StarTopic Future Nintendo Hardware & Technology Speculation & Discussion |ST| (New Staff Post, Please read)

[RennanNT]

I really think that the most of you guys dont understand that Nintendo doesnt care about anniversarys as much as you do.


They will release the Pro ASAP. Not a single company holds hardware back. It has to go out ASAP. The only case where this wasnt the case was with the OG Switch due to lack of Games and due to the circumstances that Nintendo was at the brink of going bankrupt IF the Switch would fail.


Thats it. Switch Pro doesnt need Zelda neither will Nintendo wait for BOTW2. If it launches with BOTW2 than its only because the Hardware will be ready by that date nothing else...

 

[ShadowFox08]

The contention which you replied to me over is the Switch is a portable PS4. Not that the Switch isn't stronger than the PS3. Obviously the Switch in docked mode is way stronger than the PS3 and in portable mode still a good deal above it. But the Switch being a portable PS4 is not accurate.

Dunno why we are even bringing up the WiiU. It is obviouslt much less performant the the Switch.

I don't know where you are getting this, "switch is a portable PS4." No one is claiming this.

And when you say that switch is a portable PS3, that's not accurate. Handheld mode is significantly more powerful than a PS3 in handheld mode. More like a portable Wii I if anything

If the Switch had Mariko clock speeds at launch (33-50% boost everything) , along with 34 GB/s LPPDR4x bandwidth, I'd argue it would behave like a portable xbone... And what I mean by this context-obviously not matching in raw power.

More like a 720p Mariko game (if clockspeeds were unlocked) it could translate to 900-1080p on xbone in some cases, from a GPU perspective (and in which CPU/RAM aren't bottle necked).

* Hidden text: cannot be quoted. *

Alright, someone has to say this.. why are you hiding your messages when they are just normal posts/replies, and not sensitive information?

Not saying you can't, but it feels gimmicky...

 

[ReddDreadtheLead]

If the Switch had Mariko clock speeds at launch, along with 34 GB/s LPPDR4x bandwidth, I'd argue it would be a portable xbone...

Eh… XB1 has a 256-bit with memory at I think 68GB/s?

Switch with Mariko would be only 64-bit with 34GB/s.



So it’s a bit more difficult to say IMO.

 

[ShadowFox08]

Eh… XB1 has a 256-bit with memory at I think 68GB/s?

Switch with Mariko would be only 64-bit with 34GB/s.



So it’s a bit more difficult to say IMO.

I think from a pure resolution standpoint at least. Not including graphical detail or framerate, especially in games such as Doom.

But 50% boost to GPU and CPU , and 33% boost Ram from OG switch could maybe get us like a steam deck vs x series s comparison.

if the switch had that 34 GB/s bandwidth alone unlocked on Mariko, I think a lot of switch docked 900p games would turn to 1080p, and 720p games would be closer to 900p.

 

[My Tulpa]

You seem to be under a misunderstanding that games are rebuilt from scratch for every platform they release on. That hasn't been really been true since the 90s. The fact that it required a dedicated team a year to port The Witcher 3 to Switch is an exceptionally high amount of time and development resources for a modern multiplatform game. Most of the cost in "impossible ports" to Switch is not in building new things, but optimizing and paring back what's already there so that it can run with something resembling reasonable performance on the much weaker hardware of the Switch.

I understand porting is about optimization and recoding to new architecture in finding shortcuts.

Is 6-12 months to port a huge AAA to a different platform that crazy? I thought that was pretty usual.

Of course there are extra hurdles publishers/devs have to get around to get their “pc multiplat” game optimized and running on Switch than ps4/one…but publishers are known to jump those hurdles if they think the demand on the platform is there (see ps3 PowerPC to cell hurdles devs were willing to deal with)

If you are telling me Drake hardware would have taken significantly less time/less costs to get Witcher 3 developed for and released and maintained with continued support…ok, but I don’t really think the cost savings to CDPR would be that significant.

Ubisoft devs spent a year making the ps360 Assassins Creed 3 game run decently on the Wii U, for example.

Power certainly isn't the only factor causing games to skip Switch (see: KH1 and KH2 cloud editions), but in an industry heavily oriented around PS4/X1 development, it's a very big factor. A new Switch that can not only eliminate the PS4/X1 gap, but potentially even get within a stone's throw of Xbox Series S would do a lot to improve third party support.

It’s still going to be one more thing a publisher has to spend time and resources to develop for.

It’s always going to come down to if the extra costs and diverting of resources is worth it.

We are talking about big multiplat games that are already spread thin, suffering crunch, having to delay main platforms versions, pushing pc versions till later etc etc.

These big multiplats will always focus on just the platforms where their market potential is the biggest. The platforms that are extremely questionable will get some focus much later, if any.

 

[ReddDreadtheLead]

I think from a pure resolution standpoint at least. Not including graphical detail or framerate, especially in games such as Doom.

But 50% boost to GPU and CPU , and 33% boost Ram from OG switch could maybe get us like a steam deck vs x series s comparison.

if the switch had that 34 GB/s bandwidth alone unlocked on Mariko, I think a lot of switch docked 900p games would turn to 1080p, and 720p games would be closer to 900p.

True, though I’d prefer they used it more for having better frame rates tbh. Like if the game is shaky, I’d personally prefer a smoother locked experience than a higher resolution.

 

[Shiba]

This thread has usually been a friendly place, but I'm seeing folks getting at each other's throats. If you don't like someone, stick them on ignore.

It’s the effects of nothing to really talk about besides some dubious crumbs that could mean nothing. If we get something significant before the end of the year then the conversation will be a more tame.

 

[Tentacle-tropes]

It’s the effects of nothing to really talk about besides some dubious crumbs that could mean nothing. If we get something significant before the end of the year then the conversation will be a more tame.

I would say that depends on the information that could come out.

 

[Shiba]

I would say that depends on the information that could come out.

True. Even then it would be more interesting than the course of this thread for last weeks and months.

 

[Dekuman]

Yeah when there's nothing to talk about people tend to talk in circles and fall back on past patterns. My mantra with this new Switch is wait and see because there's nothing to talk about due to new management at the very highest levels (even Reggie is gone at NOA), new hardware team that had nothing to do with Wii U and prior hardware, and new business approach, licensing, 3rd party relations such as a very clear attempt to fill out the year with games that hit every demo on the platform and not relying on a few Nintendo tentpoles that even a consolidated pipeline can't fill as Nintendo don't make enough open world games, adventure/story driven indie darling games, or any live services games. That's not free, it takes time money, subsidies, effort etc. Yet we still keep going to the well of what happened with Wii U and prior to extrapolate predictions.

 

[ShadowFox08]

True, though I’d prefer they used it more for having better frame rates tbh. Like if the game is shaky, I’d personally prefer a smoother locked experience than a higher resolution.

Absolutely.

 

[KeijiKG]

First Switch Pro footage

You can argue that of every "hire this man" reel
tee hee

 

[ReddDreadtheLead]

What’s the IPC gains the A57 have over the 3DS CPU?

3DS used a Dual ARM11 MPCore

Switch uses a Quad core cortex-A57

Also what was it like compared to the PSVita? It used a Quad-core Cortex-A9


Harder finding this stuff online….

 

[BobNintendofan]

So with a pro version supposedly coming in around 8-9 months at this point
Where are the games for it?
Surely you'd want to release this big new revision with a slew of exciting and high quality games to lure in consumers?

Even the OLED, which was a less meaningful revision, was heavily marketed with Metroid Dread and Mario Party SuperStars. You'd expect Nintendo to absolutely be stacking the deck with this thing. So where are the early 2023 games.

 

[ReddDreadtheLead]

So with a pro version supposedly coming in around 8-9 months at this point
Where are the games for it?
Surely you'd want to release this big new revision with a slew of exciting and high quality games to lure in consumers?

Even the OLED, which was a less meaningful revision, was heavily marketed with Metroid Dread and Mario Party SuperStars. You'd expect Nintendo to absolutely be stacking the deck with this thing. So where are the early 2023 games.

BOTW2 is a big game

 

[bloopland33]

He takes credit for pushing for Switch to support UE4 and Unity right out of the box to widen software base for it.

Very interesting. Does he give any more detail - great job by him but I’m surprised the company heads in Japan didn’t come up with that themselves? Were UE4/Unity not used by Japanese devs that much 5+ years ago, maybe that’s it?

 

[BobNintendofan]

BOTW2 is a big game

Yes it is a big game
a
as in one, singular game

 

[ReddDreadtheLead]

Yes it is a big game
a
as in one, singular game

Do you expect us to list games as if we are insiders or something

 

[BobNintendofan]

Do you expect us to list games as if we are insiders or something

I expect Nintendo to announce new video games when they plan to sell a huge revision.
Like I said, the OLED was marketed with Metroid Dread and Mario Party Superstars and the drake, if it is a pro, would be much bigger than the OLED.
But they're not announcing jack and shit right now.

Almost like there isn't a pro coming early next year.

 

[ReddDreadtheLead]

I expect Nintendo to announce new video games when they plan to sell a huge revision.
Like I said, the OLED was marketed with Metroid Dread and Mario Party Superstars and the drake, if it is a pro, would be much bigger than the OLED.
But they're not announcing jack and shit right now.

Almost like there isn't a pro coming early next year.

If you use this train of thought you could say Nintendo isn’t releasing any new hardware ever.


Ever.

 

[shoichi]

I expect Nintendo to announce new video games when they plan to sell a huge revision.
Like I said, the OLED was marketed with Metroid Dread and Mario Party Superstars and the drake, if it is a pro, would be much bigger than the OLED.
But they're not announcing jack and shit right now.

Almost like there isn't a pro coming early next year.

Nintendo doesn't really go all out with new releases just for a spec bump upgrade in the same gen family. Sometimes they go all out, sometimes its more for developers to have a bit more room getting games they want on the system with less issues until the real next numbered iteration system / new gen system comes around.

There will likely be a game that can showcase the system on (BOTW2) but its not necessary consistent of them to do so. N3DS showcased the Xenoblade Chronicles port as their main system seller. The only other major Nintendo made N3DS exclusive game was Fire Emblem Warriors a few years after.

 

[Deleted member 2]

I expect Nintendo to announce new video games when they plan to sell a huge revision.
Like I said, the OLED was marketed with Metroid Dread and Mario Party Superstars and the drake, if it is a pro, would be much bigger than the OLED.
But they're not announcing jack and shit right now.

Almost like there isn't a pro coming early next year.

You sound pretty confident for someone making zero sense

 

[Deleted member 2551]

I expect Nintendo to announce new video games when they plan to sell a huge revision.
Like I said, the OLED was marketed with Metroid Dread and Mario Party Superstars and the drake, if it is a pro, would be much bigger than the OLED.
But they're not announcing jack and shit right now.

Almost like there isn't a pro coming early next year.

Generally speaking things don’t get announced until they do get announced yeah.

In June 2021 Metroid Dread didn’t exist, and it didn’t exist until it did exist.

 

[karmitt]

So with a pro version supposedly coming in around 8-9 months at this point

Why are you bothering with this thread right now? You don't fundamentally believe much of what the thread believes around a system launching anywhere from late this year to early next year. You won't accept any answer people present to your question, whether it's because you've built the question on a false assumption around the date, or that the examples given aren't good enough for you.

Let's say the assumption is right and it's actually 8-9 months out - we cannot possibly know what the release calendar is that far out. Breath of the Wild 2 is a perfectly valid response which you've rejected. Fire Emblem could be a valid response - we don't when it's coming out, but it's supposedly done. The revision also could absolutely still come this year, and a flagship game could be Metroid Prime Remaster, which we have every reason to believe is a looker. Nintendo could launch it with the promise of various 4K patches to some existing October/November releases like Bayonetta 3 and Pokemon Scarlet Violet. The hypothetical list goes on...

 

[mariodk18]

You sound pretty confident for someone making zero sense

Like I said before, he doesn’t like us speaking confidently, but loves to do it himself. But the difference being context and research vs feeling.

 

[ShadowFox08]

So with a pro version supposedly coming in around 8-9 months at this point
Where are the games for it?
Surely you'd want to release this big new revision with a slew of exciting and high quality games to lure in consumers?

Even the OLED, which was a less meaningful revision, was heavily marketed with Metroid Dread and Mario Party SuperStars. You'd expect Nintendo to absolutely be stacking the deck with this thing. So where are the early 2023 games.

Wait for the reveal.

I expect Nintendo to announce new video games when they plan to sell a huge revision.
Like I said, the OLED was marketed with Metroid Dread and Mario Party Superstars and the drake, if it is a pro, would be much bigger than the OLED.
But they're not announcing jack and shit right now.

Almost like there isn't a pro coming early next year.

Yeah, it's Switch 2. Maybe.

 

[Hermii]

.

 

[OldSkOoL]

Just pulled the trigger on an OLED

So expect new hardware announcement in the next 7 days

Got my OLED today, transferred all my data and ready to replay through dread

Gifted my OG to my kids who are already fighting over it

 

[Look over there]

What’s the IPC gains the A57 have over the 3DS CPU?

3DS used a Dual ARM11 MPCore

Switch uses a Quad core cortex-A57

Also what was it like compared to the PSVita? It used a Quad-core Cortex-A9


Harder finding this stuff online….

...aww, shit, ARM revamped their pages for each uarch. It was last year or the year before, when I think that you could've seen the improvement claims for at least some of ARM11 to A8 then to A9 then to A15 then to A57. And I can't find them on the wayback machine.

Let's see what I can wrangle up...
https://www.anandtech.com/show/8718/the-samsung-galaxy-note-4-exynos-review/6 - at least +20% going from A15 to A57

https://www.itproportal.com/2011/03/14/exclusive-arm-cortex-a15-40-cent-faster-cortex-a9/ - "We've received an email from ARM that confirms that the Cortex-A15 will be at least 40 per cent faster than the A9 when it comes to raw performance (Dhrystone MIPS), all things equal; same number of core, same speed.
The Cortex-A8 reached 2.0 DMIPS/MHz while the Cortex-A9 reached 2.5 DMIPS/MHz, a 25 per cent improvement."

https://www.anandtech.com/show/2798/5 - "At the same clock speed and with the same L2 cache sizes, ARM shows the Cortex A8 as being able to execute 40% more instructions per second than the ARM11."

Ehh, inconsistent sourcing and metrics used, so I don't really like it. Still, if you want to ballpark it, ARM11 to A57 probably doesn't land all that far from A57 to A78.

 

[BlueSpirit20]

Yikes this thread is nasty at the moment.

 

[karmitt]

Yikes this thread is nasty at the moment.

Months of disingenuous debating and authoritative takes on speculative topics did everybody in. We either need news or time travel at this point

 

[Deleted member 645]

Yikes this thread is nasty at the moment.

There is nothing like a Nintendo hardware speculation thread.

 

[ILikeFeet]

Very interesting. Does he give any more detail - great job by him but I’m surprised the company heads in Japan didn’t come up with that themselves? Were UE4/Unity not used by Japanese devs that much 5+ years ago, maybe that’s it?

They were heavily in use. Nintendo definitely knew of this, as did Nvidia, who has made the switch's api and has done work in UE4 and Unity optimization

 

[Blue Monty]

They were heavily in use. Nintendo definitely knew of this, as did Nvidia, who has made the switch's api and has done work in UE4 and Unity optimization

Didn't New 3DS already support Unity?

 

[Kenka]

Every new member should check the OP

Spoiler

and stick to it.

 

[ILikeFeet]

Didn't New 3DS already support Unity?

Yes. Crazy that it didn't from the start. Remember Gardens by EA at the very beginning of the 3DS? That was a modified Unity

 

[Crusters]

What’s the IPC gains the A57 have over the 3DS CPU?

3DS used a Dual ARM11 MPCore

Switch uses a Quad core cortex-A57

Also what was it like compared to the PSVita? It used a Quad-core Cortex-A9


Harder finding this stuff online….

Armv6 isn't really available much though. No one cares? Literally it's only product was arm11.....I know it used VFPv2 and Did Not have Neon though...


Wikipedia actually has some useful information someone usefully graphed:

It provides Integer performance, in dhrystones per MHZ. And we know the clocks of the systems as they were used in these products, so it's pretty straightforward.

Also a bunch of CPU bench marks on products using the A57 and A9.

ARM Cortex-A57 vs ARM Cortex-A9 - GadgetVersus

Comparison between ARM Cortex-A57 and ARM Cortex-A9 with the specifications of the processors, the number of cores, threads, cache memory, also the performance in benchmark platforms such as Geekbench, Passmark, Cinebench or AnTuTu.

gadgetversus.com

Youll have to do some mental compensation, as none of these A57/a9 products are the switch or vita. I think the shield TV is in there lol.

Nothing with an a9 benched here gets low enough to be comp as table to the vitas 333 Mhz.

But regardless, the comparison is so incredibly one sided, you don't really need to get into the details.

 

[ILikeFeet]

Man, imagine a vita with the highest possible clocks

 

[Aether]

You can argue that of every "hire this man" reel
tee hee

They all usually are kinda soulless and generic,but generally look good/fine.
but this is actually active in its uglyness to me...so it has that going...

 

[Dekuman]

Very interesting. Does he give any more detail - great job by him but I’m surprised the company heads in Japan didn’t come up with that themselves? Were UE4/Unity not used by Japanese devs that much 5+ years ago, maybe that’s it?

The chapter on Wii U was a bit short, I think he was avoiding going into detail as to why it launched that way to avoid giving too much detail on a very recent event. No mention of fallout with EA , the hardware decisions, etc, but he addresses issues for the Wii U that he and Nintendo tried to fix for the Switch

The key focus was software, both first and 3rd party. He said Nintendo's secretive nature meant they preferred not using middleware and he had to push to change that with Switch by making it compatible with popular 3rd party development engines. And the proof is really in the pudding. He was right.

That said the chapter on the 3DS did reveal some insight as to decision making at Nintendo. There's a core executive management team consisting of Iwata/Genyo Takeda/Miyamoto/Kimishima (note how every single name is now semi-retired/retired or gone from NCL) and a CFO whose name I forgot that met regularly (like every two weeks) and Reggie felt was where all the decisions were made. This was the team that he noted aligned on the 3DS' $249 price point even though Reggie said he pushed hard for $199 for North America. Reggie did say he felt that team lacked insight on western markets So if we extrapolate that to the Wii U decision making you can see where thhey might have gone wrong.

Reggie did push hard to join that team to provide a western perspective, but was rebuffed. After Iwata's death Kimishima created a new larger team that included more outside voices and Reggie was the first person from America named to that grouping.

So when I say upthread that a lot of things have changed and there's been huge turnover at the leadership level, I am also referring to how decisions gets made. Because the decision making is very different post 3DS/WiiU , we shouldn't assume it will be more of the same. That said, they could make similar decisions, but given we have very light track record on their decision making so far, I am still taking a wait and see approach. It's a bit frustrating when people extrapolate what happened 20 years ago as relevant today. My guess is that it is a lot less relevant than we think.

 

[mjayer]

The chapter on Wii U was a bit short, I think he was avoiding going into detail as to why it launched that way to avoid giving too much detail on a very recent event. No mention of fallout with EA , the hardware decisions, etc, but he addresses issues for the Wii U that he and Nintendo tried to fix for the Switch

The key focus was software, both first and 3rd party. He said Nintendo's secretive nature meant they preferred not using middleware and he had to push to change that with Switch by making it compatible with popular 3rd party development engines. And the proof is really in the pudding. He was right.

That said the chapter on the 3DS did reveal some insight as to decision making at Nintendo. There's a core executive management team consisting of Iwata/Genyo Takeda/Miyamoto/Kimishima (note how every single name is now semi-retired/retired or gone from NCL) and a CFO whose name I forgot that met regularly (like every two weeks) and Reggie felt was where all the decisions were made. This was the team that he noted aligned on the 3DS' $249 price point even though Reggie said he pushed hard for $199 for North America. Reggie did say he felt that team lacked insight on western markets So if we extrapolate that to the Wii U decision making you can see where thhey might have gone wrong.

Reggie did push hard to join that team to provide a western perspective, but was rebuffed. After Iwata's death Kimishima created a new larger team that included more outside voices and Reggie was the first person from America named to that grouping.

So when I say upthread that a lot of things have changed and there's been huge turnover at the leadership level, I am also referring to how decisions gets made. Because the decision making is very different post 3DS/WiiU , we shouldn't assume it will be more of the same

This. “Nintendo gonna Nintendo” doesn’t hold much water when Nintendo is led by a whole new group.

 

[ShaunSwitch]

The narrative that Nintendo can't be launching new hardware soon due to not having any software announced is bizarre.

For one, all developers, including Nintendo like to keep titles a secret, hence we get Nintendo directs choc full of software announcements. So we don't know everything planned for release in the next 4-9 months.

Also, I cast my mind back to the switch release date, a bit of a do or die platform for Nintendo after the WiiU and I got Zelda, has been heroes and bomberman on release date. My pre orders for switch software for the second half of this year already has around 6-7 titles not including Bayonetta 3 and the heavily rumoured prime remake.

Just a Bayo 3 patch, prime remake and patches to games like MH Rise, Nier, Pokémon etc will be enough to sell this console, especially to the enthusiast early adopters who will be the ones buying one day one.

 

[SiG]

This. “Nintendo gonna Nintendo” doesn’t hold much water when Nintendo is led by a whole new group.

"Nintendo gonna Nintendo" is equivalent to getting the Wild Card in UNO.

People making it to be a bad thing don't know how UNO works. Same thing with "gimmicks".

Anyways, are we still running around in circles with regards to specs? Aren't we just suppose to wait for an announcements? Given how the games have droppeds, I'm assuming all will come in due time.

 

[Mr Doggo]

The chapter on Wii U was a bit short, I think he was avoiding going into detail as to why it launched that way to avoid giving too much detail on a very recent event. No mention of fallout with EA , the hardware decisions, etc, but he addresses issues for the Wii U that he and Nintendo tried to fix for the Switch

The key focus was software, both first and 3rd party. He said Nintendo's secretive nature meant they preferred not using middleware and he had to push to change that with Switch by making it compatible with popular 3rd party development engines. And the proof is really in the pudding. He was right.

That said the chapter on the 3DS did reveal some insight as to decision making at Nintendo. There's a core executive management team consisting of Iwata/Genyo Takeda/Miyamoto/Kimishima (note how every single name is now semi-retired/retired or gone from NCL) and a CFO whose name I forgot that met regularly (like every two weeks) and Reggie felt was where all the decisions were made. This was the team that he noted aligned on the 3DS' $249 price point even though Reggie said he pushed hard for $199 for North America. Reggie did say he felt that team lacked insight on western markets So if we extrapolate that to the Wii U decision making you can see where thhey might have gone wrong.

Reggie did push hard to join that team to provide a western perspective, but was rebuffed. After Iwata's death Kimishima created a new larger team that included more outside voices and Reggie was the first person from America named to that grouping.

So when I say upthread that a lot of things have changed and there's been huge turnover at the leadership level, I am also referring to how decisions gets made. Because the decision making is very different post 3DS/WiiU , we shouldn't assume it will be more of the same. That said, they could make similar decisions, but given we have very light track record on their decision making so far, I am still taking a wait and see approach. It's a bit frustrating when people extrapolate what happened 20 years ago as relevant today. My guess is that it is a lot less relevant than we think.

Wow this is really interesting!

 

[Aether]

"Nintendo gonna Nintendo" is equivalent to getting the Wild Card in UNO.

People making it to be a bad thing don't know how UNO works. Same thing with "gimmicks".

Anyways, are we still running around in circles with regards to specs? Aren't we just suppose to wait for an announcements? Given how the games have droppeds, I'm assuming all will come in due time.by definition, the current nintendo is nintendo. So the current nintendo will always nintendo. Its not gonna nintendo like the old nintendo, but it will nintendo. =P

 

[mjayer]

The narrative that Nintendo can't be launching new hardware soon due to not having any software announced is bizarre.

In my mind the logic easily goes the other way around.

They could be saving the reveal of big tent pole games to go alongside the reveal of the new console. When you're talking about the selling point being it having much more graphical grunt, well, you need a graphical show piece to demonstrate that. Whatever these show pieces are you wouldn't want a worse version of them floating around, you'd want the first time they get shown off to be novel to the viewer in the context of the new device they are trying to convince us to buy. So even if these aren't exclusive titles, I can see clear logic for saving their reveal for the announcement of the new console.

 

[Dekuman]

I find it hard to believe they won't launch with several big A tier Nintendo titles. I believe it is BOTW2 but concede it May not be BOTW2 but it will be several A tier games well spaced out in the launch window.

One of the key learnings Reggie did mention in his book is both 3DS ans Wii U launched without compelling Nintendo software

 

[Hidden04]

I could the system launching alongside Pokemon SV and the Metroid Prime Remaster in Nov.

 

[Vash]

This was the team that he noted aligned on the 3DS' $249 price point even though Reggie said he pushed hard for $199 for North America. Reggie did say he felt that team lacked insight on western markets So if we extrapolate that to the Wii U decision making you can see where thhey might have gone wrong.

he touched on this in his Armchair Expert podcast interview last month as well. Pretty good listen if anyones interested in Reggie's life

 

[bloopland33]

They were heavily in use. Nintendo definitely knew of this, as did Nvidia, who has made the switch's api and has done work in UE4 and Unity optimization

I'm surprised he had to push for it then.

The chapter on Wii U was a bit short, I think he was avoiding going into detail as to why it launched that way to avoid giving too much detail on a very recent event. No mention of fallout with EA , the hardware decisions, etc, but he addresses issues for the Wii U that he and Nintendo tried to fix for the Switch

The key focus was software, both first and 3rd party. He said Nintendo's secretive nature meant they preferred not using middleware and he had to push to change that with Switch by making it compatible with popular 3rd party development engines. And the proof is really in the pudding. He was right.

That said the chapter on the 3DS did reveal some insight as to decision making at Nintendo. There's a core executive management team consisting of Iwata/Genyo Takeda/Miyamoto/Kimishima (note how every single name is now semi-retired/retired or gone from NCL) and a CFO whose name I forgot that met regularly (like every two weeks) and Reggie felt was where all the decisions were made. This was the team that he noted aligned on the 3DS' $249 price point even though Reggie said he pushed hard for $199 for North America. Reggie did say he felt that team lacked insight on western markets So if we extrapolate that to the Wii U decision making you can see where thhey might have gone wrong.

Reggie did push hard to join that team to provide a western perspective, but was rebuffed. After Iwata's death Kimishima created a new larger team that included more outside voices and Reggie was the first person from America named to that grouping.

So when I say upthread that a lot of things have changed and there's been huge turnover at the leadership level, I am also referring to how decisions gets made. Because the decision making is very different post 3DS/WiiU , we shouldn't assume it will be more of the same. That said, they could make similar decisions, but given we have very light track record on their decision making so far, I am still taking a wait and see approach. It's a bit frustrating when people extrapolate what happened 20 years ago as relevant today. My guess is that it is a lot less relevant than we think.

That was fascinating - thanks for sharing! Makes me want to read that book