Is Nintendo’s NX Going Into Production This Fall?
Earlier in the week, Nintendo of Japan held a shareholder’s meeting where they addressed concerns the public has been having lately about their performance in the video game market. They acknowledged response to the games they showed was not overly positive, and reaction to some titles (Federation Force) was downright negative. In response they admitted they only showed titles in their library that were close to finished, because they felt showing a demo for something the public couldn’t buy for years (like Sony and Microsoft do every E3) wasn’t a good strategy. But one wonders if they didn’t pull the curtain down for 2016 because something else is scheduled for that year. Something…..NX-y?
Now comes word from the Taiwanese news website Digitimes that Nintendo may be making plans for the Chinese sweatshop Foxconn to start producing NX machines as early as this October. According to the site, orders would be finalized in February or March of 2016 and the plant would shift to full production by June, all pointing to a fall or even summer 2016 release.
This should be taken with a little salt. Digitimes provides no concrete proof or word from Nintendo this is happening. And while they’ve been correct about reports of console manufacturing behind closed doors before, they’ve also been simultaneously wrong — they predicted Foxconn was about to mass-produce PS4s in 2011, and the machines turned out to be Wii Us. Close but no cigar.
A holiday 2016 launch for the NX would make sense, given that it would be exactly five years since the Wii U hit the market, and Nintendo’s the only console maker that still sticks to the half-decade schedule. However, that timetable doesn’t provide much time to put together a lineup of killer software. Or does it? Iwata’s language in the meeting implies they’re hiding some big cards. We’ll see….