So, can someone explain Nintendo's most probable strategy here? I mean... It's pretty vague, right?
I'm trying to figure them out a little. Let's think together?
Let's first be clear on this: No matter how powerful the console will be it will be overpowered by sony/ms next consoles. That seems one of the most certain points we can hold on to. So in that regard it's a little bit like a Wii 2 or a Dreamcast console.
In terms of power I see two options.
1: It will be vastly more powerful than 360/ps3. I doubt this because of their design philosophies. And also the risks involved. And the fact that they would be playing into sony/ms's hand more than necessary (they can sell at a loss, nintendo can't). But it has the advantage of perhaps setting the next 3rd party 'power' standard. In essence becoming the next multiplat console, that the 360 is in the current generation. Would 3rd party developers really develop for such a console with even higher dev costs and tiny install base? What would it have to offer to the consumer?
2: It will be somewhat alike a 360/ps3. Which sounds risky as well because we already have 2 consoles like that. Or 3 if you count the PC. And they are all outfitted with their own motion controllers by now. So what would it have to offer to the consumer?
For scenario 1 I can imagine that Nintendo is not going to appeal to 3rd party developers anymore. So, almost entirely first party games. I say this because with the Wii the 3rd party support has been more of an insult than anything else to nintendo, and the system shows that if they could make a bit more games they would be able to sustain a console on their own. I do not mean that they forbid 3rd party games, but that they do not attempt to appeal to them at all. They've not been very good at appealing to 3rd party developers anyway, in any of the generations past. And the 3rd party developers are unable to compete with nintendo, and are very frustrated by this, making all kinds of excuses.
Also I doubt that they are going to rely on the Wii as their casual frontline platform. Since 360/PS3 are slowly gaining grounds there. However they are also sneaking in the 3DS. Maybe the system will be for the core gamers and will at some point attempt to lure casuals in through the 3DS. I doubt that, but it's possible. So personally I think they'll go for scenario 2.
In both cases though I don't understand what it is going to offer to the consumer, or even what consumer they are aiming for. I am convinced casuals are willing to pay even 400 $/euro for a very powerful console IF it has something awesome that draws them in.
With a screen on the controller?
I don't think that is real. Even if the source would be Reggie, he would be lying. Because it would make the controllers super expensive and controllers were already expensive. I don't think that they would take many steps back from the wiimote design. Two of the advantages of the wiimote are one controller for each hand and the very succesful pointer, I think we will see at least one of those return.
What I think for now, is that they will implement a very unique online community system unlike xbox live or psn. I think that is where the real innovation will take place to draw people in.
In terms of medium, would Stream stand for a kind of onLive service? I don't think so :P although it's an interesting thought. With previous consoles we always had ideas that were way too wild. Every console takes years to build, and thus uses years old technology. And nintendo isn't keen on expecting everyone to have certain technology like online or HDtv available to them, let alone expecting people to all have high speed internet. They would love to use solid state/flash storage for games. Mainly because of load times. (Nintendo absolutely hates load times.) I think nintendo won't use normal DVD's. Maybe their own version of DVD's. I can't imagine them buying Blu rays, personally, when they invest a lot of money in researching new storage media.
KungfuKitten
Those are my thoughts about that matter:
The next Nintendo will be much more powerful than 360/PS3 if the leaked specs are true (esp. ATI R700 custom GPU - thats WAY ahead of what PS3/360 have). Its likely that PS4 and the next XBOX will be even more powerful, but probably not by a great margin (the gap will be definitely smaller then its now with Wii) and they probably wont come until 2014 - that means Nintendo will have the most powerful console on the market for at least 2 years.
And I think thats their point. They see the chance to recapture the so called hardcore audience thanks to the fact that hd twins lifespan is going to be a longer than the usual 5 years.
Screen on the controller could be easily real. Remember that the controller will not have its own CPU or that kind of stuff, just simple 6" touchscreen (not even multitouch) as an additional input method. It is completely possible that the controller will not by more expensive than ****c PS3 or 360 controller. It also offers some VERY iteresting gameplay options if you think about it (for example it allows developers to give one player an information the other player doesnt have when playing multiplayer on one console). It could also be very handy for inventory management in RPGs or as an input method for strategy games.
Stream stands for the fact that project.cafe is able to stream video signal to the display on the controller. It definitely will NOT be anything like onLive service. Whole the computing of a game will be done on consoles hardware.
What media will they use is unknown, I think they will use either their own custom media or blueray.
From the leaked materials (that were clearly from some presentation of project.cafe to game developers) its obvious that Nintendo presents project.cafe as a development friendly console. Their most important points were simple development and a lot of power and thats exactly what I expect from it.
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