The Nintendo Wii U hasn't exactly been a smash hit for the Japanese game company, but Mario fans can rest easy: The next system is coming.
Nintendo's new president and CEO, Tatsumi Kimishima, gave a few intriguing details about the "NX," the company's next game console, in an interview with Time published Thursday.
"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," Kimishima told Time.
"Well, duh," you might think. But the Wii U, Nintendo's most recent home entertainment system, has languished under the original Wii's shadow. Its sales have been weak overall since it debuted in 2012 -- some say its too-similar name didn't help -- and many of the system's newest games are still compatible with the old, beige-ing Wii remotes you have lying around. Its hardware is also less powerful than the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One -- the latest offerings from rivals Sony and Microsoft -- which makes it seem outdated.
It wasn't until this summer that the Wii U hit 10 million units sold -- the younger PlayStation 4 is currently celebrating 30 million units sold. While Wii U sales have picked up in recent months, Nintendo has become increasingly reliant on strong performance from peripherals like Amiibo, little toy figures that unlock features in select video games.
In other words, "unique and different" may be exactly what Nintendo needs. It's also what the company has always been known for. While it was a flop, Nintendo's Virtual Boy was doing 3D gaming 20 years ago; Nintendo's "Rumble Pak" basically pioneered the concept of now ubiquitous controller vibration in 1997, the Nintendo DS banked on touchscreen gameplay long before smartphones were everywhere and, well, the list goes on.
Kimishima did give Time a glimpse into why the Wii U may not have innovated as much as consumers expected.
"If you look back to the beginning of our conversation today, we talked about the transition from Wii hardware to the Wii U hardware and how difficult it is to explain to the consumer base what is different and new about the new hardware. It’s difficult to convince them to switch from their current platform to the next platform," Kimishima said.
As for the NX's mysterious code name -- your guess is as good as his.
"I don’t believe that there’s any real meaning behind it, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t know where it came from," he said.
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