Nintendo Looks to the Future While Trying to Fix the Present

No one can deny that the Wii U is doing poorly. The PlayStation 4 has already outsold the Wii U, despite Nintendo’s console releasing a year earlier than Sony’s. And the Xbox One is not far behind. Despite the Wii U’s trouble, however, it seems that Nintendo is looking to the future. 

Nintendo is already looking to the future

According to Satoru Iwata, Nintendo is already preparing its next system. He stated that Nintendo already knows to some extent the direction that this system would take. During the firm’s financial results briefing, Iwata revealed that Nintendo had been working on new hardware since the release of the Wii U.

When asked by an investor when Nintendo planned on launching its next system, Iwata stated: 

“Once we launch a new platform, we naturally start to prepare for the next one…as it takes several years to develop a single platform, if you ask us whether we are preparing for our next system, then the correct response will be that we are always developing new hardware.”

He continued:

“On the other hand, the most difficult question for us to answer in public in concrete terms is when we are going to launch our new hardware and what kind of hardware we are going to launch, and I am afraid that I cannot talk about this in more detail. However, I can certainly assure you that we are not at a dead end of any kind in which we are out of ideas for developing new hardware.”

Not giving up on the Wii U just yet

Even though Nintendo does have ideas for new hardware, they do not want to abandon the Wii U just yet. Iwata stated that the company will not drop the Wii U until consumers are “satisfied” with the console:

“I of course believe that launching new hardware will not produce good results unless we first make sure that those who have already purchased our platforms are satisfied…We will continue to work hard to ensure that consumers who already own our platforms are satisfied, and make sure that people will continue to see great value in our software, but I would like to say that we are preparing for our next hardware system, and in fact, we already have a clear idea to some extent about the direction our next hardware is going to take.”

“I of course believe that launching new hardware will not produce good results unless we first make sure that those who have already purchased our platforms are satisfied”

Of course, we won’t see any new systems from Nintendo any time soon. The company has already confirmed that they won’t show any new hardware at E3 this year. Hopefully Nintendo will bring it in terms of software.

It does not surprise me that Nintendo is starting to develop new hardware.

It will likely take Nintendo a few years to start getting something solid for a new console, so for them it is better sooner than later. As it is Nintendo, I am sure they will come up with some kind of innovative technology. Whether or not that technology catches on will be the big question.

As for them continuing to support the Wii U, it seems that Nintendo is willing to step up their game. They have exclusives coming that people want to play (Mario Kart, Bayonetta 2, Smash Bros., Zelda), and are invading Skylander territory with their own figurine line. If these don’t work though, I can see Nintendo having to cut their losses and having to drop the Wii U. People want to like the Wii U. Nintendo needs to give us a reason to love it though. Otherwise, we will probably be seeing a new console, if Nintendo wants to once again risk going into the home console market.