I created a topic about this once, but I didn't get many bites. I used the term convergence, but I don't mean a "media hub." I mean a portable/console hybrid. Here was my argument:I am proposing Five Points why I believe the future of Nintendo hardware is a convergence device.By this, I mean a device that is both the handheld and the console. A single hardware platform. One with greater DD presence, more third-party support, and more first-party support.I don’t know if this will come in the form of a giant controller with a screen that beams magic rays to the TV. I don’t know if it will be a clamshell that folds up and then syncs with separate controllers. But I believe it’s coming for these reasons:Look at a 3DS XL. Now look at a Wii U GamePad. The two look to serve nearly-identical purposes. People now look at the Wii U Pad and assume you can pick it up and take it outside to play. Someone just posted a Forbes article complaining about this. It’s only a natural evolution for one to become the controller, or even the console itself.People have been asking to use the DS as a controller since it came out. Nintendo is very much into connectivity and has countless R&D experiments on how to make this work. As the inputs become the same on both the console and handheld sides, the reasons for both to exist as separate entities decreases by one.By deemphasizing power, the differences further shrink between handheld and console. Nintendo's strategy is no longer to have a powerhouse console, so then what's the point of having one? 3DS can run MT Framework. Can Wii U run UE4? Mario 3D Land is a full 3D Mario platformer. On handheld.Bad news if you want 4K resolution titles from Nintendo anytime soon. But a fully DD system with the combined userbase of Nintendo’s handhelds and consoles may finally offer legitimacy to the strategy of attracting smaller and mid-tier development houses.While completely ignoring other aspects of online, Nintendo is pushing hard for every one of their first-party games to become fully downloadable. By eliminating physical media and converging its platforms, Nintendo will allow you to take your titles with you wherever you go. Handheld or at home. Finally fulfilling the promise of starting a game and taking it with you on the road.It’s also clear that with the 3DS VC, Nintendo already sees the value in the user being able to take classic titles with them. But Nintendo may meet some resistance when it comes to rebuying titles. They’ve stumbled over this before, and they’ve received criticism with the time it takes to bring titles to the VC. By only having to ready VC titles for a single platform, they can increase their output as well as diversify the amount of unique ConvergenceWare titles and various VC platforms.Japan is dominated by handhelds. This is obvious. On the contrary, 3DS sales did not pick up in the West the same way they did in Japan. Why create consoles for a market that won’t buy consoles? And vice versa for handhelds?With more and more third-parties committing massive resources toward portable titles, including mainline entries into series like Dragon Quest, handhelds seem to be a sure way for Nintendo to reach its holy grail of third-party support. And that can help Nintendo’s console third-party support if they converge into a single device. Suddenly, their portable support becomes their console support.Solidifying a “handheld” as its primary console, Nintendo can also follow their primary strategy of focusing on their domestic Japanese market.It’s becoming more and more clear that Nintendo cannot support its own hardware platforms. As budgets and development team sizes increase, it’s only going to get harder.With convergence, no longer will Nintendo have to simultaneously develop two New Super Mario Bros. to spur growth on two distinct platforms. They can spend all their resources on a single New Super Mario Bros, and then offer a separate proposition for a different consumer. Maybe this means a new Nintendogs, a new StarFox, or a new IP.What it will mean is that the full force of Nintendo’s internal studios will be able to back a single platform, and the dream of a system with zero first-party droughts becomes a little more realistic. And creatively, we may seem more experimentation as teams are not forced to crank out franchise games at twice the pace (one for handheld; one for console).Now, I’m no tech genius (in before “obviously”, but with the advantages the convergence strategy brings, I have to believe that Nintendo is deep in R&D and seriously preparing this.Also, it completely nullifies the Apple and iOS questions. Nintendo has both exited the handheld space and made its handheld more desirable than ever with twice the first-party content. The handheld is the console. It fits with Nintendo’s risky portfolio of hardware paradigm shifts, and it’d be a true revolution.