Nintendo: NX Won't be Sold at a Loss, Will Focus Heavily on Mobile

[09philj]

Nintendo please.
Just stop.

 

[Steven Bogos]

The Bogos is back.

I thought you were laid off? What, did the Escapist come crawling in begging you to come back once they realized that they had literally no one to write articles for them anymore?

OT:

Calling it now: the NX is going to just be Nintendo launching it's own smartphone.

That's almost what it sounds like, but I wonder if that is really such a bad thing. A smartphone with a heavy focus on gaming, hmmmm, might be interesting.

Oh the fickle life of a contractor

 

[sonicneedslovetoo]

Greate, mobile market... Maybe Nintendo will be successful there so it will be flooded by games that aren't based entirely around timers. You know maybe games that are trying to be good.

 

[Saelune]

Fucking new it. All this demise of the Wii U is bullshit. All evidence has pointed to this being either a Nintendo Phone, or something like an Ouya. Ya know, I was hoping that Mr.Businessman president wouldn't be such a negative influence on the company, but doesn't seem the case. Even got Miyamoto down in the pits. One thing I loved about Nintendo was that unlike Xbox and PlayStation, it was run by developers. Iwata and Miyamoto both actually made great games, but now Nintendo is falling into the same problems as Microsoft and Sony.

I hope the NX fails miserably, then this guy gets fired (or resigned I guess, since I don't think anyone actually can fire him), and Nintendo goes back to being a gaming company.

 

[P-89 Scorpion]

Sony and Microsoft were already selling their consoles at a loss, when they launched.

So you're telling me that this new console will not be. So it will literally have 400 dollars worth of hardware in there. No actual word on if the controller is like the Wii U and has a display, but if so, you can kiss half of the cost towards that. I thought they were trying to compete with current hardware. That, or they will hike up the price to well above 500-600 dollar range, which would be near suicide compared to the competition.

And to see the shift of focus towards mobile is depressing. Nothing says nintendo like cheap looking app titles.

The PS4 wasn't sold at a loss it cost $381 per console when it was released so it was sold at cost. Since then the manufacturing cost has gone down. If Nintendo wants the NX to be even in performance with the PS4 then selling at a profit for $300 should be easy by March next year.

 

[Dead Metal]

The reason smartphone batteries drain so quickly is because the manufacturers prioritize thinness over battery life. I'd imagine a dedicated gaming phone from a company like Nintendo would be a little chunkier to accommodate things like face buttons, which would also leave room for a bigger battery and longer battery life.

I would like to take you on a journey, back in to to the year 2002, and Nokia's N-Gage phone/gaming handheld hybrid.

You're missing the point.
The original N-Gage was roughly as powerful as a GameBoy Advance, with a smaller screen. It also only did a maximum of two things at a time: check for phone calls and play games.
The GBA famously runs on two AA batteries, the N-Gage needed a larger battery than that.

Today's smartphones have barely anything in common with the phones of the past and comparing them is incredibly stupid. Today's smartphones run on power hungry processors, quadcore processors are the standard these days. They have powerful graphics processors, and run with the help of actual and complex operation systems, while they sit in your pocket they check for phone calls, text messages, internet connection, GPS (if you have that activated), messages for any of your messaging apps, updates to any of the software on your phone. On top of that the screens are larger, have a much higher resolution (720p,1080p,2K and now even 4K), all of that requires processing power and energy.
And since phone matufacturers care more about thiness than battery life, they fit their phones these days with undersized batteries just to save on space and weight. Comparing the N-Gage's battery life to today's phones and claim that today's phone batteries are crap, like saying that today's game developers are crap because they need more time, effort and money to produce games than Atari did in the late 70s.

 

[Blazing Hero]

"Focus Heavily on Mobile"

Well I just lost all interest. I already have a Mobile phone Nintendo. I don't need another one.

 

[The White Hunter]

A smartphone with a heavy focus on gaming, hmmmm, might be interesting.

Smartphone batteries are crap, and if you just leave it plugged in to the charger at all times, what's the point of making it mobile?

If you are in a country with excellent Internet and wi-fi (oh I don't know, Japan for example?), then a "mobile" console that relies on Internet connectivity isn't a bad thing. But if your console is only as fast as the slowest Internet connection, then Nintendo have lost the next Console War before it has even started.

The reason smartphone batteries drain so quickly is because the manufacturers prioritize thinness over battery life. I'd imagine a dedicated gaming phone from a company like Nintendo would be a little chunkier to accommodate things like face buttons, which would also leave room for a bigger battery and longer battery life.

Thinness is a part of the problem there but not the whole problem. It's also down to the ever increasing pixel densities and the like and battery tech not being as heavily invested in by the industry because it's a much weaker selling point.

OT: Yay I can strike it off my watch list

 

[hermes]

Great, focus on mobile from a Japanese design perspective, and Nintendo policy of opposing sales and maintaining high prices so that they don't devalue their products will work great. I can't wait for a new mobile device with a tenth of the features, barely any worldwide support, and ten times the price of software.

 

[SomeGuyOnHisComputer]

I went from curious and slightly hyped for the NX to officially thinking Nintendo should just go third party.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

The title is misleading.
He says the NX won't be sold at a loss and that Nintendo wants smart devices to be one of their pillars of profit.
Not that the NX will focus heavily on mobile like the title suggests. He didn't really say anything that might imply the NX will focus heavily on mobile.
Also that in itself is misleading. It will be ONE of the pillars of profit. Saying it like they will heavily focus on mobile kinda implied they will focus less on handheld and console gaming, which again does seem to be the case.

All in all, I'm waiting to see more of the device to make a call. But in the end, it all comes down to games. If it has the games I like, I might get it. I ordered a Wii U, but then the order was canceled for some reason and I didn't bother ordering it again so I still have the money for it. I will just skip it and maybe get an NX or save more to get a freaking working PC instead of this piece of shit use right now.

All that being said, I'm not sure Nintendo will make it in mobile gaming. Japan's, hell the world's mobile game design philosophy is to make cheap free games with premium currency to gate the "good" content. Nintendo's game design philosophy so far has be to make great games that focus purely on gameplay and have a premium price on it. They do work with the Japanese company that's successful in mobile gaming, but I'm still not sure. Nintendo despite all the idiocy they do, they still keep their IPs in rather high regards. I don't expect them to go full EA's Dungeon Master, but even most of the successful mobile games clash with Nintendo's design philosophy.
Eh, I will wait and see. I don't mind paying for a good mobile game so I hope they don't go whaling with the not so free "free" games.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Fucking new it. All this demise of the Wii U is bullshit. All evidence has pointed to this being either a Nintendo Phone, or something like an Ouya. Ya know, I was hoping that Mr.Businessman president wouldn't be such a negative influence on the company, but doesn't seem the case. Even got Miyamoto down in the pits. One thing I loved about Nintendo was that unlike Xbox and PlayStation, it was run by developers. Iwata and Miyamoto both actually made great games, but now Nintendo is falling into the same problems as Microsoft and Sony.

I hope the NX fails miserably, then this guy gets fired (or resigned I guess, since I don't think anyone actually can fire him), and Nintendo goes back to being a gaming company.

Except that's not what the source actually says. The source is an FAQ page where the first question addresses what the details of the NX are and how it will not sell at a loss. The second question addresses the mobile stuff. So the idea that the NX is going to have smartphone integration or is a smartphone is a load of crap.

At the very least the first question makes it clear Nintendo is not looking to go power-based, as has been their MO for awhile. Trying to go brute force is more trouble than it's worth.

 

[Saelune]

Fucking new it. All this demise of the Wii U is bullshit. All evidence has pointed to this being either a Nintendo Phone, or something like an Ouya. Ya know, I was hoping that Mr.Businessman president wouldn't be such a negative influence on the company, but doesn't seem the case. Even got Miyamoto down in the pits. One thing I loved about Nintendo was that unlike Xbox and PlayStation, it was run by developers. Iwata and Miyamoto both actually made great games, but now Nintendo is falling into the same problems as Microsoft and Sony.

I hope the NX fails miserably, then this guy gets fired (or resigned I guess, since I don't think anyone actually can fire him), and Nintendo goes back to being a gaming company.

Except that's not what the source actually says. The source is an FAQ page where the first question addresses what the details of the NX are and how it will not sell at a loss. The second question addresses the mobile stuff. So the idea that the NX is going to have smartphone integration or is a smartphone is a load of crap.

At the very least the first question makes it clear Nintendo is not looking to go power-based, as has been their MO for awhile. Trying to go brute force is more trouble than it's worth.

Certainly makes more sense than what a lot of other people have been speculating. Not saying I cant be wrong, but Nintendo has been going on and on about mobile, and they are making a new...something. While a lot feel the Wii U came out too soon after the Wii, I doubt they will do that again with this replacing the Wii U, which I am pretty sure isn't the case.

Plus they kept saying they weren't working on a Majora's Mask for the 3DS but then it turns out they were working on it the second OoT 3D came out, so who knows what to believe with them. Bit of a random side tangent, but still.

 

[shrekfan246]

If Nintendo came out with a game oriented smart phone? I'd probably get it. At least after my current smart phone breaks, anyway. If it isn't too much more expensive than other smart phones and I can use it like any other smart phone regardless of whether or not I have any games for it then why the hell WOULDN'T I get one?

This could actually be a smart move on Nintendo's part if done right.

Assuming, of course, that it is indeed a gaming smart phone. And that they do, of course, do it right.

Maybe I'm missing something because phones aren't really my area of knowledge, but wouldn't a "game-oriented smartphone" basically just be a 3DS/Vita with a different interface and a built-in call feature? Outside of calling/texting, between the two of those handhelds they already offer pretty much the same functionality as any smartphone. I mean, I guess it'd play mobile games rather than handheld games (tangent: aside from the fact that the two groups tend to involve, or at least historically played very different styles of games, I've never understood why "handheld" is distinctly not "mobile". Just a bit of a pedantic point) but otherwise surely it would basically just be another "console", just in phone form?

I only bring this up because I feel like having the form factor of a handheld console limits the effectiveness of something being used as a phone, while having that of a phone would limit the usefulness of something as a console. Also, the respective batteries of the 3DS and Vita are both pretty trash (I'm given to understand that Nintendo has improved the 3DS' somewhat with all of the revisions they've done, but still).

If I used my phone more, I'd probably see the use of something like that I suppose.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Is there something happening in Japan where mobile gaming is rising and console gaming is fallen?

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Is there something happening in Japan where mobile gaming is rising and console gaming is fallen?

Actually, yes. Quite a bit. Helps explain the 3DS's large library compared to the WiiU.

 

[Zontar]

Though that won't be nearly as embarrassing as when the WiiU was being proudly proclaimed as a console that is as strong as a PS3, with a 6 year difference between the two.

To be fair, when they advertised that the WiiU would be more powerful then the PS3, at the time the PS3 was the most powerful console on the market due to the fact the Xbox One and PS4 where still about a year away from being released. Plus Nintendo's systems have never exactly been powerhouses, being the third most powerful console for the eight generation isn't a surprise when they where third for the seventh, second for the sixth, and it's only when we go back to the N64 that Nintendo's console was the most powerful of its generation.

Then again, being a powerful console means very little at the end of the day given how (operating under the assumption the PS4 and XB1 are the same specs due to how marginally small the difference is and that both are marginally better then the other at some things) this is the first time that the most powerful console is also the most successful one.

 

[weirdee]

I don't think cannibalizing their last bastion of success on handhelds is going to work out for them.

 

[Callate]

Translation can always get a little dicey, but it isn't clear to me if Kimishima is talking about mobile/smart device gaming viz. smartphones, or implying that the NX is part of a greater mobile initiative- that is, that the NX itself is, in whole or part, a mobile, "smart" device.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

The reason smartphone batteries drain so quickly is because the manufacturers prioritize thinness over battery life. I'd imagine a dedicated gaming phone from a company like Nintendo would be a little chunkier to accommodate things like face buttons, which would also leave room for a bigger battery and longer battery life.

I would like to take you on a journey, back in to to the year 2002, and Nokia's Ngage smartphone/gaming handheld hybrid.

that thing was just flat poorly designed, couldn't hot-swap games, portrait screen orientation and phone style keypad where face buttons should have been, no sane designer would try something like that again (one can only hope)

Yeah, the Ngage was a great example of what not to do when designing a gaming phone. It was also just a few years ahead of its time -- if it had come out after 2008, I'd imagine it would have been a very different machine. It's actually been bugging me for the better part of a decade that the Ngage turned the market off of gaming phones so thoroughly, because thanks to the iPhone and Android, we actually have the hardware and software to do it now.