Is Nintendo Researching VR For A Handheld Or The NX Console?

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You have "Nintendo's line of handheld gaming devices has also historically been the company's strongest position in the market, often with sales figures more than 40 million units above the company's home console products for the same period." two times in a row.

It'd certainly be nice if the NX did release before the end of this year; possible, but unlikely. Yet Christmas time is always a great time to launch a new console, though the real question is if they will have actual games ready or not upon release. I think the upcoming Zelda game is also going to be released for the NX, so that alone can be used to narrow down what the NX can do.
 
Weird, that must have been some sort of odd technical glitch. Thanks for pointing that out, I will fix it.

Yes Nintendo itself stated Q1 2017, but if they want to make it on this fiscal year, they can't really launch it in March and have it make a significant impact before March 31st. As Christmas is such a major shopping holiday, I wouldn't be surprised to see them push it out early if possible. You are right, the new Zelda has the same time period. Nintendo might even be planning it as a launch title come to think of it. Hard to say for sure though, though also might just push forward with a handful of games ported from the Wii U. They are keeping so much secret, that it is impossible to tell.
 

Merry_Blind

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Nintendo have already stated that Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be released on Wii U and NX on the same day, and that it would also launch alongside NX on its launch day. They are targeting March 2017 for the release. They were probably aiming for Holiday 2016, but couldn't quite make it, and they can't afford to wait until Holiday 2017 since the Wii U is pretty much dead already, so might as well release it whenever it's ready. They just need to make a massive marketing impact with it though, which is something Nintendo often struggle with...

We'll see! Can't wait!
 


I won't mind if Nintendo even waits until Q3 or Q4 of 2017 honestly as long as they actually have a good amount of first-party games upon release. When the Wii U came out, there was one game, New Super Mario Bros U, that was first-party. There was also Nintendo-land, but nothing big, really. Pikmin 3 was supposed to be a launch title but was delayed until March. It took Super Smash Bros a good while to come out. Mario Kart, too, did not come out for quite a while. They didn't get games out fast enough, and they did a poor job of marketing the console, by making its commercials targeting strictly 4-year-olds. The Gamecube, not that it sold well, had better commercials, and everybody remembers the "Wii would like to play" commercials back in 2007. The Wii sold very well, and was marketed for all ages, not just little kids.

Nintendo can't just release another console and have one first-party game. As huge of a game Zelda is, that can't be the only popular game upon release. We can't expect a Smash Bros, history shows that to come out generally one year after the release of the console. Rumor has it we may be seeing a Super Mario Galaxy 3. There is always one solid Mario game upon release: N64 had Mario 64, GCN had Luigi's Mansion (followed by Mario Sunshine a year later), Wii had... actually, the Wii did not have a first-party title upon release, but it did come with Wii Sports, which is, I think, the best-selling game ever (since it was bundled). Wii U had New Super Mario Bros U. We won't be seeing any of those anymore since Mario Maker is out.

I don't know what the NX will bring as launch titles, but I just hope it has more than just Zelda and other random games.
 


Funny point, but it would technically be something in between. I'm calling it a handheld, because if they go this route it would be the successor in the handheld line. It would probably involve some sort of HMD and a controller or gamepad or something of that sort.
 

hixbot

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I think Nintendo would be smart to see if VR actually takes off commercially. Good chance it will flop if the technology isn't perfect and developers don't figure out how to make it fun and comfortable without compromises. If I were a console maker, I'd wait to see if the HMD trend becomes a huge success*. Sony is in a position to take the risk, but Nintendo can't afford to make more mistakes.

*Huge success does not only mean the hardware makes profit. It must continue to sell games, and universally enjoyed by consumers for more than the initial, honeymoon phase. It needs to be adopted by developers as the medium of choice.

Ie. the Kinect 360 made a ton of money and it sold extremely well initially and made a ton of money but was wrongly assumed to be a huge success. Yes, millions bought it, but it did not take off due to lack of quality content and general disappointment.
 

bettsar

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Why does everyone seem to think the NX is a new console? Nintendo has said that the NX will not replace the Wii U, and hardware-wise, they are due for a new handheld system. It seems pretty clear to me which direction they are going.
 


Because Nintendo exclusively refers to it as the "NX console."
 
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