[News] New Nintendo console "Project Cafe" due 2012

Originally Posted by Zergrinch

Given that their profits dropped like a rock, such prognostications might not be far off.

Came in to post this, the Wii's been on a downward slope for a bit until it fell right the fuck off last fiscal year. Profits down 52% is quite a thing.

But instead of Apple, I'd blame extremely weak software support.

It's sort of a positive feedback loop. Wii sales stagger slightly (as far back as late 2009), publishers decide Wii games not worth the investment, even less support, hardware sales worsen, repeat.

This is why some stuff that should have been painfully obvious or that was otherwise attempted never made it, such as the retail Super Meat Boy Wii release that was planned there for a bit.

I find Shin's post hilarious. Traditionally, you say. Pretty sure no one gives a fuck about that considering the money printing and copy-cats, but hey whatever you say.

It's also a completely normal length console cycle. It's the other two that also need successors at this point.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Shin

All I'm saying is that it's a bold move for Nintendo. On the face of what Omagnus posted, it look like Nintendo are looking to take on the 360 and PS3 directly, if not surplant them. They've not been the console of choice for "serious" gamers since the Playstation murdered the N64 and I wonder if they're capable of properly exploiting what for them is something of an alien market for them, that of older gamers, the Playstation generation if you will.

The Playstation was a massive success because Sony realised that selling stuff to 20 year olds was a better idea than selling it to parents buying stuff for their kids. The Wii was a huge success by selling stuff to parents buying stuff for their kids and didn't impact much on the lives of 20-somethings, other than everyone buying one to play Wii Sports when they were drunk. I will honestly be surprised if Nintendo manage to make something that appeals to the type of people who are going to spend £300 on a games console, given what they've been churning out since the late 90's.

This time next year, how many people will be looking spend money on a brand new console that plays a Mario game and how many will wanting to spend money on Gears of War 4, Call of Duty 25 and a Halo Prequel?

Shin, several points.

Not due out until fiscal year 2012.

IGN's information on "considerably more powerful than 360/PS3" is either a mistranslation, accidental misinformation, or more than likely, them blowing shit out their ass.

Uno.
Dos.
French sites that state that the specs for RAM are not known, and that some devs say performance is "on par with" or "slightly better than" circlebox and triple output.

A majority of the capabilities of the thing (including video playback, garmins, etc) will stream to the controller's LCD, bypassing the TV. Perhaps they're going to sell it up as a more multifunction device like the triple's original selling point.

---------

So what can we assume from this? That the only thing it's really going to supplant is...the Wii itself. They don't need to position it as anything but a new Wii, there is no reason to do anything else. They could probably manufacture the PowerPC architecture for dirt cheap and make money on the hardware itself from day 1 again. (The 360 itself is very similar to this and they're making money on the individual units being moved now, and that's after the last round of die shrinks and everything)

It's unlikely it's as bold a move as you think. That's all. It's likely they'll make money doing for it pretty much exactly what they did for the early Wii. That well has finally started to dry up so might as well drill another one at the other side of the yard.

There's nowhere I can't reach.