The Nintendo NX will be “unique and different” in comparison to predecessors the Wii and Wii U, Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima has said in a recent interview with Time. Instead, Kimishima says that Nintendo aims to “move away” from the Wii and Wii U to better appeal to their consumer base.
If you look back to the beginning of our conversation today, we talked about the transition from Wii hardware to the Wii U hardware and how difficult it is to explain to the consumer base what is different and new about the new hardware. It’s difficult to convince them to switch from their current platform to the next platform.
That being said, I can assure you we’re not building the next version of Wii or Wii U. It’s something unique and different. It’s something where we have to move away from those platforms in order to make it something that will appeal to our consumer base.
Nintendo have previously stated that they plan to properly reveal the console sometime next year, but there’s still no word on the release date. Also, if you’re wondering what the ‘NX’ stands for, you’d best ask someone else – Kimishima doesn’t even know himself where it came from:
As for the codename NX, I don’t believe that there’s any real meaning behind it, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t know where it came from. Or perhaps Mr. Iwata had meant to tell me and then never got the chance.