Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has confirmed that the company’s next piece of gaming hardware is currently in the works – while also outlining its move into the mobile games space.
At the briefing, held in partnership with DeNA, Iwata announced that Nintendo will be teaming up with the Japanese mobile gaming company to develop titles specifically for smart devices, along with a new multi-platform online membership service. While its most popular IPs are all set to receive their own mobile games in due course, the company won’t be porting over existing titles.
At the same time, Iwata sought to reassure existing customers that the company hasn’t lost its “passion or vision” for the console market, confirming the development of a new “dedicated gaming system”.
He said: “As proof that Nintendo maintains strong enthusiasm for the dedicated game system business, let me confirm that Nintendo is currently developing a dedicated game platform with a brand new concept under the development codename ‘NX’. It is too early to elaborate on the details of this project, but we hope to share more information with you next year.”
While 3DS sales are strong, Nintendo has struggled with its dedicated home console, the Wii U. Released in 2012, the console has only shifted around 10 million units worldwide to date. Comparing this to the PlayStation 4, which has reached 20 million in nearly half the time, and considering that the 3DS is still attracting a healthy market share, it wouldn’t be surprising if the NX turned out to be a new home console.
“Of course, the challenge of asking our consumers to purchase dedicated video game hardware has become harder now that smart devices have widely spread,” Iwata stated. “However, we recognise that our business model of producing both video game hardware and software is effective even today, and we do not share this pessimistic view of the future for dedicated video game systems.”
That’s all we know so far, and it seems like that’s all we’ll know until next year when the console is likely to be revealed.
What form should Nintendo’s new console take? What do you make of their move into the mobile games space; a market that Iwata has previously been highly critical of? Share your thoughts in the comments below.