NX - Nintendo's Next Generation Hardware Concept

[Havok83]

Nintendo gets all the Sonic games. The bigger news is that its coming to PS4 and XB1

 

[SpideyVille]

Eurogamer is dishing out on some scoops about the NX. Apologies in advance for the two lengthy articles.

Nintendo's upcoming NX will be a portable, handheld console with detachable controllers, a number of sources have confirmed to Eurogamer.
On the move, NX will function as a high-powered handheld console with its own display. So far so normal - but here's the twist: we've heard the screen is bookended by two controller sections on either side, which can be attached or detached as required.

Then, when you get home, the system can connect to your TV for gaming on the big screen.

A base unit, or dock station, is used to connect the brain of the NX - within the controller - to display on your TV.

For more on the console's power, Digital Foundry has a deep-dive look at the chip Nintendo has chosen as the centrepiece of NX, according to numerous well-placed sources: Nvidia's powerful Tegra mobile processor.
NX will use game cartridges as its choice of physical media, multiple sources have also told us.

Considering NX's basis as a handheld first and foremost, the choice may not come as too much of a surprise - although we have heard the suggestion Nintendo recommends a 32GB cartridge, which is small when considering the size of many modern games.

Naturally, we expect digital game downloads will also be available. We were told Nintendo considered but then decided against making a system which supported digital downloads only.

It's not the first time cartridge-based media has been mooted for NX. Back in May, eagle-eyed fans spotted The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's trademark included cartridge-based games. This was a change from Nintendo's usual wording for home console trademarks, which only refer to digital downloads and discs.

Due to the radical change in hardware design and internal technology, we've been told by one source that there are no plans for backwards compatibility.

Another source said the system would run on a new operating system from Nintendo. It won't, contrary to some earlier rumours, simply run on Android.
Inside the NX, as stated above, the system will harness Nvidia's powerful mobile processor Tegra. Graphical comparisons with current consoles are difficult due to the vastly different nature of the device - but once again we've heard Nintendo is not chasing graphical parity. Quite the opposite, it is sacrificing power to ensure it can squeeze all of this technology into a handheld, something which also tallies with earlier reports.

Finally, we've heard from one source that NX planning has recently moved up a gear within Nintendo ahead of the console's unveiling, which is currently slated for September.

After the confused PR fiasco of the Wii U launch, the company is already settling on a simple marketing message for NX - of being able to take your games with you on the go.

Nintendo always designs its hardware to show off specific game concepts - and it remains to be seen how the system will showcase the next Mario, or even how the NX version of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - the only first-party game confirmed so-far - may differ when played on the device.

Previously, however, we've heard reports of various Wii U games reappearing as updated NX ports - Splatoon and Smash Bros. have both been mooted. And then there's Pikmin 4, which Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed to Eurogamer just over a year ago.

"Nintendo has not made any new official announcements regarding NX which is due to launch in March 2017," a Nintendo spokesperson told Eurogamer when contacted about this story. "As such [we're] unable to comment on the various rumours and speculations circulating."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-07-26-nx-is-a-portable-console-with-detachable-controllers

Nvidia is providing the core technology that powers Nintendo's next generation NX console. Multiple sources have confirmed that the new machine is based around Nvidia's mobile-orientated Tegra processor, with development kits currently using the Tegra X1 chip found in the Shield Android TV console and the Google Pixel C tablet.

The news is bound to come as some surprise to those - including ourselves - who suspected that AMD would provide the technology guts to the new Nintendo machine, but what's clear is that the firm is planning to go into a completely new, potentially revolutionary direction. Right now, it is simply not interested in providing hardware that directly competes with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It has its own ideas on where to take next-gen gaming.

NX is a mobile games machine, albeit one with a twist - principally that the unit can plug into a base station that transforms it into something more akin to a conventional console. However, the handheld's side-mounted control areas are apparently detachable, becoming individual pads for two-player gameplay - as revealed in today's big Nintendo NX news story on this site. At a really basic level, NX is effectively a reversal of the Wii U GamePad concept. It's a fully integrated mobile games machine you can plug into an HDTV, as opposed to a console with a semi-portable gaming component, bolstered with a unique 'go anywhere' take on local multiplayer.

And the compromise there is clear - a relatively lower level of performance compared to the existing current-gen machines. Nvidia's Tegra technology is built with a specific profile in mind: a delicate balance between performance and power efficiency in order to maintain battery life, the life force of mobile gaming. What this means is that prior, plausible rumours of an AMD-powered console with PS4-beating performance and utilising x86 architecture are erroneous. NX is smaller, leaner, portable - and yes, less powerful.

Nvidia Tegra X1 specs
Here's a quick lowdown of the Tegra X1's capabilities. It's a combination of four higher power ARM processors combined with a quad-core arrangement of four lower power cores. These are paired with a cut-down version of Nvidia's second-gen Maxwell GPU technology.

• CPU: Eight CPU cores (4x ARM Cortex-A57/4x ARM Cortex A53)
• GPU: 256-core second-gen Maxwell technology
• Media Support: Up to 4K 60fps (h.264/HEVC/VP9)
• Display Support: Up to 4K, 60Hz
• USB Support: USB 3.0 specification
• Manufacturing Process: 20nm

Nintendo NX RAM allocation hasn't been revealed, but all Tegra X1 devices shipped to date are equipped with 3GB of mobile-orientated DDR3.

A look at the capabilities of Tegra X1 in its Shield Android TV form. Doom 3 BFG Edition and Trine 3 showcase the GPU power of the mobile processor - now imagine what Tegra X1 could do with direct, to-the-metal access for developers.

However, the fact is that Nintendo has a proven track record of handing in graphical quality that belies the relatively meagre hardware running it, whether we're talking about Super Smash Bros. on 3DS, Xenoblade Chronicles on New 3DS or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Wii U.

But just how powerful is the NX relatively? In terms of the capabilities of Tegra X1, consider this: Doom BFG Edition on Xbox 360 and PS3 runs at 720p60 with frame-rate drops. The same game running on the Shield Android TV micro-console, based on X1, hands in a near-flawless 1080p60 presentation. Trine 2 - another 720p30 game on Sony and Microsoft's last-gen consoles - operates at 1080p30 on Tegra X1. Typically speaking, OpenGL games port really well to Tegra X1, while DirectX ports, like Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and the recently released Resident Evil 5, aren't so impressive.

But the real question is this - what if the Tegra X1 hardware is completely divorced from its current Android underpinnings and paired up with direct, low-level access? If you're looking for an example of the revelatory upgrade to perceived performance this can have, consider the glory days of PlayStation Vita - Uncharted: Golden Abyss, WipEout 2048, Gravity Rush, and yes, a range of impressive PS3 ports. These were all powered by a downclocked version of the same GPU found in the iPad 3 and judged by today's standards, it's positively ancient technology. However, even to this day, it's hard to find a mobile shooter with anything like the technical sophistication of Guerrilla Cambridge's impressive Killzone: Mercenary.

Nintendo has an uncanny ability to extract more from power-constrained hardware. Check out how closely the Nintendo 3DS version of Super Smash Bros. matches the Wii U game, running on much more powerful hardware.

There's an additional wrinkle to the story too, albeit one we should treat with caution as it is single-source in nature with a lot of additional speculation on our part. This relates to the idea that the Tegra X1 in the NX development hardware is apparently actively cooled, with audible fan noise. With that in mind, we can't help but wonder whether X1 is the final hardware we'll see in the NX. Could it actually be a placeholder for Tegra X2? It's a new mobile processor Nvidia has in its arsenal and what's surprising about it is how little we actually know about it.

Information on X2 is very limited, to the point where all the technical info we have on it is condensed into one presentation you can read here - 'Embedded Supercomputing at Nvidia' by Alex Ramirez of Nvidia Research. What we do know is that it is a core component of Nvidia's new Drive PX2 system for the automotive industry, where two Tegra X2s are paired with a brace of the firm's discrete GPUs based on the cutting-edge Pascal architecture.

We also know it has an unusual CPU set-up - two next-gen versions of Nvidia's own Denver CPU cores, paired with an ARM quad-core ARM Cortex-A57 CPU cluster. But what we don't know is the form its GPU component will take because unusually, Nvidia has released no specs on this element whatsoever. Assuming that X2 offers a generational leap over X1 and uses the same Pascal architecture found in its new GPU line, we are potentially looking at power more in line with the current-gen consoles. And if Pascal is in play, it will also use 14nm FinFET production technology compared to X1's 20nm process, meaning it is much more power-efficient. Nintendo could also downclock the chip for further efficiency savings and longer battery life while retaining the lion's share of its processing power.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as seen at E3 2016. The game is confirmed for NX, and Tegra hardware can deliver increased visual fidelity and better performance than Wii U.

It is worth stressing with a firm emphasis that everything we have heard so far points to Tegra X1 as the SoC of choice for Nintendo NX, and Tegra X2 may simply be a derivative version of X1 with Denver CPU cores, designed for Nvidia's burgeoning automotive line - we literally know very little about it. However, perhaps another factor to consider is launch timing. NX launches in March 2017, almost two years after Shield Android TV with Tegra X1 launched in May 2015. The timing may suggest that Nintendo is waiting for mass production to become available on a more cutting edge part. If the older Tegra X1 is indeed the core component, availability there would not be a problem, suggesting a delay elsewhere in the pipeline. Alternatively, it may simply be the case that Nintendo is holding fire until a compelling array of launch software is ready.

One element worth pointing out is that the move to a completely new architecture will have backwards compatibility ramifications. Tegra technology would have no problem whatsoever coping with existing virtual console emulation (and indeed, the X1-powered Shield Android TV is one of the best emulator boxes on the market) but running Wii U titles may be a stretch too far.

And one final note - we're still chasing down details on the NX's screen resolution. While Tegra X1 has shown some potential at full 1080p, clearly a lower pixel count would free up GPU resources for more detailed imagery. On a mobile device, even a 720p screen could work beautifully - and few can complain about the quality of Vita's 540p panel. However, on the flip-side, NX is indeed a console/mobile hybrid. The games still have to look good on a conventional HDTV in a world where 1080p is effectively the standard.

We'll continue digging and bring you more information when we can, but for now, Nintendo itself is giving nothing away, telling Eurogamer that "Nintendo has not made any new official announcements regarding NX which is due to launch in March 2017. As such [we're] unable to comment on the various rumours and speculations circulating."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/d...-mobile-games-machine-powered-by-nvidia-tegra

 

[The Bruce]

This relates to the idea that the Tegra X1 in the NX development hardware is apparently actively cooled, with audible fan noise. With that in mind, we can't help but wonder whether X1 is the final hardware we'll see in the NX. Could it actually be a placeholder for Tegra X2? It's a new mobile processor Nvidia has in its arsenal and what's surprising about it is how little we actually know about it.

The handheld/tv hybrid thing sounds amazing. A fan in a handheld system? Not so much

Imagine kids dropping the system.

 

[Havok83]

Sounds like Wii U 2.0 but expected if they were going the hybrid route

 

[X Knight]

if true, those reports are disappointing. My interest in the NX just dropped.

I wanted a new, powerful dedicated home console from Nintendo, something that was at least as powerful as the PS4, so that it would have a fighting chance against the Neo and Scorpio.

I'm not interested in a handheld centric console, that's less powerful than the current PS4/X1, and that's not backwards compatible.

I'd rather just pick up a Wii U for cheap next year to play Zelda.

but, overall, very disappointing news about the NX.

 

[Benstamania]

If true I'll skip it and stick to classic things from Nintendo like NES Mini or hopeful SNES Mini, etc. I don't care what route they go.. No excuse to not be just as powerful as the PS4 3 years into its life.

 

[X Knight]

^ the upside to the reports is that maybe the Wii U will still have some life left in it and won't be replaced so quickly.

however, aren't they stopping Wii U production? I thought I read that a few months ago.

the other upside is that it means I can save my money by skipping the NX......lol.

 

[Benstamania]

Yep, that's the huge plus.. I'll save for a Scorpio and skip NX. I'm greatly becoming the type of person who wants Nintendo to just go 3rd party.. They suffer because they worry about hardware.. And this would just take those issues away.

 

[Havok83]

I think people are looking at it the wrong way. When looking at Nintendo's hardware sales, their home console sales pale in comparison to the handheld. This seems nothing more than a handheld with a TV out option. Almost like their way of getting out of the traditional home console space, but not really as they still have their foot in the door. Its actually a smart idea on their part bc i think people are fooling themselves if they thought they could release a PS4 equivalent and rise back to prominence. Mid-cycle and having lost so much favor with gamers and the industry, it just wasnt going to happen.

When they start marketing this, they'll likely play up the handheld functionality as thats what sets it apart from the competition. People may not get it as a replacement for Wii U, but as successor to 3DS, it will sell. Stuff like Monster Hunter and Pokemon remain big and people have been demanding a home version of the latter for years. This also unifies their development teams as the 3DS got a steady stream of games whereas the Wii U was lacking in that department

 

[Benstamania]

Well hopefully they market it better than they have the Wiiu and New 3DS.

 

[SpideyVille]

I wouldn't be opposed to playing a "handheld" Pokemon game on a home "console", just as long as it look great visually on a big TV.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

So after months of being told the hybrid thing was off, now it looks back on? And it sounds horrible.

This is the kind of over complicated stuff people hate. Give me a handheld, give me a console. Don't give me some weird clunky hybrid crap. Because otherwise, it is always half-assed.

 

[Havok83]

I wouldn't be opposed to playing a "handheld" Pokemon game on a home "console", just as long as it look great visually on a big TV.

It should have the same quality of graphics as the Wii U. Better actually. The series will see a huge jump in visuals. It can be like a living anime, sort of like the Naruto games as the tech is there

or even a Ni No kuni

 

[Iceman]

I think people are looking at it the wrong way. When looking at Nintendo's hardware sales, their home console sales pale in comparison to the handheld. This seems nothing more than a handheld with a TV out option. Almost like their way of getting out of the traditional home console space, but not really as they still have their foot in the door. Its actually a smart idea on their part bc i think people are fooling themselves if they thought they could release a PS4 equivalent and rise back to prominence. Mid-cycle and having lost so much favor with gamers and the industry, it just wasnt going to happen.

When they start marketing this, they'll likely play up the handheld functionality as thats what sets it apart from the competition. People may not get it as a replacement for Wii U, but as successor to 3DS, it will sell. Stuff like Monster Hunter and Pokemon remain big and people have been demanding a home version of the latter for years. This also unifies their development teams as the 3DS got a steady stream of games whereas the Wii U was lacking in that department

I think this could be the right direction for them too. They can totally dominate this area while the prospects of a traditional console doing well against current competition and mid-cycle are nowhere near as great, whatever they come up with.

 

[Benstamania]

This news also kind of sucks..

Due to the radical change in hardware design and internal technology, we've been told by one source that there are no plans for backwards compatibility.

 

[Havok83]

This news also kind of sucks..

Due to the radical change in hardware design and internal technology, we've been told by one source that there are no plans for backwards compatibility.

Does it matter? BC is really more important for people that owned the previous console. Its not like the Wii U sold gangbusters and has a ton of gamers to cater to. It didnt hurt the PS4 not to have BC and its predecessor, the PS3, had a far larger install base. The Wii U's library as well is rather small in comparison and there are probably a list of 15 or less games that would be worth having. Said games can be remastered for the NX, which theoretically will have a new user base to expose them to, much like the PS4 did when Xbox users came over.

 

[Lily Adler]

I guess the NX can potentially get great ports of OpenGL games... The ire surrounding DirectX games is disconcerting, though. I'm not sure how I feel about this. It does sound very different like a Wii U Gamepad on steroids, but will it draw gamers back in. I know BotW is supposedly a launch title, but I hope they have a Mario game ready for the holidays up their sleeve.

 

[SpideyVille]

It should have the same quality of graphics as the Wii U. Better actually. The series will see a huge jump in visuals. It can be like a living anime, sort of like the Naruto games as the tech is there

or even a Ni No kuni

I still haven't played through Ni-No Kuni, but I've heard it's a better looking Pokemon game, and if Nintendo can mimic that from a graphical sense, that would be so awesome.

 

[rashad]

I'm very disappointed if this is the direction Nintendo is going. Unfortunately they are now a company relying on gimmicky concepts. So it wouldn't be too surprising if this is true. They are truly in their own lane that's great for them. Hopefully they're successful because I probably won't be buying one. My interest has dropped significantly.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Home consoles are dying/dead in Japan. Even the "mighty" PS4 is a flop in comparison to the past there. Nintendo is insular and primarily cares about their domestic market where consoles are a relic and portability is king.

A hybrid video game system is something that I've suggested they take a look at a few years ago (1, 2). They can't compete with Sony internationally, Microsoft is barely keeping up with Sony anymore. And the Wii and DS didn't succeed because they had the best hardware...quite the opposite is what they were and cheap.

 

[KillerMcQueen]

I actually quite like the sound of a hybrid system, if it means instead of making games spread across two systems they're making them all on one it could really help the NX's lineup.

 

[Loden Greatstorm]

I'm really not sure how I feel about the NX look...

Hopefully it will grow on me.

 

[Solidus]

I'm fine with this news. Nintendo is never going to want to become like Sony/MS, that is already a saturated market space. To me Nintendo is always about creating fun games, and while some think they need to go third party, I think they do just fine on their own under their own terms.

Nintendo still makes games that are fun, and not just about graphics/production value. Anymore I travel a lot for work, so I'd be down with something I could take with me after playing it at home for a while. I agree with KillerMcQueen above, this streamlines all the games to one system instead of having tons of great games on the DS that I can't play on my home console. It will just create that much bigger of a library of games to choose from.

 

[Sithborg]

I look forward to more actual info.

 

[Loden Greatstorm]

Official reveal coming in September.