Pokemaniac
Member
But be realistic for a bit. At this point, it's extremely unlikely third parties are coming back on board.
It's a demographics issue. People are conditioned at this point to buy Nintendo consoles for Nintendo games and very little else.
If you wanted to get third parties on board, the NX has to have a big, worthwhile userbase to tap into, similar to ones found on the X1/PS4.
I don't see how you'd realistically get there these days without third-parties in the first place. Releasing a new console is not going to have all third parties lining up to gamble away their money on a port.
Furthermore, that userbase has to actually actively purchase these third-party titles for the NX to make them profitable enough to keep investing into. If the NX top sellers are still going to be all Marios, Metroids and Zeldas, why would for example EA pour millions into the development of a NX port of their next blockbuster game? I mean, there's 40 million of other current-gen consoles out there right now that are eating those games up like candy.
The Wii and Wii-U both completely failed at achieving this shift in consumer behaviour, and personally, i'm not convinced releasing a current-gen-powered console is going to change the status quo in any way, shape or form. Nintendo really doesn't hold that much sway over the average console gaming crowd these days. That is, unless they do something very radical and innovative again and grab the world by storm like the Wii. Right now, I don't think this 'multiple form factor' stuff sounds like it is going to cut it.
Third parties are a bit of a chicken and egg scenario. If the third party support at NX launch looks anything like it did during Wii Us launch, people aren't going to start buying them. During the Wii U launch, third parties, by and large, clearly sent the message that they didn't care. There were a few exceptions, but even some of those bailed pretty quickly. If the third parties want a userbase to sell to, they're going to have to take on a little risk.
1: They just need to focus on the sequel. It'd give them ammunition for their 2017 lineup, unless they could spare a team to port it to NX w/o drawing away resources from a sequel.
2: 540p
3: They'll hopefully allow for a universal account system that register the hardware, and where you essentially can install and store the games to that account and then download them to a registered device. By tying it to an account instead of the hardware, they can still prove who owns what and make sure there aren't any issues in people being locked out of games simply because they had to replace, say, a faulty unit for a good working one.
4: Hmm....it's...possible. I'd rather they just did a Smash Bros Remix that took fan favorite aspects of the original, Melee, Brawl and 4 and acted as an anniversary celebration of the series, while serving as a preview of Smash 5.
5: Ubisoft'll definitely be there, as will Sega. EA will probably be present but just for a token sports or family release. Activision will be there too, but I doubt w/ COD. Probably a Just Dance edition for NX.
6: Cross-gen. NX handheld isn't coming until 2017 I feel, and they don't want the 3DS to languish in the meantime. All the same, NX could benefit from a beefed-up version, so cross-gen would work best in this example.
7: Xenoblade, yes, in 2017. Not at launch. SMM might actually be an app they pre-install on NX units, probably w/ some features thrown in to take advantage of new controls or hardware features.
8: I'm honestly expecting the NX base system to feature some sort of on-board connection w/ the handheld. Like plugging a SFX cart into a SNES or 32X into Genesis gave those units more processing power, the same could conceivably be done w/ NX console and handheld. How much of a boost the console would get is anyone's guess, but assuming the base unit is roughly on par w/ a PS4, we could be looking at N64 to PS1 level of difference, only this time w/o the drawback of ROM carts as a storage medium.
This also allows Nintendo to go for power and keeping the price for both units affordable ($250 for the console, $150 for the handheld), and more importantly still affordable as a combo unit in comparison to w/e VR bundles for PS4 and XBO come about. In 2017 Nintendo could lower the cost of one or the other depending on sales and sales momentum, and then introduce a VR solution of their own and bundle that in w/ the console and handheld for an affordable price relative to competitor bundles, or just make bundles swapping out the handheld for the VR unit.
That is a lot harder to achieve than it sounds. It would likely be completely impractical.