Nintendo fans around the world were sent into full-fanboy mode when the Nintendo Fusion rumor hit yesterday. Nintendo News reported that the Nintendo Fusion initiative consists of a new home console (Fusion Terminal) and a new handheld system (Fusion DS). The web site posted a bunch of specs to back up its reporting. Many longtime Nintendo fans were hopeful (wishful?) that Nintendo Fusion would allow the company to compete with Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One.
More recently, the specs Nintendo News posted have been called into question. VentureBeat’s “Dancing” Dean Takahashi (one of the best reporters in the videogame business) posted a great article with opinions from a chip engineer that call the rumored specs into question. Here’s a clip:
Pallab Chatterjee, a seasoned chip engineering editor and founder of the Silicon Valley Trade Council, said, “A couple of things don’t make sense.” He noted that the Adreno cores are part of the Qualcomm Snapdragon chip set and are not offered or licensed to AMD. The ARM architecture currently cannot run PowerPC code that IBM uses in the existing Nintendo products. That would mean a 100 percent loss of legacy code compatibility, Chatterjee said.
He also said the 3GB of memory in the portable device also seems small for the applications that will reportedly run on the machine, especially if the screen is a high-resolution one. The camera specs seem a bit light as well, Chatterjee said.
The initial rumor is interesting. The Wii U is a relatively new system (November 2012) and it’s unusual for any console company to release a followup so soon. It seems like a complete panic move, which would be highly unusual for the conservative Nintendo. Then again, the company’s last financial numbers were dreadful and the Wii U has been getting trounced by the competition. It can be argued that Nintendo Fusion is a bold and necessary step for Nintendo.
Naturally, I want your opinions on the matter. What do you think of the original Nintendo Fusion rumor? Is it legit or bunk (like those daily Apple rumors)? How about The Dancing One’s information from Pallab Chatterjee? Do you think that Nintendo needs to release new systems? Or should it bide its time for an all-new, all-different strategy in the rapidly changing field of videogames? Kindly fuse your thoughts into a comments box below!
I heard this yesterday and I’m still wondering why people are paying attention to it. It’s a rumor, people should just take it with a huge grain of salt and move on. If Nintendo officially announces anything, then we’ll know.
I personally don’t believe it (mainly because Nintendo hasn’t announced anything). It would be HIGHLY unlikely that they are working on a console so soon after the Wii U’s launch. Also, it’s going to take more than poor sales (of the Wii U) during the first year for Nintendo to do such a bold, ballsy thing as competing with people they clearly stated that they did not want to compete with in the first place.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they decide to actually compete with Sony and Microsoft again after this current generation is over (or several years from now). This rumor isn’t something that Nintendo would do. They are a very deliberate company in the way they operate. This Fusion thing doesn’t fit their MO.
-M