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Nintendo's rumored "NX" console has been officially announced as the Nintendo Switch, a console-handheld hybrid. The Switch may be Nintendo's last stand in the console wars:
Previously code-named NX, now named the Nintendo Switch, the device looks like a tablet computer with controllers that attach to its sides. The device was revealed in a short "teaser" video posted on YouTube.
One analyst said the device could be Nintendo's "last shot" at selling a home console. "The Wii U was a car crash, basically," said Paul Jackson of the Ovum consultancy. They fudged the communication and confused everybody with the controller and what the screen was for. As a result it sold about a tenth of what the original Wii sold."
The Wii U was rapidly outsold by Sony's PS4 and Microsoft's Xbox One, although Nintendo has enjoyed success with its handheld 3DS device. The new Switch console can be seated in a dock to play games on a television, or used as a stand-alone portable device. Games will be delivered on small cartridges - a nod to older Nintendo consoles.
The console will use a customized NVIDIA Tegra system-on-a-chip. The core count/type is unknown, as is the choice of Maxwell or Pascal GPU.
The PS4 and Xbox One mid-cycle refreshes could allow Nintendo some breathing room to compete on graphics/processing capabilities, since developers will be forced to support the older consoles:
Strangely, though, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 may provide some relief. They aren't being abandoned – which means developers will already be focused on building games that scale down to less powerful hardware. It's not unreasonable to imagine the Switch will offer visual quality on par, or very nearly on par, with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 throughout its lifespan.
Also at WSJ.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday October 21 2016, @10:18PM
Well, you've seen the AC comment. My take on it is that it has a chance, since the processing/graphics power is likely to be in the ballpark of Xbox One, and Nintendo has been behind the other two in power for generations now (it's nothing new). Scorpio/PS4K are mid-cycle refreshes, and it seems that new titles will be forced to be backwards compatible with the regular Xbox One and PS4 and meet the same 900p/1080p ~30 FPS targets. So Nintendo does not have to match Scorpio/PS4K. Nintendo Switch won't be doing 4K resolution gaming or 1080p 90 FPS VR, but it remains to be seen whether those things matter (and it might be able to do some VR if you lower the level of detail enough).
The console will probably be able to decode 4K H.265 video, so it can act as a media center for years to come.
The bigger problem might be the jump from PowerPC + AMD GPU to ARM + NVIDIA GPU, while both Microsoft and Sony stick with x86 + AMD GPU and move the consoles closer to being PCs. Or it could be a good thing, smartphone chips vs. PC chips.
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