NX: Ubisoft believes it will “recapture a lot the lapsed Wii players”

NX. Two letters that Nintendo has been using as the (public) code name for its next dedicated gaming platform since March 2015. But since the first time those two letters were uttered, we have learned very little about the platform they refer to. A couple of games have been officially announced, such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Just Dance 2016 from Ubisoft.

With this announcement, Ubisoft was the very first (major) third-party publisher to announce a game for the NX platform. And it’s the only one: none of the other games showcased during the Ubisoft E3 2016 press conference were confirmed for Nintendo’s next dedicated gaming platform. Many have taken that as a sign that Nintendo wouldn’t try to cater to “core” games.

In a statement sent to MCV UK, Alain Corre (from Ubisoft EMEA) said the following:

And they are addressing the family market in a very different way, their own way, which we appreciate. We have done a lot of products and successes with Nintendo in the past, and we believe that the NX will recapture a lot the lapsed Wii players. So we will see when they release it, but we are confident.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t really say how Nintendo is planning to address the family market, and in fact, he probably doesn’t know much more than we do about Nintendo’s strategy. In other words: it certainly is premature to say that with the NX, Nintendo is going to cater exclusively to the family audience.

However, it is pretty clear and guaranteed that Nintendo will try to appeal to that demographic, and for several reasons:

• it has always been a strong market for Nintendo, even before the Wii and Nintendo DS booms
• most of Nintendo franchises already are pretty family-friendly, so it’s not surprising that the company would try to cater to the family audience
• in an extremely competitive market, trying to appeal to a wide range of people is a pretty sound strategy

Now, whether or not Nintendo will mostly focus on the family audience, or will instead try to also cater to “core” gamers is not something anyone can say right now (unless you happen to be one of the top-executives at Nintendo). And whether or not they will be successful is yet another beast.

Source: MCV