The thing that matters is the price. Nintendo will never have the third party support to make it a viable option as a single gaming platform. It hasn't had that since the SNES. What they need to be is the best secondary console possible for people who already own a gaming PC, PS4 or Xbox. Make the NX a place where you can play the first party games that you want to play and not feel like you've spent too much money on hardware.

A PC client.

Just a straight console, completely gimmick free.

I would bet real money that it doesn't do blu-ray of any kind.

A TV adapter for the N3DS

I really want it to be a portable, home console Hybrid. Plugging it in to a cradle or larger station with hardware that adds to it to make the graphics console quality. For the graphics to be on par with current consoles it would have to be pretty expensive though.

The screen should be smaller than the WiiU gamepad though, that thing is too big to really be a portable console.

I hope the controller is a Speak & Spell wirelessly tethered to a Pogo Ball.

@dixavd: Oh yeah, didn't Reggie call VR boring?

I would lose my mind if this is what it was. I don't want to buy dedicated, underpowered hardware which is pretty much completely unsupported by third parties to play genuinely good Nintendo games. So I'm praying that they do this (and do it decently, obviously). But the part of me that likes to watch the world burn is secretly hoping it's a phone.

Zombies Ate My Neighbors

Big, Crazy Prediction: A Motorcycle Helmet

My prediction is that the NX will be a motorcycle helmet in 2017. Here's what I'm basing my prediction on:

• Nintendo's hardware R&D is actually crazy good at coming up with solutions that other companies previously thought impossible. For example, the 3DS came out in an era where every single 3d-display technology required either passive or battery-powered glasses to be worn. The 3D in the 3DS is actually something of a marvel in that no glasses are required. While the idea behind the WiiU tablet is not new—just a tablet and a gamecube controller mashed together—the screen-mirroring content has really, really low latency and good compression.
• Like the 3DS versus 3d-TVs/3d cinema-fad, or the WiiU vs tablet fad, Nintendo likes coming out with their own take on things that are in-vogue for the time. Right now that trend is VR.
• Nintendo has hinted that their next console may not be what we might expect. I am interpreting this that it's not necessarily a home console.
• Nintendo really likes selling 3DS's with special themes.
• Nintendo recently shut down the Nintendo Club service, and suggested that something else in it's place would return.
• Nintendo recently entered a partnership with Japanese cellphone service provider, DeNA.

So, I'm going to throw a hail-mary and claim that the NX will be a wearable VR helmet, roughly the size and form factor of a motorcycle helmet. Here's the features I'm imagining:

• It is only 1 SKU, and succeeds both the 3DS and WiiU. It comes with 1 helmet, 1 HDMI dongle for streaming content to the TV, 1 charge base, and 1 controller.
• The Helmet has a visor with two 960x1080 screens for a 1920x1080 field of view VR experience for games like a Metroid Prime reboot, or a diorama-version of Paper Mario.
• The Visor can either be flipped open, or (and this part is probably the craziest part) the visor is semi-transparent, and can draw a HUD when in the "Home" mode. This HUD mode can also draw AR-like things in the real-world, similar to Microsoft's Hololens but with some utility...
• ...because the helmet will have a 3G or 4G internet connection, and some basic apps like Maps or Email, along with an eShop.
• The controller will have a 1:1 motion sense capability and be spacially-aware of its distance from the helmet.
• Players that do not want to play their game with the helmet on can plug in their paired HDMI dongle, similar in form-factor to a Chromecast. This will allow them to play some games on their TV.
• After the initial release period, there will be other models themed after other nintendo properties. For example, a Samus-style helmet, or perhaps a helment that looks like Mr. Saturn. In this way, the helmets will make a fashion statement.
• The unit would normally retail for $600, but because a subscription to the newly revamped Nintendo 4G service will be required, it will only cost $200 plus a monthly fee for 2 years. The monthly service will be required to use the system, but after 2 years you will not be charged an early-termination fee.

A motorcycle helmet-sized form factor seems pretty big, but I think it will need to be that big for a couple reasons:

• Battery life; the entire inside collar region of the helmet will be batteries. This will also cause another problem which is...
• Heat. A series of small fans around the bottom collar will also vent out heat.
• GPU/CPU/RAM hardware will have to be considerable to drive 1920x1080 at the refresh-rate required for the user to have a comfortable experience. So accordingly, the helmet will have to be large enough to accommodate this.
• Eventually, later models will be either slimmer or made of less material (like only cover the scalp and brow region).

It will be called the Nintendo Go. And everyone will want one.

@onarum: Well, does that depend on the persons PC specs? If that were the case, I'd rather just stick with the Wii U.

A helmet that delivers sweet gaming directly to my brain.

I see people saying something that is portable and can hook up to your T.V. That really sounds dumb to me. I'd rather not have any more gimmicky attempts at a console. Just make a basic console with a good controller, UI, and online support.

Something that probably can never happen again, which is to be my primary platform for games.

VR is played out.

4DS.

@alistercat: You do realize that every game would essentially have to be two separate games in terms of assets in that scenario, right?

I heard Jeff talking about that stuff on the podcast a while back as well, and it's just staggering that anyone with even an inkling of understanding of the business and the technology could ever think it even a remote possibility. Maybe I'm the idiot, but I just really don't see any way anyone could make that stuff work right.

I don't fucking know. It's Nintendo. It could literally be anything. I just hope it's good and there's more to play on it than Nintendo games.

Something weird but is up to snuff to the ps4 and Xbox one hardware wise.

I hope it's a new console and a new handheld that can operate together essentially as one but also separately and independently. The dream of a home console that is also a handheld is a cool one, except for the part where it can only be used as one or the other at any one time. Perhaps you can buy the console/handheld package, but I'd still want to be able to go off using the handheld while anyone else is able to use the console for what they will.

It would be great if any time you bought a game, for either system, you got it on the other, whether that's digitally or at retail - I wasn't so into that set up for the Xbox One, but throw a handheld that can also play those games into the mix and I'm more on board.

I think that's the dream.

Ideally it would also be a system that is either as powerful, or more powerful, than the PS4/Xbone, but I'm not holding my breath* Give it a controller that works just as well in every regard as the primary/handheld controller and boom, you've got a really cool system.

Then everyone can shit on it because it's not VR and is behind the times. :P

*I wouldn't even be surprised if Nintendo went ahead and went full Nintendo and made the system with basically the same power as the WiiU. :P

@meatball: If it's going to be both a handheld and something hooked up to the TV I wouldn't expect more than Wii graphics. I don't personally know why anyone would dream of that. But to each their own I guess. And I agree it would be good to get a free game every time I bought a game, but I don't really think it's realistic. Or reasonable, for that matter.

@amafi said:

PC games scale just fine, it wouldn't be much more work than that. Nintendo don't deal in high polygon counts generally, and while the 3DS is seriously lacking in power there are other hardware manufacturers way ahead of them. My phone is more powerful than a 3DS and it didn't cost much more. Even some PC games have settings for lower poly models. Texture resolutions would have to be scaled down but again, PC scales just fine. Developers almost always create texture packs to scale down for less powerful PCs, and they don't start over from scratch for each texture at each resolution.

It's a technical hurdle, and it's not easy, but it doesn't necessarily mean creating 2 different games.

I just hope nintendo takes their time and doesn't rush it

They are late to the party (again) if it's just a normal console. I think it will either be a new handheld that can function as a home console as well or something crazy. I haven't touched a Nintendo console since the Gamecube, so it has to be something REALLY special if it makes me want to buy this new thing. Just Mario and Zelda ain't going to cut it for me.

A PS4 add-on dongle.

A unified system so they don't have to split their user-base in half any longer. Also, hopefully something that will be far, FAR removed from the Wii branding. Getting tired of explaining the difference between Wii and Wii U to people.