Nintendo NX: Everything we know about Nintendo’s new mystery console


The path to the NeXt Nintendo system

E3 2016 came, and as expected we heard nothing about the Nintendo NX – the company’s next console, which will arrive next year.

However, with Sony having confirmed the existence of the PS4 Neo just before E3, and Microsoft announcing its next big console Project Scorpio, the NX is set to face some stiff competition from its rivals.

Nintendo hasn’t revealed much about the Nintendo NX, but thanks to a recent earnings call we finally have a release date for Nintendo’s next console, and it’s happening in March 2017.

The company has hinted at a dramatically different system in the NX, but has kept tight-lipped on what shape the console will take. Will there be a portable element like the rumors suggest? Will there be a fitness tie-in? It’s all to play for.

What we do know is that Nintendo might have its eye set on making the NX the company’s first VR console. In a shareholders meeting the company admitted it was “researching” VR technology, according to someone who was present.

Twitter’s NStyles attended the meeting in Kyoto and claims Nintendo’s Shigeru Minamoto said Nintendo was researching VR but has concerns about users playing for long periods of time.

He also added that Nintendo wants to release a device that carries value, is affordable, and wants parents to “feel at ease”. Typical Nintendo to care about our eye health while the rest of the market charges forward haphazardly.

What we know so far:

The Nintendo NX will be unlike any console the company has on the market, according to new Nintendo President Tatsumi Kmishima. In one of his first major public interviews since transitioning to President of Nintendo, Kimishima opened up about the Nintendo NX to Time’s Matt Peckham.

“As far as NX goes, I’ve said it’s different and obviously a new experience,” Kimishima said. “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.”

There’s good reason for the expediency: while Sony (and to a lesser extent, Microsoft) can potentially match their earlier successes with their latest batch of consoles, the Wii U will almost definitely go down in history as Nintendo’s worst-selling console.

Just how dire is Nintendo’s need to jump ship on the Wii U? It’s currently sitting at around 10 million units sold, and even a new Legend of Zelda game won’t likely double system sales to the point where it can match the GameCube’s near 22-million sales mark, let alone the Wii’s 100 million unit high-bar.

The path to the NeXt Nintendo system

Nintendo NX

Nintendo’s greatest successes were due to the company taking its biggest risks. Its top-selling portable was the Nintendo DS, a portable console with a second, touch-enabled screen that many scoffed at before it revolutionized handheld gaming.

Likewise, the original Wii far outpaced every previous TV-tethered system, and it did so by treading its own path, eschewing the standard controls with a revolutionary motion-controlled setup that some competitors are still attempting to mimic.

If Nintendo wants to see the NX succeed it’ll need to etch these lessons into memory. Should it follow in the footsteps of the 3DS or Wii U, however, all hope may be lost.

The Nintendo 3DS originally stumbled, and Wii U has outright failed is truly differentiating themselves from their direct predecessors. Both assumed that the previous generation’s record-breaking install base wanted more of the same, so they both came with extensive backwards compatibility and names that recalled the previous generation.

The 3DS only broke out of its funk after drastically dropping its price while also debuting a new Zelda and 3D Mario game. The same might be in-store for the Wii U, though the reveal of the NX means its clock is ticking.

Nintendo NX

How will the NX be different?

For the NX, a new control method is in the works after the Wii U’s controller/touch-screen hybrid failed to inspire widespread developer support.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata even said as much when first announcing the console, saying it will incorporate a “brand-new concept.” When you take into account the other major change Nintendo revealed during that same event (a commitment to develop smartphone games), Nintendo’s 25-year-old dual-pronged strategy of leaning on both a portable and home console could come to a close this decade. Even though the 3DS is currently Nintendo’s saving grace, developing a games-only portable device is becoming more and more of a risk in this day and age.

Ever since the release of the GameCube Nintendo has consistently had the least-powerful system on the market. Given how much stock Sony and Microsoft put into creating cutting-edge tech, that’s not likely to change. They’ve done touchscreens, they’ve done motion-controls … heck, Nintendo was doing VR two decades ago, so what’s the next possible realm to tackle?

With the NX, it’s possible Nintendo could create a console-portable hybrid. The Wii U dipped its toe in letting users take their games on the go by letting them play on a Gamepad as long as they were in proximity to a Wii U console. But if Nintendo creates an Xbox One/PS4-level system that you can take on the go, then you’re playing with power.

What does the NX need to succeed?

Nintendo NX

If I had to pick one thing? Better launch games.

The Nintendo DS was the rare exception to the rule that successful Nintendo consoles debut with an all-new Mario or Zelda game (remakes and 2D Mario retreads don’t count). Nintendo was smart to hedge its bets and shift development of Twilight Princess to both its old and new hardware, and it could do the same with the NX to maximize exposure of the next Zelda game.

Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy were amongst the highest-profile releases for their respective Nintendo consoles, and there’s no surer bet to launch a Nintendo console alongside than an all-new Mario game. If a game with a name “Super Mario Universe” debuted the same day as a new Nintendo console, the hordes of lapsed Nintendo fans could likely return to the fold.

Nintendo NX

However, Wii Sports and Wii Fit proved that Nintendo doesn’t need to (and perhaps shouldn’t) lean on a new IP to become a smash hit if new tech is impressive enough. If Nintendo creates a console-portable hybrid and can come up with a simple concept that encourages players to both take the tech on the go and tether it to a TV, a good pack-in game can offer proof to the casual crowd, while the launch day Mario or Zelda game will capture the hardcore.

Nintendo NX price will be a major factor

In addition to their unclear identities and unexciting launch slates, high initial price tags were the biggest roadblock for Nintendo’s most recent portable and home consoles.

For the NX to succeed at launch, it needs to be the cheapest video game hardware on the market, and by a large margin. Whether it’s due to creating the next control innovation or breaking tradition by selling hardware at a loss, you can rest assured Nintendo won’t bungle launch pricing for a third consecutive console.

Nintendo’s previous generation of consoles, the DS and Wii, gained traction by launching at $150 and $250 (£99.99 and £179.99) respectively, so whether it’s focused on dominating your living room or your public transportation commute, Nintendo knows where the sweet spot lays for pricing its consoles.

When will we see it?

Given Nintendo’s history of teasing, revealing and releasing consoles, a holiday 2016 release for the Nintendo NX is likely. Just look at Nintendo’s track record.

The Wii U was first teased ahead of E3 2011 and debuted in 2012. The 3DS was first announced in early 2010, a year before it came out. The DS was teased in 2003 and revealed in 2004. The Wii is the rare exception because it was teased at E3 2004, shown for the first time a year later, and released over a year after that.

Nintendo NX

We’re hoping for a big reveal just before E3 in June this year, but a massive announcement event at the world’s biggest games show wouldn’t be a bad thing either. Desperate times call for desperate measures, after all.

The continually-shrinking portable landscape has led to Nintendo’s first major third-party game development, and the Wii U’s poor sales performance has likely sped up the NX’s timeline.

The Wii U’s lifespan can’t extend another two years with the severe lack of third-party support, so it’s not unreasonable to expect this system’s lifespan to be cut off at four years. If anything, a 2016 release may finally move Nintendo out of the way of the PlayStation 5 and Next Xbox releases, truly differentiating Nintendo from the masses. And if we’ve learned anything, Nintendo does best when it separates from the pack.

Source: techradar.com

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25 Comments
  1. Reply Retta Lebsack Jr. June 30, 2016 at 6:37 pm

    More power doesn't matter when your entire system is hobbled by a bottle neck upfront, such as the gamecube was in Nintendo's trifling decision to go with those tiny storage capacity micro discs.

  2. Reply Ms. Dianna Halvorson PhD June 30, 2016 at 7:01 pm

    Actually it is a Celeron and not a Pentium III. You see what separated them was the L2 cache. Pentium III's had at least 256KB of L2 cache and Celerons of that time had 128KB of L2 cache. The CPU in the original Xbox had 128KB of L2 cache which makes it a Celeron.

  3. Reply Prof. Verner Robel IV June 30, 2016 at 7:02 pm

    They better not mess up a Smash Bros release again controller wise.

  4. Reply Adolfo Connelly II June 30, 2016 at 8:03 pm

    > Even though the 3DS is currently Nintendo's saving grace, developing a
    games-only portable device is becoming more and more of a risk in this
    day and age.

    Wat no please god no. Pokemon Go is crap; I won't survive without Nintendo's handhelds, which I've been buying since the Game Boy Color. I don't want this world to become one where the only nintendo handheld games are on smartphones >.<

  5. Reply Louie Brekke June 30, 2016 at 9:45 pm

    Will people quit asking this Patcher guy what he thinks. Its as if he is always the one asked about things with companies etc and he has not been on the money but only a couple times. See….Im in love with the NX and even love the Wii U. I play video games and having a system that does just that, plays games and puts them first is what I want.

    These days, we already have this device, that device, etc that can do this or that and do not need yet another one. If I want to play a game, I do not care about Netflix, Hulu, this or that, but only care about playing a game. The Wii U knows what it is exactly and does that well. The others out there, well, they are more the kitchen sink approach to media, social features etc and games an afterthought

  6. Reply Rusty Skiles Jr. June 30, 2016 at 10:11 pm

    whats it like to have shit station 2 with blurry graphics ? u mad cuz xbox is superior and had doom 3 ? lmao ,ps2 could barely manage timesplitters 2

  7. Reply Mr. Jordan Macejkovic June 30, 2016 at 10:12 pm

    The Xbox launched a couple months after GCN. PS2 was almost 2 years earlier and DC was 3 years earlier. If you could say any was out of cycle it was DC, but it wasnt that much earlier than PS2. So you could compare PS2 v DC and GCN v Xbox. Thats it.

  8. Reply Antonina Oberbrunner II July 1, 2016 at 12:02 am

    If you had done any research, you would know that the Wii U is NOT Nintendo's worst selling console. The VBA was.

  9. Reply Gust Murray July 1, 2016 at 12:33 am

    Why is this guy even being quoted here?

    I've no idea what that thing is going to be.

    That's it. End quote. He should have been cut off there. If he has no idea what it's going to be, everything that follows is just pulling stuff out of his ass. I'm not saying I know any better, but I sure wouldn't go around making definitive statements about what will happen fabricated from whole cloth.

  10. Reply Mr. Clint Zboncak July 1, 2016 at 2:00 am

    Nintendo NX is doing the same hardware power as PS4 and Xbox One and Nintendo is still staying in the last generation of hardware power of last gen consoles like they did with the Wii and Wii U that will put them in the same boat again that made it hard for third party developers to make games for those two consoles ( Wii and Wii U ) that might be a bad choice because the more powerful PS5 and Next Xbox is around the corner and they are sticking with game controllers at launch instead of a game pad plus the other stuff could be optional which it make third party developers easy to make games for those consoles the other stuff like touch screen game pad could be optional for other games but the main thing are the games for sure and game controllers where everyone is use to and game developers could easily make games for the consoles I think Nintendo should pass the PS4 and Xbox One hardware power and go further up to were the new PS5 and Next Xbox consoles hardware will be and if they want to use a game pad let it hook up to a game controller or just have a touch screen game pad and a game controller with a more powerful next gen ( PS5 and Next Xbox hardware level or better ) console at launch.

  11. Reply Mr. Mortimer Berge Jr. July 1, 2016 at 2:01 am

    "the Wii U will almost definitely go down in history as Nintendo's worst-selling console."

    You're joking right? Have you forgotten about the Virtual Boy?

  12. Reply Miss Alexandria Hudson DDS July 1, 2016 at 2:35 am

    With 4 consoles that generation though, you couldnt really compare DC to Xbox or GCN, both came 3 years after it, DC was really the in-between generation launch, but the PS2 only came a little over a year later.

  13. Reply Linnie Gleichner July 1, 2016 at 2:45 am

    Hope they release the Nintendo NX on March 23 2017. Because that's my Birthday.

  14. Reply Tyrell West July 1, 2016 at 4:18 am

    What a dumb move smh Nintendo never learns

  15. Reply Ramiro Muller July 1, 2016 at 6:15 am

    I'm still using my Wii. I like the controller for more realistic swinging. Any updates on better Wii golf games. Guessing VR golf is coming. Yes I'm a dinosaur…

  16. Reply Mr. Jaleel Upton IV July 1, 2016 at 6:21 am

    "How will the NX be different"

    And to me, this is EXACTLY the wrong question to ask. The question everyone should be asking is how will the NX be the same as their competition? Parity is GOOD in the console market. Lack of standardization is why there were no quality 3rd party ports on Wii U, nor novel development projects by third parties. And it's a damn shame because wii u offered tools that no one else had. But lacking in power and being made of proprietary crap with expensive, time consuming languages to learn killed them right out of the gate.

    That all coveted immersion effect is not a product of novel hardware like waggly controllers or dork helmets or touch screens. It's a product of good software design. Nintendo sacrificed raw power for controller novelty in the wii u and look what it did! Likewise, both MS and Sony are making this same mistake with VR. A bunch of hype train children will buy them upfront and pee themselves on youtube vomiting about how "It's teh few tours uf GAMEZES!"

    Three months later they'll be in the same pile as the wii waggly controller, the Nintendo Virtual Boy, the Kinect, Playstation Move, and the power glove. I've given you examples of this SAME MISTAKE going all the way back to the 80s. Novel hardware does NOT mean anything if the core computer lacks processing power to enable novel software design, as is almost a guarantee in the console market where price point is a very set thing.

    And until all of these people learn that, the console market is dead in the water as it has been for the last half decade. Failure to learn from the past has doomed you to carbon copy shooters, on rails zelda games, hallways style "level design" (If you can even call it "design" at this point, not sure "a line" actually qualifies.), and and empty wallet who's contents was exchanged for gizmos that began collecting dust very shortly after they were purchased.

    Figure it out people.

  17. Reply Dr. Shaun Lang July 1, 2016 at 6:52 am

    If Xbox was out of cycle, then so was the Gamecube as they launched within days of each other in the US, and within a month or two for Japan and Europe.

  18. Reply Dr. Jaylon Hudson IV July 1, 2016 at 6:55 am

    I'm still in the camp that believes the Wii U's main failing point was its name. I can't count on my fingers the amount of parents I've come across who thought it was either an add-on for the Wii or just an upgraded one. And that's really a shame, because I actually want a Wii U, and I planned on picking one up this year, but why bother? If the NX is coming out I have no reason to, most likely.

  19. Reply Koby Marks Sr. July 1, 2016 at 7:04 am

    If you wanted powerful gaming systems, get off your lazy asses and build a gaming computer

  20. Reply Geoffrey Pacocha July 1, 2016 at 7:08 am

    So true, the solid state cartridge consoles are still going strong, no delicate moving parts to fail. Back then people bought things to last, things like RRoD would've destroyed a company back then, now people defend greedy corporations as if they're a friend xD

  21. Reply Gail Torphy III July 1, 2016 at 7:15 am

    As long as multiplayer (3+ players) in Mario Kart doesn't look shit I'll buy this

  22. Reply Arvel Dietrich July 1, 2016 at 7:36 am

    these comments are insane

  23. Reply Lexi Predovic July 1, 2016 at 7:45 am

    The virtual boy is a handheld.

  24. Reply Dr. Loren Wyman July 1, 2016 at 8:37 am

    Finally a date and a release title (despite being able to buy the new Zelda title for the Wii U on the same release day). Once some firm details on spec and support from 3rd parties is announced then I may be swayed.

  25. Reply Candelario Mayer July 1, 2016 at 8:43 am

    I'm a Wii owner, is it worth buying a Wii U purely for the release of 'Zelda: Breath of the Wild', when it's possible that not long after, Nintendo won't release many more "exciting" games post-release of the NX? Should I just wait for the NX?
    (BIG Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask/Twilight Princess fan)

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