According to a report by Eurogamer, the upcoming Nintendo NX will be a portable console with detachable controllers. It will have an inbuilt screen with controllers on both the sides, which can be attached or removed as you need.
Here are the details: The inbuilt display lets you use the NX as a handheld console, along with detachable controllers. It can be docked to display the output on your TV for a home console experience, and will run cartridge based games. It is powered by an NVIDIA Tegra mobile processor, with the present development kits using the Tegra X1 chip found in the NVIDIA Shield Android devices. This means the console will be much less powerful than the current generation consoles available in the market, lying somewhere between the Wii U and the Xbox One. To put it in short, instead of replacing your current home console, Nintendo will give you a transforming device, which you can use both at home and on the go.
Source: Eurogamer
The system is rumoured to run on a new operating system developed by Nintendo, not the Android platform. It was also reported that due to the radical change in the hardware technology, there wouldn’t be any scope of backwards compatibility. However, unifying the home and the portable gaming model may lead to a merging of development resources for Nintendo. Also, it may eliminate the dilemma for the company regarding which platform should they develop a specific title for.
Personally, I can’t get over the possibility that I might be able to play Pokemon on my TV when the NX comes out. Same goes for The Legend of Zelda, which would be a welcome change, after being able to play it only on handheld consoles lately. But for the fans who were expecting a full fledged home console, it is bound to be a little disappointing. Not to mention that the console being powered by the NVIDIA Tegra processor may lead to serious competition in graphics performance, considering the upcoming consoles from Microsoft and Sony will certainly be much more powerful than the NX. Nevertheless, Nintendo has always maintained its quirky demeanour in the form of their drastically different notions from their competitors. They have handled the market well with much less powerful titles and systems, and still left their fans in awe.
Some call the NX Nintendo’s attempt to go out of their way to break the norm, a desperate need to stand out, a gimmick, some call it innovation that has been inherent in Nintendo’s ideologies. And while Nintendo may skip out on the competition from the Playstation and the Xbox on the portable front, they may just enter a whole new challenge – from tablets and smartphones. But at the moment it’s all mere speculation. Whether the console will make or break Nintendo, can only be found out once it is officially released.
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