is no exaggeration to say that, except for a slight shake-up in Sony's PSP, the handheld game console market has always been firmly in Nintendo's hands.

During the era of "stubborn old man" Hiroshi Yamauchi, the overly tough approach of the old man offended Square and other third-party game manufacturers, which led to a collective defection of manufacturers. Since the N64 era, when Nintendo stubbornly stayed in the cartridge camp, its home consoles have never recovered. Nintendo's handhelds are different. From the invincibility of GB to the undefeated GBA, to the NDS's major expansion into the casual gamer market with "Brain Training" and "Nintendogs", and finally to the 3DS's rival PSV's surrender without a fight, Nintendo can be said to be the undisputed leader in the handheld gamer industry.

However, with the rise of smartphones and tablets in recent years, the demand for handheld gamers has been shrinking, and the handheld game market has also been shrinking. In addition, although the 3DS has only been on sale for four years, the 3DS's 400x240 (per eye) screen is so difficult to see among the Retina screens due to the earth-shaking changes in the mobile field. The 3DS's limited functionality can no longer be compared with mobile phones and tablet devices.

Therefore, Nintendo's NX should really be an update to its handheld product line to save the handheld market, which is becoming less and less attractive to players.

So NX is both a home console and a handheld?

Someone claiming to be a Nintendo employee once revealed that Nintendo's new console NX will include both a home console and a handheld console, supporting a cross-buy function similar to Sony's PS3 and PSV. This statement has been recognized by most people. After all, the two product lines are indeed facing updates at the same time, and relying on strong handheld consoles to develop weak consoles has always been Nintendo's strategic layout. For example, in the GBA era, there was a linkage function with NGC. GBA could replace the NGC's handle and use the GBA screen to achieve some interesting functions. To a certain extent, GBA also boosted NGC's sales.

In other words, is NX a WiiU with enhanced console functions and built-in computing power in the controller? This makes sense, after all, WiiU has put a lot of effort into the split-screen design, and Nintendo even wrote a short-range image transmission protocol specifically for it. Although WiiU has poor sales, this technology has been well received by the industry. People who have used Remote Play between PS4 and PSV should be impressed by Sony's crappy streaming technology, while WiiU's flat-panel screen is so clear and smooth.

Therefore, the statement that NX is a home console and the controller has its own screen and can run independently is widely recognized and not groundless.

In fact, it is probably neither a home console nor a handheld console.

Although it is often said that the simplest answer is often the truth, if the confusing origin of NX is really so simple, why does Nintendo keep hiding it? At this year's E3 exhibition, Nintendo only hastily released some game news, and the entire press conference became a trial of "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild".

Afterwards, the media asked why they didn't release the news of the latest console NX, which will be released in 9 months. After all, the huge audience of E3 is undoubtedly a great opportunity for publicity and exposure. Nintendo's answer was shocking: "Because we are afraid of being copied." If it is just a simple "dismembered" and enhanced version of WiiU, how can it be copied? There is only one answer, NX is not that simple.

This console, which carries Nintendo's hope for revival, is probably not simply a home console or handheld game console, but a winning trump card played by Nintendo, a stubborn old game manufacturer, in view of the current complex game market environment.

Not a host at all?

In the current game market, there are many voices that are pessimistic about traditional game consoles. Many industry insiders insist that the lifespan of game consoles will not exceed 5 years. They believe that we will never see the PS5 console. The advent of the cloud era will destroy all offline computing units. In the future, whether it is a computer, mobile phone or game console, it will be condensed into a device with only input, output and networking devices, and all computing will be completed in the cloud.

Sony believes this statement very well. Sony TVs can play PS4 and PS3 console games in the cloud through the Playstation Now function without computing. Sony is considered to be the earliest manufacturer to deploy cloud gaming. However, due to the current Internet speed, this service is relatively useless and few people are interested.

Although cloud gaming is still a long way off, there are many people who believe that mobile phones, tablets and PCs will replace game consoles. For example, Microsoft has long unified Live on Xbox, Windows and WP. The Xbox Play Anywhere feature at this year's E3 also shows Microsoft's determination to shift the focus of gaming to PC.

In fact, Nintendo's top management has been under tremendous pressure from the board of directors to transform into mobile games. Nintendo's super IPs such as "Mario", "Wario", "Animal Crossing" and "Pokemon" are actually very compatible with mobile games, but due to the huge profits of hardware and the piracy of mobile phones and PCs, it has not been able to make up its mind to abandon the game console platform.

However, Nintendo began to relent when Iwata was still alive. In March last year, Iwata announced that he would join hands with DeNA, a well-known Japanese mobile game manufacturer, to jointly launch games on mobile platforms. In March this year, Nintendo's first mobile social game "Mii Moto" was launched on Google Play and Appstore as scheduled, and became a hot topic for a while. Last month, "Pokemon Go" launched by Nintendo and Niantic became a phenomenal game, causing Nintendo's stock to rise by 23%, and it still frequently appears in the headlines of major media newspapers.

Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's star producer, said during the E3 Expo that NX will support VR functions and is committed to creating VR games that can be played for a long time. So let's think about it, if NX is really a combination of home console + handheld and supports VR, what level will the cost be? Think about PS4 + PSV + PSVR, the price is as high as 7k, which is impossible from the perspective of Nintendo, which has always attached great importance to price control.

Let’s take a closer look at what NX should be.

During E3, a VR game video called "Riverside" was leaked on a non-existent video website. After watching this video, it is hard to believe that this is a game effect run on a console with PS4 functions. On the contrary, from the game control method and picture performance, it looks more like a mobile VR game.

Nintendo also publicly stated that all Nintendo mobile games will be able to run on NX. This also makes us wonder, if the NX mobile terminal wants to run games such as "Pokemon Go", the device must have hardware support such as GPS, camera, gyroscope, etc. Although it is not difficult, it is a big trouble for users to use their mobile phones to open a hotspot, because most mobile games have social requirements.

Last year, there was reliable news that Nintendo was recruiting Google Android engineers. So will NX be a gaming platform that supports mobile phones? This is very likely. After all, the device that everyone will carry when going out is a mobile phone. Most mobile phones have good performance, perfect sensors, stable data transmission and excellent screen performance. However, the biggest problem with mobile phone games is the feel. The touch screen operation feel in ACT, FPS and other game types is not satisfactory.

Previously, Nintendo was reported to be developing a handheld game console codenamed "MH", but according to the above analysis, Nintendo is unlikely to design a separate handheld game console. Recently, Nintendo announced that the handle of NX is detachable, so it is very likely that this "MH" is a handle that can be installed on a mobile phone to give the mobile phone a console-level operating feel.

However, NX should be more than just a mobile gaming platform, because Nintendo also announced that the WiiU masterpiece "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" will also cross-platform to NX as a companion masterpiece for NX. Judging from the pictures of "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild", it is not at the level that mobile phones can run, so Nintendo's new gaming platform may also log in to the PC system as a rival to Steam.

Of course, Nintendo will not give up the home console platform. Nintendo is very likely to launch a console for the living room that is connected to the TV. The performance of this console will be between WiiU and PS4. Nintendo said that NX will not have an optical drive. As a console without an optical drive, download version or cartridges are the only two possibilities. As we all know, the download version is very tempting for game manufacturers. The revenue brought to game manufacturers by the download version at 40% of the price is no less than that of the physical game disc/card sold at full price. The best cross-platform game medium is naturally the download version, and using the download version to summon third-party manufacturers to return to the NX platform will also be a great trick for Nintendo.

This is just one person’s opinion. We will know the answer in September.

Yes, this is just a guess, just a bold deduction based on all the existing information and materials, and also the expectation for Nintendo's new console NX.

Just imagine that we can play many classic Nintendo games with our mobile phones outdoors. If the touch screen feels not good enough, we can connect a dedicated controller to play "Monster Hunter". When we get home, we can switch to the PC in the bedroom and connect the controller to play "The Legend of Zelda", or we can play "Street Fighter" on the TV in the living room, or we can lie in bed and play a game of "COD" with our mobile phones. How comfortable it is.

This mode of combining PC, mobile phone and living room entertainment is definitely the future development direction of games, and it also coincides with Nintendo's recent strategic strategy. It is undoubtedly the right path for Nintendo, but in fact it is also equivalent to letting Nintendo abandon its 40-year development path, and there are also problems such as app store revenue sharing to be solved. It can only be said that if the conservative Nintendo can really start the era of building a game platform, it will indeed be a leap for itself and will also be a blessing for players.

However, despite the certainty of the statement, it is just one person's opinion. The true appearance of Nintendo's new generation console NX will only be revealed in September.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.