Nintendo: NX not merely a Wii U/3DS successor, NX in March to have games ready, more
Today, Nintendo announced that its mysterious NX platform would release in March 2017. This is definitely later than most people were expecting, and there’s a good reason: Nintendo wants to make sure the NX has enough games for launch. Skipping the holiday season is not a decision that was made lightly, from the looks of it.
When Nikkei asked him what the NX platform would be like, Tatsumi Kimishima didn’t say anything concrete. Instead, he reiterated that it would not be a mere successor to the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS (something he already said in the past):
However, it’s not merely the successor to the handheld 3DS or stationary console Wii U. This will be hardware that’s been made with a new way of thinking. I’d like to announce more particulars regarding its specs and how it works another time this year.”
Of course, this means that whatever the NX platforms is, it will not be a continuation of the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, not that it’s a hybrid system. Basically, the next handheld and console will not be called the Nintendo 4DS or Wii U 2 for example. Whether the handhelds keeps two screens remains to be seen.
Also, when asked if it was likely that the production of Wii U would end, Kimishima replied that Nintendo could keep going until at least March 31st, 2018. Of course, such a scenario is extremely unlikely: Nintendo plans to ship only 800 000 worldwide for the full fiscal year after all. In other words, Nikkei’s previous reports that production would end this year seem to be spot on.
At least, we know that production has been considerably slowed down, and the shortages in the past couple of months in Japan are proof of that.
