I thought this recent interview with Miyamoto was insightful to read. What piqued my interest however, was this quote in particular:
Let me clarify what I mean with Nintendo catching up in the past: it has thus far taken Nintendo a full console generation to implement a feature that others have had before them. Some examples...
(5th gen) Cartridge (Nintendo 64) vs. optical media (PlayStation)
(6th gen) Virtually non-existent online (GameCube) vs. full-fledged online (Xbox Live)
(7th gen) Standard definition (Wii) vs. high definition (PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360)
(8th gen) PowerPC arch (Wii U) vs. x86 arch (PlayStation 4 / Xbox One)
(9th gen) ...?
All of these features have been important to the development of consoles. My concern is with that last point of the Wii U still using a PowerPC architecture similar to the GameCube and Wii. Essentially (and this is very much to simplify my statement) the Wii U is a Wii times three as in the number of processor cores, and the Wii is internally a GameCube with higher clock frequency. It's therefore very unlikely that Nintendo will follow up with yet again the same architecture in their next console. I know that there are more variables at play, but for the purpose of my statement these are the facts.
So what comes next for Nintendo? The one big problem that Nintendo has faced this generation with the Wii U is the lack of 3rd party support. No matter how much time and effort Nintendo will put into polishing their first party titles for the Wii U, not having a big enough library of games will only hurt them going forward. Nintendo will definitely want to make a more developer friendly console, catering to everyone from indies (a strong dependence today already) to AAA studios (the big names making the stuff that sells like hot cakes no matter the quality).
Since development on x86 is much cheaper as it foregoes the need for dedicated development kits and enables better portability between PC and console hardware, x86 is the de facto architecture moving forward. Will Nintendo use x86 in their next console? I'd say it's very possible.
Let me go back to my earlier point on how this affects Wii U owners. Since "we" (collectively the fans of Nintendo games and Wii U owners) are a minority and often support every release we can, think e.g. #OperationPlatinum, we're already on our way building up a healthy collection of Wii U games. Should my theory prove right and Nintendo goes with x86 in their next console, these Wii U games will strictly stay as Wii U games with no forward compatibility.
This makes me very concerned and more than anything cautious: should I stick to a few great games and skip the rest, or continue putting money in a product that may never outgrow its shadow? Just my random ramblings again, but it does make you think (hopefully). What say you?
Now here are my thoughts (feel absolutely free to criticize, I welcome it)... I know that Nintendo and probably every other company out there starts working on the next thing right after they release a product. However, since Nintendo has played a bit of "catch up" in the past with their hardware, I think we can expect the successor to the Wii U to be (architecturally) very different. And what that means for Wii U owners is what I'd like to ponder.We're focused on providing a robust line-up of Wii U software for next year. It seems like we've managed to do that this year and people are very happy with what we've done on Wii U. For the time being, our focus is on the Wii U hardware, but Nintendo as a whole has groups working on ideas for new hardware systems. While we're busy working on software for the Wii U, we have production lines that are working on ideas for what the next system might be.
Let me clarify what I mean with Nintendo catching up in the past: it has thus far taken Nintendo a full console generation to implement a feature that others have had before them. Some examples...
(5th gen) Cartridge (Nintendo 64) vs. optical media (PlayStation)
(6th gen) Virtually non-existent online (GameCube) vs. full-fledged online (Xbox Live)
(7th gen) Standard definition (Wii) vs. high definition (PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360)
(8th gen) PowerPC arch (Wii U) vs. x86 arch (PlayStation 4 / Xbox One)
(9th gen) ...?
All of these features have been important to the development of consoles. My concern is with that last point of the Wii U still using a PowerPC architecture similar to the GameCube and Wii. Essentially (and this is very much to simplify my statement) the Wii U is a Wii times three as in the number of processor cores, and the Wii is internally a GameCube with higher clock frequency. It's therefore very unlikely that Nintendo will follow up with yet again the same architecture in their next console. I know that there are more variables at play, but for the purpose of my statement these are the facts.
So what comes next for Nintendo? The one big problem that Nintendo has faced this generation with the Wii U is the lack of 3rd party support. No matter how much time and effort Nintendo will put into polishing their first party titles for the Wii U, not having a big enough library of games will only hurt them going forward. Nintendo will definitely want to make a more developer friendly console, catering to everyone from indies (a strong dependence today already) to AAA studios (the big names making the stuff that sells like hot cakes no matter the quality).
Since development on x86 is much cheaper as it foregoes the need for dedicated development kits and enables better portability between PC and console hardware, x86 is the de facto architecture moving forward. Will Nintendo use x86 in their next console? I'd say it's very possible.
Let me go back to my earlier point on how this affects Wii U owners. Since "we" (collectively the fans of Nintendo games and Wii U owners) are a minority and often support every release we can, think e.g. #OperationPlatinum, we're already on our way building up a healthy collection of Wii U games. Should my theory prove right and Nintendo goes with x86 in their next console, these Wii U games will strictly stay as Wii U games with no forward compatibility.
This makes me very concerned and more than anything cautious: should I stick to a few great games and skip the rest, or continue putting money in a product that may never outgrow its shadow? Just my random ramblings again, but it does make you think (hopefully). What say you?