Nintendo’s commitment to remain vague on its Wii U successor has proved to have the opposite effect – or has it?! – in that the entire industry has one ear pressed to the ground in the hope of learning more about the mysterious Nintendo NX. Its absence at E3 a few weeks ago was to be expected, but now a report has surfaced by Digitimes that claims the nebulous hardware is primed to be produced in October, paving the way for a worldwide release in June 0f 2016.
The outlet claims that a major Taiwanese manufacturer has been given the go-ahead to begin “pilot production” of the new system later this year, and that orders and design tweaks are to be finalized by March 2016. While unconfirmed, it’s a timeline that aligns with the fiscal year, opening up an opportune window for Nintendo to make a good first impression for investors and stock holders.
[zerggaming]Truth be told, two of The Big N’s more recent devices – namely the Wii U and 3DS – had relatively sluggish starts, hamstrung by a lack of first and indeed third-party software. A piece of hardware is only as good as its games, after all. In a recent Q&A (via Nintendo Life), Satoru Iwata touched upon these less-than-stellar debuts.
For Wii U in particular, it cannot be said that it had a successful launch. As for Nintendo 3DS, in Japan there was a temporary slowdown but we managed to make a recovery by offering a number of initiatives collectively. On the other hand, Wii U has not been able to recover at this point in time. Because of this, the size of the installed base compared to the Nintendo DS or Wii eras appears not to be as solid and this is reflected in the company’s profitability. But taking a look back, it was not the case that Nintendo DS sold with huge momentum from the beginning.
Looking further afield, Iwata went on to touch upon the Nintendo NX briefly, and while the esteemed developer didn’t reveal anything new, it’s heartening to see the company acknowledge past shortcomings.
I will not share details on NX today but with regard to the launch of Nintendo 3DS and Wii U not necessarily having progressed well and not acquiring sufficient support from software publishers, we intend to offer NX through a Nintendo-like solution. Thank you for understanding that we are making various considerations and preparations in order to avoid what happened with the previous generations.
What do you think, though? Will the Nintendo NX arrive in the summer of 2016? Or do you foresee The Big N holding its new hardware until a later date.