Various rumours of a new Nintendo project have been doing the rounds recently. Let’s deal with some interesting ‘news’ from website Nintendo News. These guys have had their finger on the Nintendo pulse over the years and claim to have been given an inside tip on some new Nintendo hardware codenamed Fusion. They even claim, albeit whilst maintaining a level of journalistic scepticism, to have been given the tech specs for this new Next Gen Nintendo hardware. It would appear that the proposed hardware will be split over a new console and new DS, see below:
Now, as Nintendo News points out some of these code-names are seriously suspicious and may smack of a hoax, but there is yet more interesting stuff coming from an official Nintendo source.
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has been intimating that the company is seriously considering a change of business plan. This comes in the light of the financial report that has seen the projected earnings slashed from an expected net profit of ¥55 billion for the year, to a net loss of ¥25 billion, dropping around ¥80 billion or £465 million. This comes after a poor Christmas period for both the DS and WiiU platforms. It now seems highly likely that Nintendo may kill-off the WiiU before the machine has really had a chance. The lack of third-party support and the disastrous marketing decision surrounding the machines confusing name has meant many casual gamers simply have seen the WiiU as nothing more than a Wii, which they already own. This is in spite of some excellent first-party titles now being available on the console.
Speculation is rife as to the Japanese gaming giants next move. Some say that they will end production of home consoles and go the Sega route of becoming a publisher. Others, as we have seen above are claiming that the big N is already working to fix its WiiU issue with a new console which could fight on a level playing field with Xbox One and PS4.
One thing is for sure Nintendo are already exploring the possibility of mobile gaming. “We are thinking about a new business structure,” Iwata said “Given the expansion of smart devices, we are naturally studying how smart devices can be used to grow the game-player business. It’s not as simple as enabling Mario to move on a smartphone.” He added. “We cannot continue a business without winning. We must take a sceptical approach whether we can still simply make game players, offer them in the same way as in the past for 20,000 yen or 30,000 yen, and sell titles for a couple of thousand yen each.”
Nintendo’s next move could have huge ramifications for the gaming landscape. Should they chose to abandon hardware, it will be a sad day for gaming but a joyous day for PS4 and Xbox One owners who would be able to enjoy the wonders that Nintendo first-party games offer. Unlike any other company out there.
Time will tell.
If this is true I will be livid. If I have invested money in a console that is not going to see 2 years before being dropped Nintendo can go fuck themselves!!