Nintendo HDS: What you want out of 3DS successor

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bonesawisready5

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#1 bonesawisready5
Member since 2011 • 4971 Posts

Its no secret that Nintendo is always working on their next console/handheld..

What do you guys want to see in the 3DS's successor? Ideally I'd like to see this and think it should be feasible in a profitable $130-$150 package by mid-2016. I say 2016 because even though 3DS sales are slowing down, I don't see Nintendo releasing a new handheld until then.

Here's what I'd like to see: Call it Nintendo HDS. Give it a single, fold-able 5.5-6 inch 960x640 screen. Folding may raise price of screen but with 640p it will be cheap enough to not cost more than $15-$20 per unit (3D screen on 3DS costed $25 per screen in 2011) Phones are already making 720p standard on $150-$200 no contract devices so by 2016 640p should be bargain bin. This foldable screen has been demoed many times by other companies. Nintendo can make it clamshell so that the whole device doesn't have to be fold-able, just the screen itself. Two clamshell halves. Imagine a PS Vita split down the middle roughly.

The advantage of the fold-able screen is that Nintendo can split 3DS/DS games straight down the middle for backwards compatibility and the new games could use the whole screen or two if necessary. It would make the device super-portable, more portable than the 3DS even though it will have a 5 inch or bigger screen. Imagine its similar to folding a Game Boy Advance SP shut, but a little bigger.

Ship it with decent hardware but nothing that breaks the bank. Launching it at a low price is important. Nintendo said themselves that the days of $200 handhelds and $300 consoles may be over (Iwata said this for investors) so I imagine they'll come in at $130-$170 this time. Pack it with a nice AMD made ARM based Quad Core CPU around 1Ghz, a decent ARM GPU, and 2GB RAM and you're good. There are plenty of no contact phones sold at massive profits at price points like $130-$150 with 1GB-1.5GB RAM, I think 2GB RAM in a $130 handheld is very feasible by 2016 and likely profitable.

Of course my scenario isn't the only one, what can you guys think of? How would you handle 3DS's successor?

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KBFloYd

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#2 KBFloYd
Member since 2009 • 22714 Posts

yea the next handheld will def be HD with the power of a 360 or slightly better.

if the do decide to make the fusion then it will be able to connect to a tv or something idk.

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osan0

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#3  Edited By osan0
Member since 2004 • 17775 Posts

nintendo are talking about developing a common platform for all their devices next gen.

if they actually do that then i think they should release a range of gaming focused feature devices rather than just 1. a clamshell handheld akin to the GBA SP (i think the dual screen idea will come to an end next gen). a phone with proper game controls but is also very pocket friendly (4.5" screen) and has great build quality. a 7"-12" tablet type device for playing the same games around the house and so on. all the devices would have the same hardware in terms of horsepower (the screen res would be the same regardless of screen size) and they would all use the same platform (so i only need to buy a handheld game for the platform once and itll work on any compatible device).

in terms of screen a 720P LCD screen accross the board should do the trick. sure on a 12" tablet it might look a little blurry but nothing worse than a 3DSXL. my own tablet is a 10" 720P and its grand. not super sharp or anything but for games it gets the job done nicely. remember that a higher res will need more horsepower to drive it which will, in turn, increase costs and reduce battery life. 720P i think is a nice point to be at for a mobile gaming device.

in terms of processing power itll probably be something roughly 1.5-2x as powerful as a vita but with more modern hardware features (upgraded shader tech and so on). backed up by 1GB of ram (perhaps with a large cache pool similar to the wiiu to increase performance). it needs to be easy to develop for though and it shouldnt cost an absolute fortune to make games on it. a good 3DS budget should, ideally, be a good HDS budget also.

i do think nintendo should be taking a hard look at nvidia for their next console and handheld as they do know how to get good results in both parts of the market. of course that doesnt mean nintendo using the latest tegra and a titan level device in their next handheld and console...it would all be custom designed to meet certain costs. but AMD currently dont have hardware that would be great in a console and great in a handheld. although its possible to have a common platform that runs on a wide variety of hardware it does make life more difficult in terms porting games back and fourth and sharing resources between devices in terms of development.

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#4  Edited By starwolf474
Member since 2013 • 989 Posts

I think it is time for Nintendo to combine their handheld and console platforms into one device that is portable but can also be connected to a dock for charging and connecting to your TV and controllers for the console experience.

This would reduce their game droughts that they are often criticized for since Nintendo would only have to develop for one platform, give them a larger audience to sell to (both console and portable fans) which 3rd parties would like, and provide greater value to customers since they would be getting a console and portable device in one.

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bunchanumbers

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#5 bunchanumbers
Member since 2013 • 5709 Posts

I like the clamshell design they have been using since the GBA SP. I don't think they should get rid of that. It adds to their portability. But what I'd like to see is something like a HDMI add on so you can plug it into your TV and use the bottom screen as a gamepad. They need to add full sticks and Zl and Zr buttons. The clamshell design would also cover up the analog sticks and protect the screen. The gyroscope business that is on the Wii U gamepad needs to happen too. It should also have the option to be plugged in or with bluetooth to be connected to the next Nintendo console. This way the HDS can be used as a controller (and replacement for Wii U gamepad) and encourages local play and 2 screen experiences.

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nini200

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#6 nini200
Member since 2005 • 11484 Posts

Games games and games