But then MS can't sell you those charging packages, you know a USB charger plus a Battery pack.

Its ridiculous that you are supposed to by a separate battery pack just to charge your controller.

MS is the last company to still force you to buy rechargeable packs, Sony controllers come with battery packs built in since PS3.

Its extra money they make from every single controller sold. Its pretty disgusting if you ask me. Especially on 150 bones Elites.

#@Sepewrath: I think the NX will ship as around 350 MRSP if marketed as a console with handheld abilities which puts it at the same price as a PS4, if it is marketed as a handheld with home console abilities it will most likely ship at 300 on the dot, which is what 3DS started at day one.

As for keeping costs down, the system is really just an enhanced Wii U with the guts of the system moved into the Tablet and a cheap WiDi Stream Dock like the new Steam Box. The cost of production cannot be any higher than PS4 or XB1 assuming the system is using weaker core components, and both of those systems will MSRP at under 350 come 2016. So the pricing shouldn't an issue at all. Really its just a high-end gaming Tablet with a wireless dock.

I guess you make a good point that a handheld will have a smaller chance of breaking grounds in the console wars, so maybe they should advertise it as a home console first and a handheld second.

$300 Day one should be the golden number, it will guaranty a steady flow of handheld gamers will adopt and also be cheaper than the competition in the home console market. Over the years they can gradually slim the model down for higher portability and battery life and sell more SKUs like the 2DS, 3DS, N3DS and N3DSXL. I can see Nintendo eventually releasing various size models of the NX for broader appeal at various price points.

Sadly this is the only logical step for Nintendo, they have no other choice but to embrace the handheld market as their primary focus and leave the home console market as an bonus, since they've already dug themselves into that hole with two generations of weak consoles. They might as well embrace the hole they are in and make the best of it. By risk free, I mean they will essentially be competing with no one with the NX since its primary focus is to replace the 3DS line and they can do that without anyone stepping up to the plate. So if they happen to gain home console market share, great, if not, not the end of the world.

@thebasto: Really depends if you like 3D. The NX will certainly have handheld functions, but will most likely not be 3D.

If you like 3D get the N3DS, otherwise wait for the NX.

@Sepewrath: If you make the system just slightly more powerful than a Wii U, and a little less powerful than a PS4, you are more or less hitting the same price range as a 3DS when it originally launched, keep in mind these things are set to ship late 2016-2017 and cost of production will have dropped even more by then. It will not cost close to 400, hell even the PS4 is dropping to 350 soon, so how can a system less powerful than a PS4 cost 400 a year from now? I suspect the system will ship at around 250-300 at launch which is on par with the price of a 3DS day one.

As for AAA games, Nintendo can keep making their own first party AAA as they always have, whether or not third party devs wanna invest the money is up to them, since everyone knows most of the AAA are going to PS4 and XB1 anyway, which leaves Nintendo the odd one out, so I expect third party to treat the system as a handheld and spend development resources as they would for a handheld system.

You keep calling it a console pretending to be aa handheld, this is where you and I differ, I prefer to call the NX a handheld pretending to be a console. If Nintendo is staying solely in the handheld business then why would they make NX have home capabilities you ask, its pretty simple $$$. Nintendo already has a monopoly in the handheld market since Sony is dropping out next gen, so really they own 100% market share in that sector, since they have no competition in handhelds why not try to bridge two markets into one and steal whatever market share they can from Sony and MS by adding a simple function of WiDi Game Streaming? All you need is a WiDi Stream dock which costs like 20 bucks to make, and boom you now have a handheld that can double as a home console, and since Nintendo already has a monopoly in handheld they don't even need the home console userbase to have a successful run, any home console user they manage convert is a bonus for them.

Basically the NX is a handheld that also allows Nintendo to wrestle in the home console market without actually risking anything, if nobody from the home console market buys the system so what, they're core handheld userbase will still buy it. Its pretty genius move, you are essentially making a handheld console that has the power to steal home console market share away from the big two, while still keeping an monopoly in the handheld market. Its the best of both worlds for Nintendo, also saves Nintendo billions in dev costs, since they now just need to create one game for both home and handheld as opposed to splitting dev costs to satisfy two different software lines which would allow Nintendo to make big AAA games that you desire, because instead of wasting money making two different versions of Mario for handheld and for home they can pool that money and make one really expensive Mario game for both home and mobile. If you could pool the money from Triforce Heroes, Zelda HD, Link Between World into one game for just one platform, you'd have one hell of a AAA title. This was always Nintendo's biggest problem two many platforms too little development funds, NX solves that problem.

@Sepewrath: Well who said they need to develop AAA titles for it? I said several times Nintendo has no place competing with Sony and MS, if NX becomes Nintendo's next handheld console, then they are left with the exact same userbase as its current handheld market, and the exact same third party support.

Nobody is suggesting that devs makes the same games they make on PS4 and XB1 for the NX, even if they were to release the same caliber of games as the 3DS on the NX, Nintendo would still be in the winning side of the battle.

You are expecting Nintendo to be competing in the same tier as PS4 and XB1, I'm suggesting they leave the home console market all together and build a new market of hybrid handheld, using the same userbase they currently have for their handheld market plus whatever home console users they have left which is pretty low to begin with.

What I suggest is Nintendo stay in the handheld market only, and be content with that since they monopoly anyway. NX will play primarily lower budget games designed for the mobile market and will have bonus feature of being able to play them on a TV. That's it.

@Sepewrath:

Because nobody other than Nintendo is willing to make games on a Nintendo home console that's why. A console cannot survive with 0 third party support. Most of the companies that still support Nintendo's handhelds have long since abandoned Nintendo's home market. Square Enix for examples supports 3DS but will not make games on Wii U.

Nintendo is going to try to leverage their third party support for handhelds by making a handheld that can also function as a home console. Also keep in mind Nintendo has an very bad reputation in the home console market when it comes core gaming fans, which means its very unlikely that anyone will buy another Nintendo home console outside of Nintendo's most die-hard fanbase, but Nintendo's handheld market has been and is still very strong, in fact they almost have an monopoly in handhelds with Vita leaving the market next gen.

With all that said, why would Nintendo make a home console when they have 0 third party support, 0 hardcore fans, when they can make a hybrid handheld where they have 100% third party support with a monopoly in the market.

Nintendo is not trying to compete for the home console market, because they know they've lost that war ages ago, they are trying to create a new market that's a hybrid of home users and handheld users. Like I said they have no intention of competing with Sony or MS, that ship sailed long ago, all they can do now is consolidate whats left of their home users with their monopoly in the handheld market.

Also since you mentioned it. The problem with the Vita was it was never able to dock with your TV, if PSVita could output video and audio wirelessly to your TV from day one, the system would not have failed. In fact they didn't even bother making an HDMI output on Vita, later on they came up with PSTV, but that's a separate device altogether was essential an handheld without the handheld ability, failed idea. If Sony had the foresight to make a hybrid with PSVita by adding an HDMI out or a WiDi dock for the PSVita from day one, they would be the king of handhelds right now.

The problem is Nintendo has not been competitive in home console market for 2 generations now, they pretty much lost their whole home console base over 2 decades. And they are always one generation behind in terms of hardware parity.

This problem can't be solved with NX, they know this. But Nintendo's handheld market has always been strong, so might as well dive head first and just make a your home console a handheld, and allow it to have home functions as a bonus. Instead of chasing after console hardware parity, they might as well just ditch that road, and make the best handheld the world has ever seen.

This move is logical because the Japanese industry has more or less moved completely into handheld over the last decade.

So what you will end up with NX is a handheld console that performs at the same level as PS4 a little slower in mobile mode, and when you are not on the go, you can play the games on your TV at higher resolution as bonus function. They will not compete with Sony or MS, its too late for that. They just need to consolidate both the handheld and home market into one.

You won't be playing handheld games in the traditional sense, these games will be home console games but designed to run at a lower resolution when in mobile mode, and when docked, will bump up resolution for the TV, you will not see two SKUs for each game, there will only be one version for NX that works at home and on the go.