Nintendo president says upcoming NX console is not the successor to the Wii U

In an interview with Asahi Shimbun, Nintendo’s president Tatsumi Kimishima revealed that the upcoming NX game console is not intended to be the successor to the Wii U. Instead, the NX console appears to complement Nintendo’s existing products and will be sold alongside the Wii U and 3DS handheld device.

That may come as a surprise to some, because the Wii U hasn’t exactly been a success for Nintendo. First released in 2012, the Wii U introduced a novel GamePad controller with its own screen that could supplement the main display, but consumer adoption was slow and users ended up flocking to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One instead.

However, according to Kimishima, the new NX console will still be a home console, but will provide what he says is a new gaming experience. This could mean a more powerful console that could take on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in terms of specifications, or it might indicate another unique user interface in the vein of the Wii’s motion controller or the Wii U’s GamePad. There’s no way of knowing at this point, and Kimishima was expectedly sparse on the details.

The NX is still in development, and Nintendo is reportedly considering developer requests for new features. This would add new functions to the console, but would raise production costs, which is what holding Nintendo back as it wants to keep the console affordable.

At this point of time, any theories about what the NX console could be are pure speculation, and it could be anything ranging from a VR headset, a revamped Wii U with a new controller, to maybe just a juiced-up console that out muscles the PlayStation 4.

Source: Asahi Shimbun Digital via Tom’s Hardware

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