Are you ready for some rumor-tastic rumors to seep into your face hole and infest your entire body?!
Alright, so everyone and their mother has likely heard of of Nintendo’s disastrous sales forecast by now. These, erm, rather unfortunate numbers got people thinking and talking about strategies Nintendo could implement in order to raise those numbers up to something a little more digestible. One particular theory was that Nintendo abandons ship with the Wii U and accelerates the process on hardware that has a higher probability of ultimately becoming, you know, profitable. And now that we’re well over a year since the Wii U’s launch, it’s not a secret Nintendo is likely working on their next generation of hardware to some extent.
But we may have some information regarding this next venture, thanks to Nintendo News. Now, Nintendo News prides itself on its “impeccable reputation” when it comes down to unveiling the nitty and gritty (or in their terms, things that are “credible and newsworthy”) but of course caution that none of this has been officially validated or guaranteed.
Let’s do this!
So, back in the day (on May 29th, 2003 to be exact) Nintendo purchased the domain NintendoFusion.com. During that time Nintendo was partaking in the Nintendo Fusion Tour, a gaming/musical festival that was sponsored by Nintendo of America. The tour ended in 2006. (That’s possibly where the “fusion” name stems from.) Reports are kinda scattered, but from what I can gather we can think of the Nintendo Fusion as an updated Wii U/3DS hardware bundle. Like, an all-in-one shindig.
Check out these “leaked” specs:
Fusion DS
- CPU: ARMv8-A Cortex-A53 GPU: Custom Adreno 420-based AMD GPU
- COM MEMORY: 3 GB LPDDR3 (2 GB Games, 1 GB OS)
- 2 130 mm DVGA (960 x 640) Capacitive Touchscreen
- Slide Out Design with Custom Swivel Tilt Hinge
- Upper Screen made of Gorilla Glass, Comes with Magnetic Cover
- Low End Vibration for Gameplay and App Alerts
- 2 Motorized Circle Pads for Haptic Feedback
- Thumbprint Security Scanner with Pulse Sensing Feedback
- 2 1mp Stereoptic Cameras
- Multi-Array Microphone
- A, B, X, Y, D-Pad, L, R, 1, 2 Buttons
- 3 Axis Tuning Fork Gyroscope, 3 Axis Accelerometer, Magnetometer
- NFC Reader
- 3G Chip with GPS Location
- Bluetooth v4.0 BLE Command Node used to Interface with Bluetooth Devices such as Cell Phones, Tablets
- 16 Gigabytes of Internal Flash Storage (Possible Future Unit With 32 Gigabytes)
- Nintendo 3DS Cart Slot
- SDHC “Holographic Enhanced” Card Slot up to 128 Gigabyte Limit
- Mini USB I/O
- 3300 mAh Li-Ion battery
Fusion Terminal
- GPGPU: Custom Radeon HD RX 200 GPU CODENAME LADY (2816 shaders @ 960 MHz, 4.60 TFLOP/s, Fillrates: 60.6 Gpixel/s, 170 Gtexel/s)
- CPU: IBM 64-Bit Custom POWER 8-Based IBM 8-Core Processor CODENAME JUMPMAN (2.2 GHz, Shared 6 MB L4 cache)
- Co-CPU: IBM PowerPC 750-based 1.24 GHz Tri-Core Co-Processor CODENAME HAMMER
- MEMORY: 4 Gigabytes of Unified DDR4 SDRAM CODENAMED KONG, 2 GB DDR3 RAM @ 1600 MHz (12.8 GB/s) On Die CODENAMED BARREL
- 802.11 b/g/n Wireless
- Bluetooth v4.0 BLE
- 2 USB 3.0
- 1 Coaxial Cable Input
- 1 CableCARD Slot
- 4 Custom Stream-Interface Nodes up to 4 Wii U GamePads
- Versions with Disk Drive play Wii U Optical Disk (4 Layers Maximum), FUSION Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) and Nintendo 3DS Card Slot
- 1 HDMI 2.0 1080p/4K Port
- Dolby TrueHD 5.1 or 7.1 Surround Sound
- Inductive Charging Surface for up to 4 FUSION DS or IC-Wii Remote Plus Controllers
- Two versions: Disk Slot Version with 60 Gigs of Internal Flash Storage and Diskless Version with 300 Gigs of Internal Flash Storage
As I’ve said before, I know diddly squat about specs. I just don’t speak its language. So, if you want to translate for me that’d be fan-effing-tastic. (I’ve read reports that the specs are on-par with the Xbox One and PS4, and I’ve read reports that say these specs blow them out of the water. Halp?)
If anything, what makes me excited is the Nintendo 3DS Card Slot. I’d love the opportunity to play my handheld games on the big screen every once in a while. We should also note that the Fusion Terminal would support four Wii U gamepads. Everything else is essentially Greek to me anyway. ;)
Now the question is, how much energy do we devote to these rumors? Do we take them seriously, or as one website put it, take them with a 3DS XL-sized shaker of salt? It would be quite fascinating if the big N were to write off the Wii U and get something on the market within a few years (after all, they do have a huge war chest so cutting their losses wouldn’t be, like, detrimental) and something like the Nintendo Fusion doesn’t seem super far-fetched. If these rumors are to be believed, I don’t think we’ll hear anything official for quite some time…although an E3 announcement would be pretty fucking gnarly.
Anyway, let me know what you think!
This honestly sounds like some wishful thinking to me. : There’s some pretty crazy stuff in here, like inductive charging pads (for wireless charging) and a CableCARD slot (a slot for hardware that lets you watch cable TV on the device). Not sure Nintendo would go that far…
Well they tried to integrate stuff like Wii TV this go around. I could see them going so far as to hook up to a cable box like Xbox One does.
I could see that too, but CableCARD is a weird interface that not a lot of people use. I don’t actually know anyone that uses it anymore. Tivo?
The power-pc processor is most likely for backwards compatibility with older WiiU and Wii games. But, there’s TWO unlike processors, which, from an engineering standpoint is VERY difficult and costly. I wonder how they are going to pull this off. Or IF they can.
Ahhh interesting. See, these are things I don’t understand. Processor this and processor that…
So the fusion ds reads like they are thinking about making a nintenphone just without the phone capability or maybe not.?
Many wept when Sega hardware finished, but now i look back and think – they did the right thing.
Nintendo should do the same.
License your games to the other big hitters and bow out gracefully before its too late.
I hear you, but I haven’t lost hope in Nintendo. I think they can pull this off. If anything perhaps the Wii U was a big ol’ slap in their face and reminder to get their asses in gear.
They did well with handhelds. They stopped being successful with consoles after the Gamecube. Sure they had their hits, but Wii U or Wii really feel like PS2/Xbox 1.5 (Wii) or the PS3/Xbox 360 1.5 (Wii U)
They aren’t spectacular, they just have gimmicks that once you are used to feel like a nuisance more than anything. Seriously.. Netflix on Wii? Fuck that. I’ll pass.
0 HD really? Well shit.
They do handhelds well. They always have. Have them stick with that. These outreaching ideas are just not in their favor. The Wii-U’s prospects are failing even harder now that this new “Zelda” game was announced. What a joke.
I love Zelda. But I love Zelda, not Dynasty Warriors.
the possibilities with these systems are whats so intriguing. the wii u felt like they were playing catch up to ps3 and 360 even though the tablet controllers were a cool idea i dont think anyone used them to their fullest potential.
I also think who ever is in charge has to become very aggressive and forward thinking if nintendo wants to be taken seriously as a contender again.
I would love them to release at least 3 of their core titles in the debut year just so people will want to rush out and buy them there by having 3rd parties willing to invest in the new nintendo systems.
An HD zelda would have to be one of those titles if not a launch title a mario game and a smash brothers might be a good way to finish the year. but really any title would be worth a try.
A full console pokemon has to be something somebody in nintendo has tried to push for in the past. maybe with the new console/hand held a cross play situation is possible? tablet or screens acting like your pokedeck or command screens?
they need to learn how to use online services to their potential i think nintendo would benifit greatly from a ps plus type of service or better yet a game club where one monthly fee/ membership would give you access to the back catalog.
nintendo mistepped with the U but if someone can just lead them to the light they could make something great.
I can only see this as possible if Nintendo want’s too appease 3rd party developers ,But Nintendo still has an awesome brand , A move like this would put them on pare with Xbox & Sony , but Nintendo doesn’t have the best rep with 3rd party support . Also you have too look at global numbers being a factor in launching a new system without hurting the fan base. But i love Nintendo so i trust there judgment .
This rumor was always weird. I love Nintendo and they will pull it out