Unscientific Nintendo Study

[Nu-Eclipse]

Ha, good joke nu-eclipse

I do try!

[Asura]

I still think Nintendo's best shot is a super low cost streaming box. As you say, the money is in software. Sell the box for <?99, use wiimotes and nunchuks for their versatility, and stream the games PS Now style.

Wouldn't work, believe me.

PSNow, Gaikai, OnLive... They're a fad and they'll pass pretty quickly once the first large-scale one is released (likely PSNow), people try it, and promptly give up on it.

No matter what you do with those systems, nothing can change the fundamental truth - you're playing a game on another computer by remote, and watching a streaming video of that computer. That means you have lag between pressing a button on your pad and something happening onscreen.

Your internet connection "speed" doesn't matter, because when people say "speed" they usually mean "bandwidth". To use an analogy, bandwidth is the width of a road and lag is the speed limit, and you can't reduce lag anywhere near as easily as you can increase bandwidth.

Proper online multiplayer games deal with this by using a variety of lag-compensation technologies that "fool" the user into thinking their soldier in CoD responds instantly, but it's simply not the case. They work because you never actually see both ends of the connection unless it's simulated.

Stuff like Civ 5, that's playable - but games like Super Mario World literally never will be, because you're always communicating over a mass network for stream gaming, and there's always going to be lag. Think of how on the BBC news, if there's a reporter in Paris talking live to the person on TV, even in that example there's lag, and their connection is as direct as you're going to get.

I hope Nintendo are smart enough to steer clear of the whole area.

[Brad]

I played unreal tournament during the onlive beta connected to USA servers with no noticeable lag. I wouldn't believe it if I wasn't there to witness it. Dark magic for sure.

[Colin]

Is this meant to be from the point of view of Nintendo becoming a third party publisher only? I don't understand people who love Nintendo games saying they would only play them on Nintendo hardware if that's the case. Personally I feel no draw to pretty much anything they do these days, but I dare say I'd give them more of a chance on other hardware.

[Asura]

I played unreal tournament during the onlive beta connected to USA servers with no noticeable lag. I wouldn't believe it if I wasn't there to witness it. Dark magic for sure.

No offence intended (I'm not calling you a liar!) but I've had the completely opposite experience, trying OnLive/GaiKai at various venues over the years and it's only worked well when the data-centre is in the same building as the demo (like at Eurogamer Expo and such). Plus, on a beta, maybe there were very few users and you had less lag than usual?

Considering that for some people, they need to calibrate their televisions to remove local lag in Rock Band, it just seems to me like a technology that will never work unless the datacentre is down your street.

When DLP TV's came out, I remember seeing posts by many people who were saying it made their games unplayable, due to the slight lag. I certainly notice it on my LCD if I try to play Street Fighter and I don't have it in "GAME" mode (which disables all the effects in favour of less lag).

One aspect of Sony's approach I like - that they're going to rig it up so if you buy a game on PSN, you can immediately play the PSNow version, and later that evening the full game will download to your machine afer you've went to bed, so the next time you play, it's local. That's a superb idea.

[Brad]

After the beta onlive was unplayable for me, even when I had a half decent connection. Vita remote play also unplayable unless I was on the same network. I actually agree that some games simply won't work. Bemani, street fighter. I threw the ut thing in there though because I think it shows that for at least 90% of games a system like this can actually work. Actually I just remembered that I did manage to play space marine using onlive and that was fine too. Gfx were subpar but it didn't feel laggy at all.

[importaku]

With Nintendo been a Japanese company i wonder if they would really go full humble pie & turn into a games only developer on rivals consoles?

Then again would Nintendo publish on a Sony console? There is a bad history between the 2 so publishing on PS4 for Nintendo wouldn't happen under any circumstances.

[Kit]

At this point I'd be fine buying Nintendo games on other consoles or (preferably) pc. At least online wouldn't be **** then.

[Neon Ignition]

I've always felt like if exiting the hardware business became a consideration for them they'd simply walk from games altogether. They seem firmly entrenched in the notion that they have to have their own hardware for their own games and have a history of entirely redirecting the companies product focus based on where they see the biggest money. Either way, not like it matters I suppose, zero chance of them walking from hardware anytime within the next decade minimum

[charlesr]

Heheh, look at all the hardcore win the poll

[Brad]

My poll has failed because of these morons! Lol

[Brad]

I'll just do a new poll with different options to prove my theory. That's how it works isn't it?

[Nu-Eclipse]

Does this mean that I'm trolling Brad if I vote "Only on Nintendo"?