Nintendo hardware engineers are very slow to catch with current trends. N64 with cartidges, Cube with miniDVD, Wii with its sub-PS2 capacity, and WiiU being itself.

Fun fact - the WiiU was the only one getting consistent 60FPS games from first-party games despite being the most underpowered of its peers xD

Snayperskaya wrote:

N64 with cartidges, Cube with miniDVD, Wii with its sub-PS2 capacity, and WiiU being itself.

I thought with the N64 using carts it was to deter blatant piracy at the time. I think the same issue with miniDVD's.

If the Wii is "subpar" with the PS2 then why did a game like RE4 run and look better on the Wii than the PS2?

And atleast the WiiU is actually unique in keeping with PowerPC ISA rather than turn itself into a x86_64 based system which basically would imply it's a "PC" at that point.

On topic: It's kinda amusing how most Nintendo stuff on the Gamecube, Wii and WiiU and now this thing are 60 FPS. Hell even F-Zero X on the N64 was 60 FPS.

Snayperskaya wrote:

Nintendo hardware engineers are very slow to catch with current trends.

I think it's more the case that what Nintendo considers "trends" are simply different.

They made a decision at some point that there is no point trying to win arbitrary graphical fidelity contests, and instead to focus on the software. And indeed, Nintendo's first-party software is consistently of very high quality.

For instance: If all you take the one-eyed view that capacity is the be-all and end-all of your choice of medium, then of course Nintendo appeared "very slow" when all their peers were moving to optical disks. However, consider that Nintendo probably took a more holistic view, and decided that having zero load-times was a worthwhile user experience trade-off for storage capacity. (Of course this is just speculation, but you see where I'm coming from?)

Nintendo is a very stoic and traditional company, for better or worse. You won't find them at the bleeding edge of technology, and I'm fairly sure that's entirely by choice.

When it comes to using optical media do not forget SEGA's possible influence in the decision. Nintendo was the one pushing the development of the Playstation with Sony, and then the CDi with Philips, until they gave up most probably after seeing SEGA fail miserably with their two CD-ROM addons for the Mega Drive/Genesis.

It's also true that gamers are getting older. Most seem to enjoy adult themes in their games and I doubt most would want to play the same Mario Kart year after year. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with games like Mario Kart (or Zelda for that matter), but I just don't see people getting excited about them as much as they used to. Nintendo's own games are pretty much what keeps the whole thing afloat. Everything else is being released on a PS/Xbox/PC.

sf78 wrote:

I just don't see people getting excited about them as much as they used to.

Really? People go mad when a new Mario Kart or Super Smash Bros comes out! Mario Kart 8 has sold nearly 6 million copies!

Nintendo consoles don't need gobs of power to produce a great gaming experience. First-party Nintendo titles are fantastic - not because of their high-poly 3D graphics, or their lens-flare bloomy lighting effects, or their 1080p resolution... but because they are FUN! Nintendo make games with gameplay, rather than tech demos that fail to live up to expectations. SSB, Mario Kart and Zelda continue selling tons of units, even after years without price drops, because they are damn good games. The same can't be said for Call of Battlefield V: Black Phantom Edition 2016.

If I was going to buy a console, it would be either a WiiU or a 3DS. Nothing from Sony or Microsoft is at all interesting to me, and any games that are interesting are available on PC in a much more complete package. And IMO, anyone who's judging the NX purely on specs before they've even seen a single gameplay video are missing the point.

Since no one has pointed it out yet: this is just a rumor at this point and not a very believeable one at that. Some things to consider (in bullet points, like the article!):

• Donkey Kong is not a selling point for Nintendo. It has had nothing but very niche titles since the SNES.
• Web browser use isn't a huge selling point for consoles, but has proven to be a huge security risk. I expect NX not to have a web browser. They could have one, but it will not be a selling point.
• 4K/60 FPS streaming is not a selling point. Streaming 60FPS implies games, while streaming 4K excludes it entirely. For video content, I doubt 4K is a huge bullet point to either consumers or content providers. 60FPS video content is very uncommon, so weird to advertise it.
• Publicly saying that NX games should be targetting 60 FPS is distancing themselves further from third party developers, which is the opposite of what Nintendo should be doing. 900p target is also pretty stupid as a bullet point.
• Nintendo needs to distance themselves from the poor marketing of the Wii at this point and limitations of sticking to GC-like architecture for backwards compatibility they are not including a sensor bar with the NX.

Just nothing in this rumor that makes any sense to me. I can buy that Nintendo still believes they have a network though.