While the Big N is always thinking about new hardware, it's not ready to toss aside Wii U just yet.
Nintendo has no intention of releasing a successor to Wii U until the company has managed to push its tablet-centric console to its absolute limits.
According to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, the company is already investigating what its next console will be, but that doesn't mean gamers will be seeing it anytime soon. “Our mentality is, fairly soon after we launch new hardware, we already begin thinking about what’s next," he said in a recent Q&A. "That’s an ongoing process for us. In the end, what galvanizes us to move is when our developers have a great gaming experience that can’t be done on the current platform. We’re not there yet on the Wii U."
The Big N is still looking into new and innovative ways to make use of the GamePad, so don't expect the company to drop support for Wii U just yet. "The experiments that Shigeru Miyamoto showed at E3 show that there’s a lot of innovation to be mined with Wii U," Fils-Aime added. "We showed off the beginnings of a Zelda game coming to Wii U. We have a lot more content to create for the Wii U, but we’re always thinking about what’s coming next."
How many years do you think Wii U has left before Nintendo inevitably releases its successor? What would you like to see from Nintendo's next home console? Comment below and let us know.
Wii U will be around a while. They still need to go through the DS library and copy'n'paste the touch screen functionality from those games into "new and unique" experiences on Wii U.Except then people will complain about not having off tv play.
Not until it's maxed out, so the successor is coming out last year? The hardware was obsolete the day the PS4 was released and Nintendo initially seemed to give up on the touchscreen within the first year.Or you could try reading the article instead of regurgitating one of four things you say on these forums.
"The experiments that Shigeru Miyamoto showed at E3 show that there’s a lot of innovation to be mined with Wii U," Fils-Aime added. "We showed off the beginnings of a Zelda game coming to Wii U. We have a lot more content to create for the Wii U, but we’re always thinking about what’s coming next."He's talking about maxing out creatively, not hardware power. Jebus, man...
Not until it's maxed out, so the successor is coming out last year? The hardware was obsolete the day the PS4 was released and Nintendo initially seemed to give up on the touchscreen within the first year.Or you could try reading the article instead of regurgitating one of four things you say on these forums.Quote from: From the article"The experiments that Shigeru Miyamoto showed at E3 show that there’s a lot of innovation to be mined with Wii U," Fils-Aime added. "We showed off the beginnings of a Zelda game coming to Wii U. We have a lot more content to create for the Wii U, but we’re always thinking about what’s coming next."He's talking about maxing out creatively, not hardware power. Jebus, man...
Besides Nintendo ran out of ideas of the tablet years ago on the DS when they had to resort of poorly controlled Zelda games to "prove" the concept.
Considering the Wii U's technical potential was maxed-out when The Last of Us was released on PS3 last year; its sales potential will be maxed out when Smash Bros. releases; and it has no more 3rd party support and barely any 1st party support, this shouldn't take long. For better or worse, this is the Wii U's last major Christmas. Sure, it'll have Zelda in 2016 (and if you think it's coming out any sooner than that, you don't know Nintendo's incredibly inefficient Zelda development history very well), but this is the Wii U's last year of any relevance. We'll probably get teases of the new system next E3, with a formal announcement in 2016 with Zelda to send the Wii U off and Launch the new System.
I'd be pretty surprised if a successor wasn't launched November 2016.Although that would be the ideal timeframe, I just don't think Nintendo will be ready for that. With the struggles of HD development and the slow rate Nintendo have been trickling out titles for the Wii U, I just don't see them able to have top-quality games ready for a 2016 system launch. In order to spring back from irrelevance, they need to have at least two great games available at launch, as well as actually launching fully-realised hardware instead of the half-finished mess that was the Wii U and 3DS. They can't afford anything less.
I think it'd make more sense to release the Wii V in 2016 and hold off on the 3DS successor until 2017.
Although that would be the ideal timeframe, I just don't think Nintendo will be ready for that. With the struggles of HD development and the slow rate Nintendo have been trickling out titles for the Wii U, I just don't see them able to have top-quality games ready for a 2016 system launch. In order to spring back from irrelevance, they need to have at least two great games available at launch, as well as actually launching fully-realised hardware instead of the half-finished mess that was the Wii U and 3DS. They can't afford anything less.It depends on how Nintendo reacted internally to Wii U's slow start. It obviously didn't panic and drop Wii U. However, the hardware division easily could have been instructed to get its ass in gear and prepare for a late 2016 launch. On the software side, while Nintendo decided to stay the course and finish up existing products, what to do after those projects are finished is the key to determining how soon we see a successor. The teams may be working on titles for Wii U's successor, or they may have splintered afterwards, with part of the team working on Wii U's successor and part working on Wii U titles. That may put Miyamoto's comment about spin-offs into perspective. For example, something like Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is using a ton of existing assets and likely doesn't require the entire Super Mario 3D World team. The Mario Kart team is working on Mario Kart 8 DLC which again, likely doesn't require the entire team. What has Retro Studios been doing since February? I think it can get a game out in two and a half/three years.
