When companies make announcements during financial statements, it isn’t usually good news. This morning, Nintendo dropped a lot more news than they are usually prone to in their financial statements, and they’re not bucking the trend.
The company announced that their upcoming console, codenamed NX, will be launching globally in March 2017, but that the console won’t be playable at E3 2016 in June, nor will it be at the show altogether.
The next generation of #Nintendo is coming March 2017! #NX pic.twitter.com/u4KFIRJedw
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) April 27, 2016
This is in stark contrast to the Wii U’s unveiling, whereby Nintendo announced the console and let consumers get their hands on it the very same day at E3 2011. At that time, the console still had a year and a half before it would hit shelves. This time around, however, the company is planning to release the console in less than a year without having shown it to the public.
It’s a tactic that worked for Sony and Microsoft, both announcing and releasing the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, respectively, within nine months of their unveiling. However, both platforms had the benefit of being playable at E3 that year, not to mention making the rounds at Gamescom, Paris Games Week, Tokyo Games Show, and various other conventions throughout the year.
With the console coming to market in 2017, one can only hope that Nintendo has some really unique plans for how they’re going to message it to the world. The company has been known to do things a little differently, and while they haven’t been without their missteps, they are still the same company that brought us Mario, Zelda, and Pokémon, the creators of which are all still working for big-N.
Stay tuned as we bring you all the NX news from E3 2016 … oh, wait. Yeah, sorry about that.