The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Nintendo has begun distributing software development kits for the new NX to developers.

The article also reads that people familiar with the project say that the NX consists of both a console-like device and handheld unit, as per the rumours; and that Nintendo is planning to use "industry leading" components after criticism with the Wii U regarding its graphical capabilities.

Expect more details on the NX to surface next year, presumably around E3. GBAtemp will keep you updated on any new developments.

Source (WSJ)

 

[RikuKawai]

The however slowly part there is going to be a sticking point for me. There are some that will pump the grinding right into the hundreds of hours and even if that technically means it is still no money to play the time investment would make that an unreasonable claim of free to me. Similar things can also apply to multiplayer games where you can play but might struggle to compete against those that have paid. Illyriad was a good example of a game that did it well when I saw it, it has been a few years since I last played it though.

PlanetSide 2 does a great job of ensuring weapons are sidegrades not upgrades. There is no 'best' weapon, it depends on your playstyle. I've been rekt countless times by the default weapons despite having spent some real money. A good player can save up for the most expensive weapons in several hours of playing.

 

[FAST6191]

No doubt, any game that aspires to be something competitive would do well to ensure their weapons/characters/techniques all fall along the pareto frontier (the mathematical/game theory term to describe what you mention) of usefulness. Games that do otherwise usually get stuck with the label pay to win and were not really what I was on about there.

 

[Vipera]

The N3DS feels a lot like the Game Boy Color. It only lasted 3 years, but it had A LOT of exclusives that didn't work on the regular Game Boy. It didn't make you feel like shit when the GBA was immediately announced. It'd be nice to see at least as many N3DS-only titles as the ones that supported the circle pad pro, but I'm dreaming...

 

[FAST6191]

"N3DS, more useful than a DSi ever was".

 

[Deleted User]

-snip-
If this SDK leaked somehow, would it be possible to find out how powerful it would be that way?
-wow another snip-

I'm pretty sure this depends on what's leaked, if the SDK isn't fully leaked.
Like, I have a few (probably incomplete?) Nintendo SDKs on my computer. The part of the GBC SDK I found (if I remember correctly) only contained IS-CGB-CAD, which is used for drawing sprites, and help files explaining how to use it in Japanese. I guess that would only really kinda show you the graphical capabilities of the GBC if it were leaked before it was actually released.
The SNES SDK I found contained (what I'm pretty sure was, I didn't read through it all the way, just a small portion) full-on documentation of the SNES in English, plus some software, I can't remember exactly what it was. If that were leaked before the SNES was released, then that would (obviously) tell you the full capabilities of the SNES.

this post feels really off since i'm not 100% sure about any of this, i might just ask for it to be deleted later

 

[Selim873]

I'm pretty sure this depends on what's leaked, if the SDK isn't fully leaked.
Like, I have a few (probably incomplete?) Nintendo SDKs on my computer. The part of the GBC SDK I found (if I remember correctly) only contained IS-CGB-CAD, which is used for drawing sprites, and help files explaining how to use it in Japanese. I guess that would only really kinda show you the graphical capabilities of the GBC if it were leaked before it was actually released.
The SNES SDK I found contained (what I'm pretty sure was, I didn't read through it all the way, just a small portion) full-on documentation of the SNES in English, plus some software, I can't remember exactly what it was. If that were leaked before the SNES was released, then that would (obviously) tell you the full capabilities of the SNES.

this post feels really off since i'm not 100% sure about any of this, i might just ask for it to be deleted later

That makes sense, honestly. Although, I'm not hoping it gets leaked, as that can possibly hurt them. Now's a different time. You couldn't just go online and find out the SDK got leaked and just download it back in the 90's.

Although, on the Nintendo Forums (Unofficial), someone claiming to work at Ubisoft said they got the SDK and, while he wasn't supposed to see it, people who were allowed to see it said that they were pretty impressed with Nintendo, as their machines were even having a hard time reaching 60fps on their tests.

It's post number 13.

http://www.nintendoforums.com/threads/nintendo-nx-will-have-incredibly-powerful-hardware.1963/

 

[MyJoyConRunsHot]

"Quite powerful?" It's actually quite weak compared with the specs of a PS Vita or newer smartphones.

The former with that 444Mhz CPU? lol.
Smartphones have stamped all over the handhelds since they were first released.

 

[RikuKawai]

The former with that 444Mhz CPU? lol.
Smartphones have stamped all over the handhelds since they were first released.

But smartphones lack two key things that handhelds posess:
1. Buttons, because let's be honest, touch controls suck
2. Quality games, i.e. not Candy Crush, Clash of Clans, etc.

 

[Deleted User]

But smartphones lack two key things that handhelds posess:
1. Buttons, because let's be honest, touch controls suck
2. Quality games, i.e. not Candy Crush, Clash of Clans, etc.

I bet there's at least one quality mobile game out there, but I sure as hell can't think of one.

 

[RikuKawai]

I bet there's at least one quality mobile game out there, but I sure as hell can't think of one.

There's going to be five, and surprise: they're made by Nintendo.

 

[Selim873]

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite was ported to iOS. I also heard Monster Hunter Explorer is good, but I can't get it to work since it's region locked.

 

[EntermateStar]

Reading all these comments gives me a headache as most of them are missing the main point...eh whatever, seems promising, my main concern is the chips, let us hope they are as powerful as they say

 

[Xzi]

The former with that 444Mhz CPU? lol.
Smartphones have stamped all over the handhelds since they were first released.

The Vita crushes the 3DS visually, so either 444MHz is still faster than what the 3DS is packing, or CPU speed doesn't mean a whole lot when the GPU is doing all the work. Likely, it's both. At the very least, let's hope Nintendo invests in better screen resolution for their next handheld.

 

[Vipera]

I bet there's at least one quality mobile game out there, but I sure as hell can't think of one.

Any game from CAVE (iOS only), Asphalt, Crimson Dragon, Halo Apartan Assault, Battle Odyssey, Dragon's Blade... All great games that suffer from the same major flaw: no buttons (except BO).

 

[Bladexdsl]

I bet there's at least one quality mobile game out there, but I sure as hell can't think of one.

there is: rebuild

 

[TotalInsanity4]

The Vita crushes the 3DS visually, so either 444MHz is still faster than what the 3DS is packing, or CPU speed doesn't mean a whole lot when the GPU is doing all the work. Likely, it's both. At the very least, let's hope Nintendo invests in better screen resolution for their next handheld.

CPU handles calculations, GPU handles visual rendering. To have a stable visually impressive game you ideally have good performance with both. If you have a great GPU but a slow CPU you run the risk of your game performing slowly/glitchily

 

[RikuKawai]

The Vita crushes the 3DS visually, so either 444MHz is still faster than what the 3DS is packing, or CPU speed doesn't mean a whole lot when the GPU is doing all the work. Likely, it's both. At the very least, let's hope Nintendo invests in better screen resolution for their next handheld.

Clock speed is meaningless unless you're comparing the same CPU/core/microarchitecture.
A 3GHz Pentium 4 is slower than the 1.8GHz Atom in my tablet.

 

[MyJoyConRunsHot]

Clock speed is meaningless unless you're comparing the same CPU/core/microarchitecture.
A 3GHz Pentium 4 is slower than the 1.8GHz Atom in my tablet.

Clockspeed is one of many aspects of a processor like pipeline depth, bus speed or branch prediction. If one of these is abysmal, it can seriously bring down performance. Yes, a quad-core A9 is powerful architecturally, but that 444MHz bottleneck means it's not that powerful.

 

[colt05]

I bet the size of the games will end up being 5GB like a 3DS game.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

I bet the size of the games will end up being 5GB like a 3DS game.

It could actually be much, much more if they decide to put cross-platform optimization code in it (AKA HD assets for the home console and 3D/more watered down assets for the portable)