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[Exhuminator]

Devs will need to support both platforms. Now, the question becomes: does the weaker console hold back the stronger one?

We'll probably just see games get two individual version releases based on each version of the same platform. Or the game itself will detect which version of the platform its running on, and scale back its technical demands based on that. Either way I'm not a fan of this mid-tier upgrade concept. I understand why manufacturers want it, but I don't like it.

[ElkinFencer10]

Devs will need to support both platforms. Now, the question becomes: does the weaker console hold back the stronger one?

the game itself will detect which version of the platform its running on, and scale back its technical demands based on that. Either way I'm not a fan of this mid-tier upgrade concept. I understand why manufacturers want it, but I don't like it.

This is how the PS4K is going to work. I think Sony's already confirmed it; I know developers have said that Sony is requiring all games to have a standard version and a "Neo" version on-disc rather than selling separate versions. I can't speak to whatever useless machine Microsoft releases or the NX, though.

I, too, HATE the mid-gen upgrade, and I'll probably not get the PS4K or the Xbox Wtfever. Not unless they decide to scrap everything they've said they're doing and make them new platforms entirely (which isn't going to happen). If I get either, it will the be PS4K, and that won't be for at least a year. No sense in it when my best TV is still only 1080p. Maybe once I get a 4K TV. Maybe.

[isiolia]

I, too, HATE the mid-gen upgrade, and I'll probably not get the PS4K or the Xbox Wtfever. Not unless they decide to scrap everything they've said they're doing and make them new platforms entirely (which isn't going to happen). If I get either, it will the be PS4K, and that won't be for at least a year. No sense in it when my best TV is still only 1080p. Maybe once I get a 4K TV. Maybe.

More logically, it's a transition to a model more like...well, every other computing platform, where we'll see new models periodically, and eventually see the original hardware phased out. I mean, if it were Nintendo handhelds (which are primarily what has done this before), we'd probably have a thread of people celebrating their preorders...

In either case, mobile OSes are setting the standard here. Consumers have demonstrated their willingness to buy into a brand, and line up around the block to buy a new phone every year. Doing a similar thing with consoles, in some ways, makes sense.

[Tanooki]

Not to dismiss anything Tanooki said, but the highlights of his spiel I've seen before in NeoGAF threads already. There are assloads of NX threads on NeoGAF full of patent papers and shareholder reports, with all of that information combed over in fine detail, coupled with healthy doses of speculation and guesswork. Tanooki did a nice job of congealing some of those ideas in his post above though.

The biggest thing I'm wondering about right now, is if the handheld NX will actually act as a supplementary computing device for the NX console. In tandem with shared offloading of computational crunching via networked partnered NX consoles. I can see how this method could improve system processing power, but at the same time would be a burden for developers considering they'd never know the full extent of their available system resources. I guess you could make your game based on 30fps, and if the end user gets above those fps using shared offloading more power to them.

You're fine. I've been making that argument in less detailed terms since they did that merge and over a year ago when the talks of that 'next system' came up with the WiiU sucking wind I came up with much of what you see there. The slow trickle of info the last couple of years about them with unifying hardware, hiring android coders even before the DENA deal, then talking about unified hardware, and other strategy formed that. I'm sure that NeoGAF, myself, and others all came up with the same general concept. As far as your concern, I think it's kind of moot, but this it from me as someone who has built their own PC since the early 90s. I just think of when I went from a 386sx16 to a 486DX33 way way back when DOOM1/2 was the it thing. They both ran it right, they both ran it well, but the 486 you could crank up the detail a bit more and audio quality to the max, and run it full screen instead of boxed or down a little with the info bar covering that up. I think of the NX handheld vs console 'android' thing that way. The handheld would run the game the same, maybe at worse just like on PC with lower graphics settings but with the same fps/fluidity of things, then on the console it would clean itself up a bit more and run maybe even smoother (30 vs 60fps.)

[Reprise]

he biggest eyeroll at that press conference was Shenmue III. SONY is a monstrously wealthy international megacorporation - They don't need a Kickstarter for goodness sake. If they wanted to make Shenmue III a Playstation 4 exclusive, all they need to do is cut a check to fund it. Guess what they haven't done yet. I swear Shenmue fans are masochists that just love to be kicked in the head time and again.

Buying into that tabloid-style, simplistic, "it's all a scam" rhetoric, I see.

Sorry for the off topic rant, but it does annoy me how much we (rampant Shenmue fanboys/fangirls) get labeled as idiots and it annoys me even more how much misinformation and general bullshit gets spread about Shenmue in the gaming press.

No one wanted Shenmue 3. No publishers were interested. Sony weren't interested in funding it. Microsoft already said no. It is not a Sony production. If they to fund it, it would have to be presented to a board, a business case would have to be put together, the execs would have to waste time considering it and even then it wouldn't be a guarantee.

Sure, Sony could have funded it. They also could fund Banjo Kazooie 3, buy out Rare, fund TimeSplitters 4 and do lots of cool shit, but why should they?

Shenmue 3 is a Yu Suzuki/Team Yu production and Kickstarter was the only way. Yu Suzuki had been seeking opportunities to get the game funded since the 2000s (and has been researching crowdfunding since 2012ish). If Sony was going to fund it, they would have done it years ago.

Sure, Sony was all too willing to generate some hype by 'supporting' the KS (and no, that doesn't mean secretly funding the project like the gaming media speculated) and allowing Shenmue 3 to share the Sony stage, but who can blame them? They get all the benefits and gains and none of the risk.

[ElkinFencer10]

Not only that, but Sony has been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy for years with only the Playstation department keeping them afloat. They don't have the luxury of making too many big risks. Even their big "risk" with Playstation VR is a pretty assured money machine since the VR hype in general is so huge, it's much cheaper than Oculus Rift, and I'd imagine more people own a PS4 than a beefy PC that can truly handle VR by more than just minimums.

[Reprise]

Hmm...

Nintendo NX production delayed to add VR, report claims...

You thought the last NX rumour was a beauty? Well get a load of this.
As spotted by Nintendo Life, Digitimes reports that the first production for Nintendo NX components has now been pushed back to early 2017, having originally been pencilled in for the middle of 2016.

The reason? According to “sources from the related upstream supply chain”, Nintendo not only wants to “enhance” the integrated handheld, but also add in a virtual reality element. The handheld integration has been tipped for a while, but aside from some analyst speculation, VR has been largely absent from the NX rumour mill.

The Digitimes report adds that, yes, the NX will combine home and handheld consoles, the latter of which features a display of between five and seven inches across.

It also claims that Nintendo has lowered its planned manufacturing volumes as a result of the shrinking console market in Japan, and Wii U’s sales failure. Initially it had wanted to make 20m units, but this has been lowered to 10m or less.

Foxconn will be the main manufacturer, with some duties being picked up by Misumi and Hosiden.

[ElkinFencer10]

It's Nintendo - they're more secretive than the US government. It's a crap shoot at best to guess if any given rumor has any truth to it. I do, however, think omitting VR would be a mistake.

[Tanooki]

I could see them doing it, they attempted variations of it twice before with Virtual Boy and the 3DS/New3DS. This one would be going back to the goggles or some other form of it. If they do it I can't say it would make me any less to buy, but I wouldn't be more inclined to either considering their own product quality has sagged so it still would need a good third party support base.

[Xeogred]

Just a side note on the weird console upgrading going down this gen, it should be said that from many things I've heard most of the internal bits of the Xbone/PS4 are highly standard compatible stuff (Sony certainly learned their lesson after the Cell). So it's probably easier than it all sounds. That said it still looks like a hellish time to be a developer, but was there ever a good time?