Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite Chatter

#126
#126
VolsSportsFan said:
Well, actually you can argue that the N64 is when they started to lose their standing. They decided to go with carts instead of CDs and that ended up costing them a lot of 3rd party support.

I agree about the power though, even though the cart decision was bad, the N64 at least was powerful.
Click to expand...

Same could be said for the Gamecube. The system was extremely capable for it's time but it looked like a kiddie toy and Nintendo's decision to use those proprietary mini disks instead of DVD-Rom affected it's sales because many people bought PS2's just to watch DVD's.
 
#127
#127
Brave Volunteer said:
Same could be said for the Gamecube. The system was extremely capable for it's time but it looked like a kiddie toy and Nintendo's decision to use those proprietary mini disks instead of DVD-Rom affected it's sales because many people bought PS2's just to watch DVD's.
Click to expand...

Good point. I want to love Nintendo, but their obsession with hoarding their IP has hurt them more than it's helped them, IMO.

With the benefit of hindsight, if I were Nintendo, I would have done the Wii and the DS systems like they did, but on top of that I would have made games for the XBox 360, One and PS3 and PS4. It would allow them to differentiate with systems and not compete head to head with bigger badasses, while simultaneously bringing their top game franchises into the modern gaming world.

If they can make a better system than those guys, OK, but that's a tall task.
 
#128
#128
All signs point to Nintendo fan boys and parents that don't know better being the primary target audience for this POS machine.
 
#129
#129
DrRosenRosen said:
All signs point to Nintendo fan boys and parents that don't know better being the primary target audience for this POS machine.
Click to expand...

Yes, but Nintendo already tried that with the Wii U and failed.

It goes back to Nintendo has apparently stuck with the decision that they are not going to compete really with Sony and Microsoft for the "hardcore" gamer. That leaves them targeting the Nintendo fanboy and the casuals. But that worked 10 years ago because the casuals did not have the mobile gaming options and the Wii hit that sweet spot. That was most like a once in a lifetime type scenario. I have no stats but I wish there was a way to find out out of the 101 million systems sold, how many owners only played Wii Sports. I know in my own little tiny sample, I knew about 10-15 families that got a Wii and about 12 of them never got past Wii Sports.

Honestly I think the only way they can compete with the mobile gaming market is....to start making mobile games. Which they are already doing, and I'm betting that's their future eventually.
 
#130
#130
VolsSportsFan said:
Yes, but Nintendo already tried that with the Wii U and failed.

It goes back to Nintendo has apparently stuck with the decision that they are not going to compete really with Sony and Microsoft for the "hardcore" gamer. That leaves them targeting the Nintendo fanboy and the casuals. But that worked 10 years ago because the casuals did not have the mobile gaming options and the Wii hit that sweet spot. That was most like a once in a lifetime type scenario. I have no stats but I wish there was a way to find out out of the 101 million systems sold, how many owners only played Wii Sports. I know in my own little tiny sample, I knew about 10-15 families that got a Wii and about 12 of them never got past Wii Sports.

Honestly I think the only way they can compete with the mobile gaming market is....to start making mobile games. Which they are already doing, and I'm betting that's their future eventually.
Click to expand...

I almost would have rather seen Nintendo partner with someone like Motorola/Lenovo or one of the other Android-based phone manufacturers and co-developed a 4G gaming smart phone with physical buttons available either via slide phone design or attachment. Something that would have all the same functionality as a smart phone but have the added feature of accessing Nintendo's e-shop and buying/playing Nintendo games. That would have eliminated the need for anyone to carry two mobile devices and prevented consumers from having to choose one or the other (as if the smart phone doesn't win every time). As it stands, Nintendo may be putting themselves into a bit of a catch 22 with the NX. The casual audience they want to go after just isn't going to carry around a second mobile device. That'd be like asking iPhone users to go back to carrying iPod touches. At the same time, the hardcore couch gamers aren't going to be impressed with the NX's performance capabilities because it doesn't look to even match what's already on the market. So really, I can't see this thing appealing to either group. The only 2 groups I see this thing appealing to are hardcore Nintendo fans, who's numbers are shrinking by the day, and children.
 
Last edited:
#132
#132
To me it's like Nintendo knows they cannot compete in the hardcore console market, but for whatever reason they are dead set against make their games third party. So they keep doing this niche type systems that are basically made just so they can get their Super Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong, etc. games out there. There apparently still exists a large enough core fanbase to sort of justify it, but that fanbase gets smaller and smaller with each gen.

I'm convinced if the Wii had been a flop, Nintendo would have already gone 3rd party and we'd have the next Zelda game coming out on the PS4/Xbox One.
 
#133
#133
VolsSportsFan said:
I'm convinced if the Wii had been a flop, Nintendo would have already gone 3rd party and we'd have the next Zelda game coming out on the PS4/Xbox One.
Click to expand...

As successful as the Wii was, in some ways I think it's the worst thing that happened to Nintendo. Ever since then they've been chasing that dragon, clamoring for that casual audience again.
 
#134
#134
Brave Volunteer said:
As successful as the Wii was, in some ways I think it's the worst thing that happened to Nintendo. Ever since then they've been chasing that dragon, clamoring for that casual audience again.
Click to expand...

I agree. I mean I liked the Wii, still have one hooked up to my office TV (haven't played it in over a year but still), but it legit was right place, right time. Everyone else moved on, Nintendo was like "they'll come back", and they didn't, and probably won't.

Let's face it, more people are more excited about the mini NES they are releasing than this.
 
#135
#135
VolsSportsFan said:
I agree. I mean I liked the Wii, still have one hooked up to my office TV (haven't played it in over a year but still), but it legit was right place, right time. Everyone else moved on, Nintendo was like "they'll come back", and they didn't, and probably won't.

Let's face it, more people are more excited about the mini NES they are releasing than this.
Click to expand...

I never owned a Wii. I was completely turned off by how weak it was and the fact that it didn't even support basic 720p HD resolution. Plus I never bought into the motion control gimmick. I didn't want to get up and move around. I wanted to park my big ass on the couch and push buttons!
 
#136
#136
Brave Volunteer said:
I never owned a Wii. I was completely turned off by how weak it was and the fact that it didn't even support basic 720p HD resolution. Plus I never bought into the motion control gimmick. I didn't want to get up and move around. I wanted to park my big ass on the couch and push buttons!
Click to expand...

Honestly the only reasons I bought it were:

A) Twilight Princess; I thought it would be better with the Wiimote than the GC version. I liked the game and all and never actually played the GC version, so I could never compare. But from what I heard from most players was there wasn't really much of an advantage playing the Wii version

B) GC backwards compatibility; my GC was about dead by the time the Wii came out, and since GC games were dirt cheap around that time and there were about 10 games I wanted, it was a good enough purchase.

About 2 years later they removed the backwards compatibility, and now they're sort of a collector's item, or at least go for more on eBay.

I got my money's worth with the Wii, as I ended up playing about 30 games ( most of which I got for cheap towards the end of its era, just like the GC), but that was less than the 40ish GC games I played.
 
#137
#137
This is full of technical jargon but new filed patents by Nintendo show the NX will be a "tablet" design with modular infrared controllers that connect and disconnect to the device. Evidently this will have functionality like a tablet and will have the option to play mobile touch screen games along with traditional handheld games (with the controller attachments).

So 3 Nintendo patent applications were published today.

They seem to be a continuation on the concept also discussed here, which basically talks about a portable device with an infrared camera, distance sensor, etc.

2 of them (United States Patent Application 20160231807 and United States Patent Application 20160232675) seem to explore the hand/gesture tracking functionality (as in the older patent) in more detail, but the 3rd one is a bit more interesting, especially in regards to the latest NX rumors.

It talks about attaching an accessory (e.g physical buttons) to the side of the portable device, and using the infrared camera to read the button presses instead of actually using any form of electrical connection between the two.

It took me a while to realize, but this basically means that the accessory (physical buttons in this case) doesn't have to contain any electrical components thus significantly lowering its' cost, as it's basically a plastic shell with the camera/software doing all the work.

Questions raised:
- Same infrared/camera setup must be installed on the other side of the device if two attachable accessories are to be supported. (higher cost)
- Will latency be an issue? How fast can the infrared camera/software detect the button presses without errors?
- What about analog sticks? The patent shows the detection of rotational movement (e.g. turning a knob). How would something similar work for the analog stick and how precise would be?


United States Patent Application 20160231773

Publication Date: 08/11/2016
Filing Date: 01/29/2016

Abstract:
An example accessory can be attached to an information processing device. The accessory includes a housing, a movable operation section, and a movable portion. An inside of the housing is visible from an outside thereof through at least a portion thereof. At least a portion of the operation section is exposed on the outside of the housing. The movable portion is placed at a position inside the housing that is visible from the outside of the housing through the portion of the housing. A position and/or an attitude of the movable portion changes in response to the operation section being operated.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY
There are conventional accessories which, when connected to a portable device, add functions to the portable device. For example, there are techniques where an external controller as an accessory is connected to a connector provided on a controller of a game device. This enables a wider variety of game operations using two controllers.

Conventional accessories have a circuit configuration for communicating with a portable device or a circuit configuration for performing an information process for generating information to be transmitted to a portable device, and there has been room for improvement in simplifying the configuration of the accessories.

Thus, the present specification discloses an accessory, an information processing device, an information processing system, a storage medium storing an information processing program, an operation determination method and a process performing method, with which it is possible to simplify the configuration of the accessory.

fig8coszl.png

fig96qsjg.png

fig6wfsz9.png


FIG. 6 shows the external appearance of a non-limiting example operation device;

As shown in FIG. 6, a hole (opening portion) 21a is formed in the housing 21. Thus, the operation device 20 is configured so that the inside (the inner side) of the housing 21 can be seen through the hole 21a. Note that the housing 21 may have any configuration such that the inside of the housing 21 is visible from the outside through a predetermined portion of the housing 21. For example, in other embodiments, the predetermined portion may be formed by a transparent member instead of the provision of the hole 21a in the predetermined portion.

Here, in the present embodiment, a reference marker 21d is provided on a wall surface on the inside of the housing 21 (the inner wall surface of a surface 21c in FIG. 6). Movable portions 23A to 23D to be described later are provided on the inside of the housing 21 (see FIG. 7). The hole 21a is formed at such a position that the movable portions 23A to 23D and the reference marker 21d are visible when one sees the inside of the housing 21 from the outside of the housing 21 through the hole 21a.

fig7wksof.png


FIG. 7 shows an example internal configuration of the operation device shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 7 shows an example internal configuration of the operation device shown in FIG. 6. Note that FIG. 7 shows only a part of the configuration inside the housing 21. As shown in FIG. 7, the operation device 20 includes the movable portions 23A to 23D provided inside the housing 21. Note that where the movable portions 23A to 23D are not distinguished from each other, the designation “movable portion 23” may be used to refer to any of the movable portions 23A to 23D.

As shown in FIG. 7, the movable portions 23A to 23D are connected to the operation buttons 22A to 22D, respectively. That is, the movable portion 23A is connected to the operation button 22A, the movable portion 23B to the operation button 22B, the movable portion 23C to the operation button 22C, and the movable portion 23D to the operation button 22D. The movable portion 23 moves (downward in the present embodiment) in response to an operation on the operation button 22 connected thereto. In the present embodiment, each operation button and a movable portion connected thereto are configured as an integral part. Note however that the movable portion may be configured so as to be moved in accordance with the movement of the operation button, and an operation button and a movable portion connected thereto may be separate parts in other embodiments.

In the present embodiment, at least a portion of the movable portion 23 (the hatched area shown in FIG. 7: hereinafter referred to as a “recognition portion”) is of a material (color) such that the infrared camera 4 can distinguish this portion from other portions (other than the portion of the reference marker 21d) of the wall surface on the inside of the housing 21. The recognition portion may be of a retroreflective material, for example. Then, the infrared light from the illuminating section 7 is reflected more toward the infrared camera 4, making it easier for the infrared camera 4 to recognize the recognition portion. This also makes it easier for the infrared camera 4 to recognize a recognition portion that is located away from the infrared camera 4. The movable portion 23 is connected to the lower portion of the operation button 22. Here, for each of the movable portions 23A to 23C, the recognition portion is placed under (directly below) the corresponding operation button 22. For the movable portion 23D, on the other hand, the recognition portion is displaced from a position that is directly below the corresponding operation button 22D (see FIG. 7). That is, the recognition portions of the movable portions 23A to 23D are arranged so that the recognition portions are visible through the hole 21a.

fig11pksem.png


FIG. 11 shows an example captured image obtained by an infrared camera;

FIG. 11 shows an example captured image obtained by the infrared camera 4. The captured image shown in FIG. 11 is an image to be obtained when the operation buttons 22A to 22D are not operated (in the unoperated state). As shown in FIG. 11, the captured image includes an image (reference marker image) 30 of the reference marker 21d and images (movable portion images) 31A to 31D of movable portions 23A to 23D. Thus, the reference marker 21d and the movable portions 23A to 23D are placed at such positions as to be included in the image-capturing range of the infrared camera 4, with the operation device 20 attached to the portable device 1. Thus, with the operation device 20 connected to the portable device 1, the infrared camera 4 can capture an image of the reference marker 21d and the movable portions 23A to 23D inside the housing 21 through the hole 21a of the housing 21. That is, the following members (a) to (d) are placed at such positions that the infrared camera 4 can capture an image of the reference marker 21d and the movable portions 23A to 23D in such a state as described above:

(a) infrared camera 4 of portable device 1;

(b) hole 21a of housing 21 of controller device 20;

(c) reference marker 21d of controller device 20; and

(d) movable portions 23A to 23D of controller device 20.

fig1229svl.png


FIG. 12 shows another example captured image obtained by the infrared camera 4. The captured image shown in FIG. 12 is an image obtained while the operation button 22A is operated (depressed). When the operation button 22A is operated, the movable portion 23A moves downward. Therefore, in the captured image, the movable portion image 31A is located below its position in the unoperated state, as shown in FIG. 12. Thus, when an operation button 22 is operated, the position of the corresponding movable portion image 31 changes from its position in the unoperated state. Therefore, based on the position of the movable portion image 31 in the captured image, it is possible to determine whether the operation button 22 corresponding to the movable portion image 31 is operated.
Click to expand...
 
#140
#140
Brave Volunteer said:
Well, if it's using the Tegra X1 as rumored it's a multicore 64-bit chip. Some are still saying it will be using either the X2 or a heavily modified verison of the X1.
Click to expand...

It's a mobile gaming console.... Nothing else. Nintendo is attempting to recreate the wheel and is gambling greatly here.
 
#141
#141
BearCat204 said:
It's a mobile gaming console.... Nothing else. Nintendo is attempting to recreate the wheel and is gambling greatly here.
Click to expand...

But here's he thing, do you really want Nintendo to make the exact same thing as the PS4 or X1? What would be the point? Sony and MS have those designs covered. What would be the point in introducing a 3rd console with the exact same functionality?
 
#142
#142
Brave Volunteer said:
But here's he thing, do you really want Nintendo to make the exact same thing as the PS4 or X1? What would be the point? Sony and MS have those designs covered. What would be the point in introducing a 3rd console with the exact same functionality?
Click to expand...

You put out a console that can play a next-gen a true next-gen Zelda and Super Mario Brothers and Mario Kart and all those you will sell the s*** out of it
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#143
#143
BearCat204 said:
You put out a console that can play a next-gen a true next-gen Zelda and Super Mario Brothers and Mario Kart and all those you will sell the s*** out of it
Click to expand...

Yeah but considering the art style of Nintendo games, it doesn't have to be cutting edge hardware. I mean, just how more realistic does Mario's mustache need to get? It doesn't need to be bleeding edge power. Some reports have said the NX will be around Xbox One processing power. That's PLENTY for Nintendo style games. I don't care about the ultra realistic graphics with a Nintendo console. That's why I have a PS4 and possibly the upcoming Neo and Scorpio. I just want to play Mario Kart, Zelda, Metroid, Pikmin, and Luigi's Mansion.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#144
#144
Brave Volunteer said:
But here's he thing, do you really want Nintendo to make the exact same thing as the PS4 or X1? What would be the point? Sony and MS have those designs covered. What would be the point in introducing a 3rd console with the exact same functionality?
Click to expand...

Seems like they'd make way more money making their games 3rd party. That's the only reason the hardcore gamer buys their console and that number is shrinking, and I'm going to bet even more of the hardcore market is turned off by this machine.

And I don't see the casual market jumping to by this, because why would they? They already have phones and tablets to play those games, and they already don't play the 3DS games.

I'm not seeing how this is going to end well unless they have something up their sleeve they aren't playing yet.
 
#145
#145
Brave Volunteer said:
Yeah but considering the art style of Nintendo games, it doesn't have to be cutting edge hardware. I mean, just how more realistic does Mario's mustache need to get? It doesn't need to be bleeding edge power. Some reports have said the NX will be around Xbox One processing power. That's PLENTY for Nintendo style games. I don't care about the ultra realistic graphics with a Nintendo console. That's why I have a PS4 and possibly the upcoming Neo and Scorpio. I just want to play Mario Kart, Zelda, Metroid, Pikmin, and Luigi's Mansion.
Click to expand...

Go ahead and mark it down as me saying this..... It will fail. Nintendo has no business in the console race, especially when they bring something like this to the table. Focus on 3rd party
 
#150
#150
VolsSportsFan said:
True, but again, mobile gaming is really eating into it. The 3DS has sold well, but it's at about 56 million worldwide. The DS sold 154 million worldwide.
Click to expand...

Hence why Nintendo is now putting games on mobile phones/tablets. Maybe that will help subsidize the loss in revenue from the dedicated mobile market.
 
New Posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

Advertisement



Back
Top