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StarTopic Future Nintendo Hardware & Technology Speculation & Discussion |ST| (Read the staff posts before commenting!)

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LordNinjaFish said:
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New reaction image just dropped.
 
carbvan said:
Xbox's strategy with exclusives seems to be that after 1-2 years their games will go to other consoles.
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Mind pointing me to these rumours? Last I say was a continued case by case basis. I cannot see them supporting PS5 with anything that could otherwise convince somebody to more meaningfully join the Xbox ecosystem - their own consoles or PC.

They’re figuring out how to compete in a world where Sony already has people invested in a digital library. It just means they’re going to have to be flexible and clever with their strategy, but having very good exclusives is still going to be important.
 
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karmitt said:
Mind pointing me to these rumours? Last I say was a continued case by case basis.
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I thought it was both?

Launch first on Xbox, day one on Game Pass, then port to other systems (at full price) later.

I think a case by case basis would make sense, business wise, but it would be kind of annoying. Either assure me that Switch 2 gets every Xbox game from here on out or don't play with me!

I'll probably just keep buying Xboxes anyway...
 
karmitt said:
Mind pointing me to these rumours? Last I say was a continued case by case basis.
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Big rumor today of Microsoft planning a formal announcement in the next few months regarding a change in their multiplatform strategy.

A Discord leak from earlier in January that perfectly called Indian Jones being mostly a FPS with whip action and some third person elements, and also called Kojima making a movie with Sony, also said that Microsoft is going full blown multiplatform with all their games, and that they will allow third parties to make their own Xbox hardware. The Discord leak also said Microsoft would announce this change in strategy in February/March, which lines up perfectly with the other rumor from today.

So yeah...there's a very legitimate chance we're playing the Oblivion remake, Fallout 3 remake, next ID game, Fable, Perfect Dark, etc, on our Switch 2.
 
Sol said:
Big rumor today of Microsoft planning a formal announcement in the next few months regarding a change in their multiplatform strategy.

A Discord leak from earlier in January that perfectly called Indian Jones being mostly a FPS with whip action and some third person elements, and also called Kojima making a movie with Sony, also said that Microsoft is going full blown multiplatform with all their games, and that they will allow third parties to make their own Xbox hardware. The Discord leak also said Microsoft would announce this change in strategy in February/March, which lines up perfectly with the other rumor from today.
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Is this tweet related to that?

 
Sol said:
Big rumor today of Microsoft planning a formal announcement in the next few months regarding a change in their multiplatform strategy.

A Discord leak from earlier in January that perfectly called Indian Jones being mostly a FPS with whip action and some third person elements, and also called Kojima making a movie with Sony, also said that Microsoft is going full blown multiplatform with all their games, and that they will allow third parties to make their own Xbox hardware. The Discord leak also said Microsoft would announce this change in strategy in February/March, which lines up perfectly with the other rumor from today.

So yeah...there's a very legitimate chance we're playing the Oblivion remake, Fallout 3 remake, next ID game, Fable, Perfect Dark, etc, on our Switch 2.
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Edit: Updated my post. Clicked send too early. In short I don’t buy the idea that they’re going multiplatform at all.
 
karmitt said:
Edit: Updated my post. Clicked send too early. In short I don’t buy the idea that they’re going multiplatform at all.
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I think the idea of them going "full" 3rd party is probably overblown, and it's closer to some titles will go multiplatform a bit after launch. Which makes sense, financially.
 
Concernt said:
I think the idea of them going "full" 3rd party is probably overblown, and it's closer to some titles will go multiplatform a bit after launch. Which makes sense, financially.
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Which isn’t that different from what they’re doing now. There probably just trying to lock in the scope a bit better, and it’s important given just how many games they’ve scooped up with ABK.
 
Xbox is in an interesting place. The hardware is doing poorly but gamepass is great. It makes sense for them to put certain games on other platforms cause they may not be something that exactly sells consoles. Like is Hi-fi rush selling a console? I don't think so. But I think there are a lot of people that know about it and are intrigued. So if it comes out on the platform they own they may just buy it. So it's kind of a win win for Microsoft when things are a bit iffy on the hardware side.

Then there is whatever they try to do with gamepass. They definitely want to expand where you can utilize it cause it's such a great service.
 
^ It has been thrown around they are intent on doing some 4D chess - increasing their IP exposure by putting them on as many "platforms as possible", intentionally, and then making the sequels exclusive to their platform to try to get more players to pick up the xbox over the playstation in the future

The issue for them has been how to grow their gamer base, they are aware exclusives play an important role in hardware pick up - it may be something in between "true" third party (they still have their version of the xbox) and still having some first party profile as well

I think them giving licenses to companies to make Xbox consoles is intriguing. It makes me think they're truly shifting towards are more
windows-esque" model...putting their "xboxOS/Gamepass" out there for as many hands as possible

Imagine an Ubisoft Xbox or an EA Sports Xbox - giving third parties a chance to develop a console and promote it over competing systems

or other companies that may compete with Sony in other sectors like Samsung or LG (heck maybe even Sony themselves - can you imagine a Playsation Xbox?)


(hope its not too OT just contributing to some interesting discussion above... apologies otherwise mods)
 
So, this next Xbox would be a system with a unified spec sheet and library, but with the production of it being licensed to other companies? Where have I heard that one before...
3DO-FZ1-Console-Set.jpg
 
Sol said:
Big rumor today of Microsoft planning a formal announcement in the next few months regarding a change in their multiplatform strategy.

A Discord leak from earlier in January that perfectly called Indian Jones being mostly a FPS with whip action and some third person elements, and also called Kojima making a movie with Sony, also said that Microsoft is going full blown multiplatform with all their games, and that they will allow third parties to make their own Xbox hardware. The Discord leak also said Microsoft would announce this change in strategy in February/March, which lines up perfectly with the other rumor from today.

So yeah...there's a very legitimate chance we're playing the Oblivion remake, Fallout 3 remake, next ID game, Fable, Perfect Dark, etc, on our Switch 2.
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How exactly is "3rd party hardware" supposed to work? If MS loses money per unit, I can't really imagine a 3rd party wanting in on that.

Honestly I've long thought MS should offer Nintendo a chance to take over the XBox division, and subsidizing any hardware loss on their side, but letting them sell the console and if they want to bring some older Nintendo titles to the system.
 
Machrider said:
How exactly is "3rd party hardware" supposed to work? If MS loses money per unit, I can't really imagine a 3rd party wanting in on that.

Honestly I've long thought MS should offer Nintendo a chance to take over the XBox division, and subsidizing any hardware loss on their side, but letting them sell the console and if they want to bring some older Nintendo titles to the system.
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An Xbox branded pc. Like a Steam machine
 
Machrider said:
But who is subsidizing the loss in that case?

Like why would I buy a $550 "3rd party XBox" when Microsoft is selling a $450 one because they're eating a $100 loss/unit. I don't think the third party wants to lose money.
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My two thoughts:
1. they expect customers to pay more just because BRAND, or
2. their Xboxes will not be up to the same quality standard as the Microsoft version. Like picture the Switch Pro Controller vs a PowerA.
 
On the Xbox 3rd party console rumor, There's zero incentive for a manufacturer to make a console and keep parity with Xbox MSRP if they don't also get paid somehow. Will Microsoft then pay them a share of all software and digital revenue based on the market share of that console in the Xbox ecosystem? Still a huge risk since the manufacturer would also presumably have to not onlynmake the console but also market it.

The economics just don't make sense. Someone jokingly said the Sega Xbox. That I can see if Microsoft waives royalties for any Sega games on the console, but that seems like an expensive risk to take on what will likely be a 3rd place ecosystem and with Segas games primarily selling on Nintendo and Sony hardware.
 
roccerfeller said:
^ It has been thrown around they are intent on doing some 4D chess - increasing their IP exposure by putting them on as many "platforms as possible", intentionally, and then making the sequels exclusive to their platform to try to get more players to pick up the xbox over the playstation in the future
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lol. People will just get used to playing them on those other platforms. Moreover, I doubt MS will want to risk losing all those new customers for a chance to force them to buy their console.
 
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karmitt said:
Which isn’t that different from what they’re doing now. There probably just trying to lock in the scope a bit better, and it’s important given just how many games they’ve scooped up with ABK.
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I agree, but I wouldn't be surprised if "case by case basis" starts to mean "pretty much everything." When you've got Starfield and Hi-Fi Rush on your hands, two games that would print money on other hardware, at a time when your own hardware is failing, turning those games around while you figure out how to get out of this mess next gen starts to sound appealing.


Machrider said:
How exactly is "3rd party hardware" supposed to work? If MS loses money per unit, I can't really imagine a 3rd party wanting in on that.
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Well, MS loses money because they're subsidizing the hardware sales and offering a premium, and standardized product. By allowing 3rd parties to make Xboxes - especially if they allow it to be done with PC hardware instead of just the AMD APU - you open up the possibility of companies making money by offering either extra shitty, or ultra-premium versions.

You'd get products with piss-poor base storage. Poor build quality. Bargain basement RAM. Huge cases full of random PC parts.

You'd get products with ultra premium hardwood shells, and whisper-quiet solid-state cooling, with a built in controller charger, and out-of-the-box integration with proprietary sound systems.

And some of these companies would fail, and some companies might make one batch of Xboxen, then be out of the game. And if MS decides that there aren't enough Xboxen in the wild, they'll make profit sharing and parts subsidy arrangements with a couple manufacturers, with contracts that allow them to tighten the leash over time.

This is how it works with graphics cards already, and I'm not certain it's super ethical. I'm also not sure it will work for a console, whose whole appeal is "it's not a PC, I don't have to fuck with it." But that's the theory of the case.
 
oldpuck said:
I agree, but I wouldn't be surprised if "case by case basis" starts to mean "pretty much everything." When you've got Starfield and Hi-Fi Rush on your hands, two games that would print money on other hardware, at a time when your own hardware is failing, turning those games around while you figure out how to get out of this mess next gen starts to sound appealing.



Well, MS loses money because they're subsidizing the hardware sales and offering a premium, and standardized product. By allowing 3rd parties to make Xboxes - especially if they allow it to be done with PC hardware instead of just the AMD APU - you open up the possibility of companies making money by offering either extra shitty, or ultra-premium versions.

You'd get products with piss-poor base storage. Poor build quality. Bargain basement RAM. Huge cases full of random PC parts.

You'd get products with ultra premium hardwood shells, and whisper-quiet solid-state cooling, with a built in controller charger, and out-of-the-box integration with proprietary sound systems.

And some of these companies would fail, and some companies might make one batch of Xboxen, then be out of the game. And if MS decides that there aren't enough Xboxen in the wild, they'll make profit sharing and parts subsidy arrangements with a couple manufacturers, with contracts that allow them to tighten the leash over time.

This is how it works with graphics cards already, and I'm not certain it's super ethical. I'm also not sure it will work for a console, whose whole appeal is "it's not a PC, I don't have to fuck with it." But that's the theory of the case.
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In this scenario, the cheaply made Xboxes would just damage the brand and not sure if Micrsoft would want that.

I'd love to dig into the BOM of a Series S or X to see exactly how many corners can be cut for a 3rd party manufacturer to build one below Microsoft , sell it at or near Microsoft MSRP, differentiate from Microsoft and still make money.

The only possibility here is Microsoft subsidizes these manufacturers by just giving away the SoC at a discount and the play here is actually they will themselves stop making hardware entirely.

At which point, I think Xbox effectively becomes a PC brand and it's all down to just the software side for Microsoft and there may not even be a reason for the Xbox brand to exist as a hardware outside of very niche reasons.

I'm thinking this 3rd party hardware manufacturing idea only makes sense if the Xbox hardware itself is being sunsetted and Microsoft will in the future just publish a target spec sheet , and license out the Xbox brand for a PC manufacturers to make PCs that are 'Xbox certified' but the business model itself in the sub $500 console space would not make sense, and I just don't see the hardware business surviving.
 
Kevin Art said:
Getting off of my lurkers' cave for the first time to say I'm excited for the possibility of this device having 16GB of RAM. While 12 would likely be enough for a handheld/hybrid until the end of the decade and beyond, 16 would not only give it parity with the big 4K TV consoles (making ports and multiplat releases of memory-hungry current gen games easier), but would also allow for OS features such as longer recording times and real time streaming, with neither the need of additional hardware nor significantly impacting the available memory for games.

Plus we all know how Nintendo always manages to work wonderfully with their hardware. I really can't imagine what they'll be able to achieve with all that memory alongside all the other improvements we expect. If they play their cards right, the next Switch can last even longer than the current one, especially since diminishing returns have caught up to the big TV-only consoles, as many here have said before.

With UE5 responding nicely to hardware ray tracing and DLSS upscaling, and RT cores and tensor cores being part of the T239, it seems like Nintendo could play the long game and focus on hardware longevity. With the current Switch soon entering its 8th year on the market with no announcement of a successor, I feel like it's reasonable to expect the successor to have a 10+ year life cycle as Nintendo's main system.
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With T329 Nintendo won the AI console wars. Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X are no match in regards to the AI capabilities this chip has. Those Ampere Tensor cores pack a punch. Not too sure about beating the PS5 Pro if has a XDNA NPU unit but the T239 should beat the 2020 consoles.

If Nintendo wanted to they can use those cores to include any AI features in the OS. Might be years away but the AI will get all the more attention as time passes by.
 
chocolate_supra said:
My two thoughts:
1. they expect customers to pay more just because BRAND, or
2. their Xboxes will not be up to the same quality standard as the Microsoft version. Like picture the Switch Pro Controller vs a PowerA.
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Go the other way. Microsoft does the S version - the minimum spec, and other companies do higher spec versions with higher end CPUs and video cards.
 
bmfrosty said:
Go the other way. Microsoft does the S version - the minimum spec, and other companies do higher spec versions with higher end CPUs and video cards.
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Wouldn't it just be a pc at that point, where it's up to the end user to tweak the settings menu to their spec?
 
bmfrosty said:
Go the other way. Microsoft does the S version - the minimum spec, and other companies do higher spec versions with higher end CPUs and video cards.
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This seems unrealistic. That means its on the devs for creating console ports and option settings for potentially dozens of different configurations. At that point, you're making a 2nd PC port, and the Xbox isn't a PC, as close as they do get to modern Windows.
 
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Machrider said:
But who is subsidizing the loss in that case?

Like why would I buy a $550 "3rd party XBox" when Microsoft is selling a $450 one because they're eating a $100 loss/unit. I don't think the third party wants to lose money.
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Who said anything about subsidizing? These are just branded pcs. MS sets a minimum spec, after that, it's manufacturers' ball. If the min spec allows for a handheld, then there will be an Xbox PC handheld.
 
ILikeFeet said:
Who said anything about subsidizing? These are just branded pcs. MS sets a minimum spec, after that, it's manufacturers' ball. If the min spec allows for a handheld, then there will be an Xbox PC handheld.
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How is that different from the minimum spec of every pc game?

Edit: apart from the branding, they can have "approved for Xbox" on the box.
 
Yes I don't think they will go fully multi-platform. Games such as Hi Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves and maybe even Pentiment, sure, but everything, I don't see it.
 
carbvan said:
Xbox's strategy with exclusives seems to be that after 1-2 years their games will go to other consoles.
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Sony is releasing first party PC games after 1-2 years.
Microsoft (allegedly) will start releasing first party multiplatform games after 1-2 years and PC versions day 1.
Nintendo?

I wouldn't rule out a Nintendo being pressured to do "something" by shareholders/fans if the above two situations make them big money and do not devalue their hardware business. Maybe around the time Switch 3 talk picks up. My guess is Nintendo releasing some "choice" games on PC. Like Fire emblem, Clubhouse games, Advance Wars, and Pikmin. Way less of a chance but Animal Crossing, Splatoon, and pokemon would also be great candidates. Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kirby are all staying exclusive forever.
 
Hermii said:
How is that different from the minimum spec of every pc game?

Edit: apart from the branding, they can have "approved for Xbox" on the box.
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That's my point, I think they're just gonna do a very fancy version of a PC. As long as the spec hits minimum spec, maybe a specific set of hardware or whatever, then their games will have around the same performance levels for everyone. After that will be to users'/vendors' taste
 
Shareholder Chad said:
Sony is releasing first party PC games after 1-2 years.
Microsoft (allegedly) will start releasing first party multiplatform games after 1-2 years and PC versions day 1.
Nintendo?

I wouldn't rule out a Nintendo being pressured to do "something" by shareholders/fans if the above two situations make them big money and do not devalue their hardware business. Maybe around the time Switch 3 talk picks up. My guess is Nintendo releasing some "choice" games on PC. Like Fire emblem, Clubhouse games, Advance Wars, and Pikmin. Way less of a chance but Animal Crossing, Splatoon, and pokemon would also be great candidates. Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kirby are all staying exclusive forever.
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I am not seeing Nintendo porting their IPs to PC. Minus now that they're focused on expanding their IPs to movies and theme parks.
 
Shareholder Chad said:
Way less of a chance but Animal Crossing, Splatoon, and pokemon would also be great candidates. Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kirby are all staying exclusive forever.
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you've got part of this supremely backwards imo

Animal Crossing has become a pillar of Nintendo platforms while Metroid is and remains dispensable
 
Hermii said:
Extraordinary opinions requires extraordinary reasons. Elaborate.
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in my silly little head: xbox already has amassed industry dominating studio acquisitions, is growing the anti-competitive game pass, and is now allegedly going to flood the market with a licensed hardware platform

if this is actually happening I'd bet we're about five years away from sie going under and nintendo shifting away from video games
 
Raccoon said:
in my silly little head: xbox already has amassed industry dominating studio acquisitions, is growing the anti-competitive game pass, and is now allegedly going to flood the market with a licensed hardware platform

if this is actually happening I'd bet we're about five years away from sie going under and nintendo shifting away from video games
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The current market is proof that the subscription model is hard to maintain and that GamePass is not taking over (as in it's not growing that much actually). I'm profoundly anti GamePass, but I don't think Nintendo is at risk.
 
Raccoon said:
in my silly little head: xbox already has amassed industry dominating studio acquisitions, is growing the anti-competitive game pass, and is now allegedly going to flood the market with a licensed hardware platform

if this is actually happening I'd bet we're about five years away from sie going under and nintendo shifting away from video games
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5 years wow
 
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Raccoon said:
in my silly little head: xbox already has amassed industry dominating studio acquisitions, is growing the anti-competitive game pass, and is now allegedly going to flood the market with a licensed hardware platform

if this is actually happening I'd bet we're about five years away from sie going under and nintendo shifting away from video games
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Your scenario already happened. It's called a Windows PC
 
Raccoon said:
in my silly little head: xbox already has amassed industry dominating studio acquisitions, is growing the anti-competitive game pass, and is now allegedly going to flood the market with a licensed hardware platform

if this is actually happening I'd bet we're about five years away from sie going under and nintendo shifting away from video games
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It will be like in the 80s: The gaming economy will crash, but Nintendo will continue to release high quality games.
 
Raccoon said:
in my silly little head: xbox already has amassed industry dominating studio acquisitions, is growing the anti-competitive game pass, and is now allegedly going to flood the market with a licensed hardware platform

if this is actually happening I'd bet we're about five years away from sie going under and nintendo shifting away from video games
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