360°

How Nintendo Could Release The Nintendo Fusion Right Now

The writer discusses how Nintendo could smoothly dump the Wii U and 3DS by allowing consumers to pay a small upgrade fee to the Nintendo Fusion.

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Dwalls11713759d ago

Wii u owners would be pissed

gameboymario3759d ago

In the article it specifically states that Wii U owners could make a small fee (say $50) to have their Wii U sent in to Nintendo and have a Nintendo Fusion given to them on the spot. I personally wouldn't be that pissed, you're paying a small fee and getting your old console replaced with a brand new one that is backwards compatibility.

If Nintendo were to do what Sega done however, it would piss off many consumers,

DJMarty3759d ago (Edited 3759d ago )

Nintendo would have to right off shit loads of Wii U hardware(as they already commited to Wii U manufactering for years), the losses wouldn't make it viable.

barb_wire3759d ago

Hypothetically..

Why should the Wii U owners have to pay though?, since they've already paid premium for the console only to have Nintendo to dump support after just a year.. let Nintendo eat the cost, since it has been their mistakes that would lead upto this.

All hypothetically of course..

admiralvic3759d ago

@ Barb_Wire

Because WE (or at least I, since I bought a Wii U) committed to buy a Wii U, not the right to play whatever Nintendo game releases over the next 3+ years. You got exactly what you paid for and the system does everything described. Yes, it would suck and I would be pissed, but this sort of thing happens all the time. A product fails and a company drops support and life continues on.

Eonjay3759d ago

The imaginary console has an official name now?

its_JEFF3759d ago

@admiralvic

You're talking about an entire platform. I don't know if that's every happened, not after a year, right? Does the Dreamcast apply?

ABizzel13759d ago

Why are you people still following this Fake rumor. There have been no other major industry sites saying anything about a potential Nintendo Fusion, this is nothing but a concept from someone with a bit of PC sepcs. knowledge.

The majority of you don't even know about specs at all, because when PC GPU / CPU / etc... articles show up on n4g it's only a few of the usual people in there discussing the specs.

The Nintendo fusion is a solid concept and one I've been saying they should do since the Wii U's struggle at retail. The Fusion concept however, would be better served around holiday 2016 where Nintendo can make a console with similar performance to the PS4 / XBO. That way they can give the Wii U an appropriate life span without making anyone bitter, and have the fusion on the market for 4 years if it doesn't take off, because I don't see the PS5/XB? launching until around 2020 so they can reap the benefits from NVIDIA Volt's and AMD equivalents successors.

On top of that the 4DS should be deep in development by then, and they can incorporate that platform into the concept of the fusion console and allow up-scaling of 3DS and 4DS games.

But again this is all just hype for now, and if it were to come it wouldn't be any time soon.

Oh_Yeah3759d ago (Edited 3759d ago )

Nintendo allowing us to upgrade the wii u for 50$ lol fat chance even though they could afford the loss easily, I could see if Oprah was CEO...Really though, all it needs are its 1st party games to be released and quick, plus new ips, mature ones. Then patch in trophies/achievement system, a price drop to 200, start bundling the system with the pro controller, allow us to turn off the annoying background noises, unlock DVD/blu ray playback, drop game prices quicker/ start them at 50$, free nes/snes/n64/GameCube emulator, all retro games free with a 50$ a year subscription. I would save the wii u so fast it wouldn't even be funny.

N4g_null3758d ago

Why come out with a new home console when you can make a kick azz 3ds upgrade very similar to nvidias grid and use that extra processor like a cloud server locally. Instant FX chip situation.

A 3ds upgrade that rivals the wiiu power and then some is very doable.

While the gpu is making the wiiu shine it can go into game pad mode and suddenly the second controller option is unlocked along with a local cloud device that doubles as your next handheld.

Nerd is working on Nintendo cloud tech right now. Local cloud tech bypasses the problems of Internet infrastructures. Not sure sure if the 3ds would work for this but the upgrade would work way better if a new handheld was launched.

Then Nintendo could offer two routes to get to a super FX like effect... cloud tech Thursday the Internet via a Nintendo network now sub, the new 3ds local cloud tech... which would possibly enable 4 player game pad play. If done right.

The above would be a much better plan than the knee jerk above.

+ Show (5) more repliesLast reply 3758d ago
LKHGFDSA3759d ago

yeah both of them would be pissed.

3-4-53759d ago

Dump the 3DS !!??

It prints money....

gpturbo813759d ago

i've gotten my $ worth with the system already, so id be fine with it. parents that just bought it for xmas probably wouldnt be so happy.

KwietStorm_BLM3758d ago

You've gotten your money's worth in a year? A sub-par *launch* year at that?

gpturbo813758d ago

@Kwietstorm
i find use for things i spend my money on. i dont sit on the internet and bitch about how theres no games(untrue), "Lame" internet, resolution, tflops etc, etc, etc. I play the thing all the time. a year is a long time. i've gotten more use out of my wii u in a year than most people will get out of their consoles in a couple years.when you remove all the bs and just focus on having fun, you'll probably get more use out of your consoles as well.

KwietStorm_BLM3758d ago (Edited 3758d ago )

Minus all the bitching on the internet and other irrelevancies, I still would never say I've gotten my money's worth out of a new console after it's first year on the market, and be ready to move on. That wouldn't even be logical for me. And yea I game all the time too.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 3758d ago
Activemessiah3759d ago

You can't just sweep 4 million Wii U owners into the ocean

likeaboss3023759d ago (Edited 3759d ago )

But you can get close! :)

I'd love some kind of discounted upgrade path if possible.

kneon3759d ago

I just can't see this happening, the cost of such a plan would be in excess of a billion dollars with no guarantees that they will gain any significant market share.

BX813759d ago

I agree, I don't own a wii u but if they did release a new console Nin would have to do some kind of trade in with the wii u. Not sure when this would happen but sounds like something that peaks my interest.

sinjonezp3759d ago

@Kneon,

Nintendo has the cash and capital to introduce a new console tomorrow and offer an.insentive to those that bought the wiiU. Would it make them look bad? Maybe, but in an electronics world where things are changing every year, they have to stay Competitive. If they introduce a console that has the specs (stronger than the x1 and ps4) with a true mario or zelda next gen game at launch would sell gazillions. Microsoft abandoned the xbox and i think the x360 turned out fine. Im on board if they do it and would buy it.

kneon3759d ago

@sinjonezp

I know they have the cash, but that doesn't mean they should waste it in this manner.

The billion dollars is just the cost of providing the upgrades to existing customers. There would likely be another billion or so in additional costs to bring a new console to market.

And I doubt it would sell that much better, they alienated too many gamers and many gamers have just moved on and just aren't that interested in their type and style of games anymore.

The Wii U sold pretty much what I was expecting as I saw no interest from "normal" people. Non-gamers don't care anymore, they played the wii, they are over it. That market has moved on and isn't coming back.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 3759d ago
deafdani3759d ago

More than 5 million, actually. Which makes things worse. These 5 million people are, for the most part, the most loyal and enthusiast Nintendo fans that buy Nintendo consoles on day one. Exactly not the kind of people you want to piss off.

Reeze3759d ago

I, for one, wouldn't be likely to buy a Nintendo console for a while if they cut off the Wii U so soon.

jmc88883758d ago

There are many 1st party games in development. Wii U owners still would have quite a bit to look forward to.

An ambassador program really wouldn't cost them that much. If they lost $300 per person and 5 million consoles, that's just $1.5 billion..if EVERYONE took them up on some $99 offer or whatever.

We saw Microsoft take such a hit just with RRoD. It is definitely possible.

They were sitting on ~50 billion in cash right around the Wii U launch.

Nothing in life is guaranteed, but one thing is for sure. If 3rd party drops support, the Wii U is dead to the mainstream, if it isn't painfully obvious that both are pretty much dead right now.

Oh I'd still enjoy 1st party offerings. But few are going to buy Nintendo systems ONLY for Nintendo games that haven't already bought the system. Sure they can increase the numbers by dropping the price to $149-199, because there are a bunch of Nintendo fans waiting for that, but overall if they don't have 3rd party support, the majority of gamers overall won't buy it.

It's not about us that have already bought it, it's all the people who didn't buy them and are enamored with the PS4 and XB1 who will have 3rd party support going forward. Combined Sony and Microsoft have almost doubled in 4-6 weeks what it took Nintendo 13 months to sell. Both products were also more expensive.

They are in a mess. They can take their 50 billion and go home and exit, they can bleed and become irrelevant to 80-90 percent of gamers, or they can use that 50 billion of rapidly diluting dollar much of which is no doubt priced in Yen via Abenomics and put it to use before it withers away and attempt to right the ship.

Paying a couple of billion to right the ship when they are sitting on that much cash makes alot more sense then alienating gamers and devs while bleeding money for the next 5 or so years. They'll be bleeding money and their pile of cash will be diluting.

They are probably sitting on millions of gamepads in sunk cost that are DUMB clients which means it doesn't matter what console they're connected to. They just as easily can be used for the Fusion.

Nothing is for certain, and they have until like E3 to make a decision, because by then we'll have a concrete understanding of the opening of PS4/XB1 consoles, and the next 1-2 years of games will be on display at E3 showcasing to us what Nintendo has to compete with.

My guess is that besides some great 1st or 2nd party games, it's not going to be good versus the competition. We'll start seeing a bunch of games without a Wii U version which will only add to the reason why most gamers shouldn't buy a Wii U. With those games which 3rd party does support, most will be 360 ports.

Nintendo has some great stuff up their sleeves, but even with their own great games, they cannot compete against everyone else combined coupled with everybody combined with better graphics and an assured multiplayer community in games because both systems have double the Wii U's userbase by E3 and rising.

Also remember this isn't them announcing a new console soon, it's about getting something ready that they could then announce in early 2015 or early 2016 for that respective year for launch.

I don't think the rumor is true, the combination of specs simply don't pass muster. But that doesn't mean they can't or shouldn't be fast tracking the development of a new console.

Slapshot823758d ago

Exactly!

But, that "4 million Wii U owners" is also a focal point that isn't taken into account in this article. If only 4 million people are willing to spend the $300+ for the Wii U - is there really more than this that are willing to spend another $200+ for a console that rivals the PS4 and Xbox One?

Nintendo has little third party support. It has very weak online infrastructure and to the best of my knowledge, little to no cloud-based infrastructure, which is the future online console-based gaming. Nintendo also has a strong reluctance to do what its competition is doing, which all but guarantees that its focus is not on getting the next Battlefield and Call of Duty on its consoles.

These aren't stabs at Nintendo, in any way. People that want Nintendo to be the "most powerful console developer" need to wake up and realize that Nintendo has shifted its business strategy to be what it started out: a toy maker. Nintendo makes brilliant video games that bring toys to life. This is what they are best at and it's how they need to proceed.

Even in the NES era, Nintendo's games didn't make up the bulk of the "hardcore tites". Nope, those went to the third parties. This was reflected even more so with the launch of the SNES.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 3758d ago
_QQ_3759d ago (Edited 3759d ago )

They can't. The 50$ upgrade idea is also extremely illogical.

KonsoruMasuta3759d ago (Edited 3759d ago )

This is stupid. Why would they dump the 3DS aswell?

BLKxSEPTEMBER3759d ago

At this point I'd at least consider it. My Wii u is useless at this point so I'd consider an upgrade to fusion as long as I could get a deal.

Show all comments (76)
80°

How Many More Victims, Like Garry's Mod, Will Nintendo's Hurtful Crusade Create?

Hanzala from eXputer: "As Nintendo takes out 20 years' worth of stuff from Garry's Mod, I watch in shock, thinking why it continues to hurt and discourage its fans."

RiseNShine4d ago (Edited 4d ago )

The irony that some of the most disgusting business practices come from companies like Disney or Nintendo, i can't even begin to understand what terrible damage was Garrys Mod making to Nintendo bottom line, imho they're getting pretty nervous about where they're heading in the future, handhelds are no longer something exclusive to Nintendo, from Steam Deck to many others, now you can play the latest games and pay a fraction of the price on Steam sales, so it's up to their exclusives, which just on their own would make hard to justify purchasing a closed overpriced hardware with outrageous price policies (Super Mario Odyssey is still 60 euro 6 years later!), and as a home console they're always underperforming compared to Sony or Xbox.

gold_drake4d ago (Edited 4d ago )

i cam guarantee you, that their exclusives alone is what drives switch sales. they sell in the 10s of millions of copies.

nintendo created their franchises to be sort of nostalgia driven, exclusive only on nintendo.

people will always buy the pkmn games as they always bring in new younger fans amd is family friendly

mario kart, the same thing, mario games in general.

zelda games are system sellers. animal crossing for the casual gamers.

nintendo doesnt need third vame devs essentially. they made sure with the switch and the limitations that they looked more to pc ps and xbox.

its sad, but nintendo is more than fine with what they're doing. they positioned themselves to appeal to the more casual gamers.

but to your point, im not sure why they're doing this rly.

Inverno4d ago

Look at how they handled Nintendo games being streamed or uploaded on YouTube in the past. They killed Yuzu and Citra even when they had nothing to do with ToTK being leaked, not to mention it was basically unplayable on emulation the week it was leaked. Smash Bros tournament, that was fairly recent. They shut down their online services without any care for purchases made. I bought a switch after skipping their last 2 consoles and handhelds but I don't plan on buying anything Nintendo in the future. They take things to the extremes, they legitimately hate their fans. They're honestly right up there with the likes of Acti, EA, and Ubi, only difference is that they disguise themselves as being family friendly all the while being shady.

80°

Nintendo's Massacre Of The 3DS And Wii U Is Finally Complete, Regrettably

Hanzala from eXputer: "The cruel hammer of Nintendo has fallen. Farewell, 3DS and Wii U, you surely brightened my life and many others; you won't be forgotten."

280°

Xbox's Preservation Step Sets A Much-Needed Example, Especially For Nintendo

Hanzla from eXputer inquires: "If Xbox can care about preserving its games and legacy, what exactly is wrong with Nintendo, trying to kill game preservation single-handedly?"

purple10125d ago

Ahh yes the good old game preservation of saving all your games to a removable hhd on the Xbox 360, taking it round your mates house, setting up multiple tvs to
Be met with “save data corrupted, please re download”

Or how about removing 360 games
From the store
, download them now or else, and, better hope to god that save data doesn’t corrupt, or it’s lost for ever

Nice one ☝️

Zeref24d ago

It's better than what Nintendo and Playstation is doing. It might not be perfect but at least they are TRYING. Unlike the others.

DarXyde24d ago

Trying? Take off the blinders for a moment, mate.

1. A failure to preserve games is just that: a failure to preserve games. Don't try to sugarcoat it: NO ONE is doing it properly. Better than awful is nothing to write home about.

2. At the time of this comment, isn't it the case that you need an internet connection to play Xbox games even if you buy physical discs that are hardly in circulation anymore? I don't have a Series X and I can't verify, but I think that is correct. I'm fairly certain you can at least play PS5 games at version 1.0 (not much of a win really when many games require day one patches). I think Microsoft's all digital, licensing approach is by far more aggressive than anyone else's. They really try to push you to game pass where you lose your entire library by umm.... Skipping a month of payments.

I don't think anyone is doing it right whatsoever. Don't get me started on Nintendo, who goes after anyone looking to preserve their games better than they ever would with extreme litigation.

Don't be a simp for any of these companies. Get it together.

PhillyDonJawn24d ago (Edited 24d ago )

@DarX never speak on Xbox again. You lost all credibility with your internet connection comment. Smh you have 0 clue and misinformed yet speaking on something you don't no squat about.

Einhander197224d ago

What has Sony done exactly? You guys keep deflecting to Sony but I am not actually seeing any results, and ai am certain nothing that you can come up with even comes close to what Microsoft has done and what they have tried and failed to do, like tie all your disks to your account on xbone.

Microsoft removed their whole indie section when they moved to the xbone because they were going to only allow games on the service that came from a publisher, id@xbox started after xbone launched and it only exists because Sony embraced indie and Microsoft was forced to cancel their plans and reverse course.

And every single game that was part of games for windows live including disk games (I have gta 4 on disk that won't work) so hundreds of games that use that DRM no longer work unless the company themselves patched it out which of course very few did.

MrBaskerville24d ago

Not trying. Tried. they killed of the backcomp program years ago. They set something up again, but sounds like it's more of an attempt to save the current library on whatever they are planning next. With luck they save everything and more, but let's see. I could see them killing off parts of the OG xbox and 360 libraries. Can't imagine that they would allow us to play Forza 5-7 in the future.

With that said, I do like what they've done and really wish they could have done more.

shinoff218324d ago

Zeref

So killing off physical media is trying what exactly. Ms don't really give a fk if you think they do your kidding yourself.

Profchaos24d ago

They are not trying this team is established for forward compatability the team is. It interested in preserving Xbox or 360 games.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 24d ago
isarai25d ago

Is that why Hellblade 2 is digital only?

Zeref24d ago

Just because it's digital only doesn't mean you can't preserve it. Just put it on an external and you have the exact same functionality of what a disc does.

MrNinosan24d ago

Guess you're trolling, but if you actually think that's how it works, I'd recommend buying some braincells.

mkis00723d ago (Edited 23d ago )

Volitile vs nonvolitile data. A disc will not corrupt either. A drive can be corrupted.

Einhander197225d ago

This is just a scammy PR move to distract from the fact they are going digital only and trying to push streaming and subscriptions only.

No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft.

Without discs there is no preservation, preservation can't be done by the rights holders it can only be done by the consumers, anything else is a lie.

25d ago Replies(3)
Einhander197224d ago

Anyone remember xblig which Microsoft removed their whole 360 indie section removing hundreds of games from people?

24d ago
24d ago
Zeref24d ago

Do you know you can put your games on an external and preserve them that way? There are no benefits to discs. ZERO. Idk why some of you are still obsessed with them.

DarXyde24d ago

Because games like Persona 5 exist. It's STILL V1.00. On Playstation, that's a win because 1.00 is installed on the disc—no need to download anything.

If a game does not require any updates, it's all on the disc.

Extremely low bar in the modern era, of course. It's not much of a win by any stretch.

But for now, physical media does have a purpose, at least on Playstation.

Einhander197224d ago

That is factually not how game licensing works, try plugging your hard drive into someone else xbox, It's not going to work, and it won't work if the licensing servers ever go down.

Einhander197224d ago

Anyone remember games for windows live.

I have around a dozen games, some on Steam itself that will not work because Microsoft shut off the licensing servers.

BehindTheRows24d ago (Edited 24d ago )

I do. I STILL have games (Gears of War being the big one) I cannot access because Games for Windows LIVE is total garbage and no one has held Microsoft accountable.

Zeref24d ago (Edited 24d ago )

You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership.

Chevalier24d ago

"You don't have an Xbox apparently. Because you can 100 percent plug in your external and play games from it on any Xbox console lol. You just have to be logged in to prove ownership."

Damn how many times do people got to explain your idiocy to you? You can take a copy of Persona 5 like someone used as an example and play that game on ANY console WITHOUT logging in which means I can lend the game to a friend without internet and they can play my game. Can you lend your hard drive to anyone without logging in for them to play? NOPE. That is a huge difference and if you think otherwise then sorry you're an idiot.

Tacoboto24d ago

"No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft."

Ubisoft is literally erasing games people bought from their libraries... My PS1-3 discs are useless on modern hardware. Nintendo's re-published and resold almost their entire Wii U library, and the eShop is completely dead with no BC mechanism in the Switch software. Microsoft publishes everything they make today day one on Steam and Xbox/Windows. Sony only brings to PC the titles they think you might want some years later and Nintendo won't even design a functional long-lasting joystick.

You're absolutely trolling and not serious if you think Microsoft today is the worst offender.

shinoff218324d ago

Yay steam

Not everyone fks with computers though. The disc is still the best way as a console player. Period.

Tacoboto23d ago

How do Sony and Nintendo feel about these discs from 2001-2013?

Don't be stupid, you know Xbox is the best at this today.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 23d ago
Hofstaderman24d ago

Nobody wants this. Sales or the lack of it in the case of XBOX is very telling. I wonder how the adorably all digital series X will fare. Adorably dismal perhaps?

crazyCoconuts24d ago

Only time will tell, but for from someone like me suspecting that Xbox is trying to gracefully exit the console market, that "forward compatibility" team is trying to get Xbox games playing on Windows PCs. I mean, it's nice that they're not planning on exiting with a "enjoy your games while the hardware still works" message, so that's nice. They still have a brand to protect via Microsoft so probably feel obligated to have a better exit strategy.

Xeofate24d ago (Edited 24d ago )

That is not their plan, their plan is to transfer users accounts to the cloud.

Phil Spencer himself said as much a few months back, plans could have changed but I think people are reading way too much into one statement where Phil said he would allow Epic on xbox because he wants to be able to sell xbox games directly on other platforms. Aka, instead of selling Sea of Thives through PSN he wants to have an xbox store to sell his games on PlayStation without giving PlayStation any money.

Again, it's extremely unlikely that Phil plans to put PC on xbox and licensing would prevent them from just giving out other publishers games purchased on xbox copies of thier games on PC, Microsoft does not own their games.

crazyCoconuts23d ago

The thing that doesn't align with the cloud strategy is the giving up on exclusives. You'd still need strong exclusives for cloud streaming - it's still a "platform" , just with a lower upfront hardware investment. I feel like they've learned what PS learned with PSNow long ago. We're not ready to stream games and it's only gonna lose them money to try at this point

FinalFantasyFanatic23d ago

I would love that, I'd buy up some of the Xbox games if they could run on PC, like the Rare Replay, Lost Odyssey and Dead or Alive Ultimate, probably a pipe dream though.

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