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Nintendo3

E3, and the Nintendo NX'due south full review, are notwithstanding months abroad, but news around Nintendo's next-generation console has been hot lately. Today, we've got a new pair of rumors around the device: Nintendo is supposedly seeding software development kits already, and the platform volition combine a full-fledged handheld device with console play.

According to the WSJ via Geek.com, analyst Hiroshi Hayase, from IHS Technologies, expects "a small-scale recovery in shipments of flat-panel displays for game devices because of Nintendo's new game hardware expected to be released in 2022." Hayase expects shipments of three.1 – v-inch panels to increase from 14.i one thousand thousand units in 2022 to 16.5 million units this year.

Nintendo's NX: Console hardware, standalone handheld?

Similar the Wii U, the NX will supposedly combine a handheld gamepad with a living room console. Unlike the Wii U, notwithstanding, the NX controller volition supposedly be an independent unit. Instead of beingness tethered to the base panel by an invisible wireless leash, gamers can take the handheld gamepad anywhere they want.

Sony has tried an approach like this with the PlayStation Vita, with mixed results. Since the PS4 has a different controller from the Vita, not all titles map well to handheld. From what we've heard, the Vita is technically capable of streaming a game over the Cyberspace, but you lot'll realistically desire WiFi and a local PS4 to apply the features.

As for the NX controller, a recent patent granted to five Nintendo employees show a rather odd device:

Nintendo controller patent

The entire face of the device is one screen, with embedded thumbsticks on the left and right. While Nintendo loves being edgy and trying new things, I'm deeply dubious of this blueprint. First, there'southward the applied question of how well any display would survive rigorous gameplay sessions twenty-four hours later day. I've never croaky an iPhone screen from touching it, but I've never tried to play Smash on my iPhone for hours at a time, either.

The patent in question likewise describes virtual buttons that would sit down abreast the ii thumbsticks and could be updated and changed depending on what the game called for. Once again, we've seen the thought of a virtual joystick + buttons in mobile earlier, and it's never been a satisfying solution.

The oblong attribute ratio would be difficult for developers to target, since you wouldn't want the game to brandish critical data nether the player's thumb. In short, I'chiliad hoping these patent diagrams were filed to throw people off the olfactory property of what Nintendo wants to do.

What most the hardware?

If the Wall Street Journal is correct, one of the major features of the Nintendo NX will be the ability to transfer a game session to a gamepad and take it with you. A 5.1-inch panel would actually be smaller than the current Wii U Gamepad, though far larger than the 3DS.

The big question is how Nintendo would handle the local rendering and associated battery life hit. If the console has a target of lx FPS and 900p, the handheld version may be able to go away with a somewhat lower resolution target. Merely would the handheld the same hardware equally the console (albeit likely at a lower clock rate) Would salvage game sessions y'all completed locally synchronize with the NX when yous stepped back in range? If the console offloads gaming sessions to handheld hardware, tin a family accept reward of this to apply the NX panel for an entirely dissimilar game?

If the game controller contains a significant amount of standalone hardware, that will drive upward costs and weight. The final product wouldn't need to exist every bit circuitous or expensive as a modern smartphone, but it would nonetheless need physical interface buttons, some type of operating system, storage, wireless radios, and at to the lowest degree a moderately powerful SoC. While there take been rumors that AMD is building the NX, the focus of those rumors was that AMD would exist building the console, not the handheld.

Finally, at that place'southward the business concerns. Right now, the 3DS market is considerably healthier than the Wii U, with an estimated 57.9 1000000 units shipped, compared to only 12.v million for Nintendo's latest panel. Combining the console and handheld businesses would give Nintendo a common platform for all titles, simply it could too poison the handheld market place if gamers don't see the NX equally an appropriate replacement. Toll is also a major concern — the 3DS launched at $249 before falling to $169, while the Wii U was $250. It's difficult to see how Nintendo could build a competitive panel and a standalone gamepad in a $250 upkeep — the Nintendo NX may debut at cost ranges that compete with Sony and MS, as opposed to undercutting them as its washed the final two panel cycles.