I think those franchises can compete for attention. Around e3 next year when PS4 and Sextbox is announced Nintendo will want to show off some of these games. They will want to do to those systems what Microsoft did to ps3 before it launched. They showed that we have great games and a more affordable system right now. why wait? I wouldn't be surprised if these games looks similar in graphical quality to nextgen launch titles and these games have a whole lot more appeal then some boring Battlefield 4 or CockofDuty Nextone. So a good time to unveil them is e3 next year and have at least one if not both available to compete directly against next gen launchies.

When they launched the Wii everyone knew about Mario Galaxy and other titles more than a year in advance. That takes some buzz away. They've learned their lesson. This year's marketing focused on just Wii U hardware, and the launch titles Mario Bros and NintendoLand, with a hint of Bayonetta and Pikmin. Next year's E3 will be a blowout of at least 2 or 3 huge titles like Mario Universe. They'll need that to compete with the reveal of rival systems. If they had already blown their announcement load this year with those games, they would have nothing to excite people. As it stands, while their competitors are talking about systems that will probably have a weak (or at least not groundbreaking) launch line up, Nintendo can talk about some hi-end software.

Internally within Nintendo developers, with Sakurai, etc... Iwata got ample backlash for announcing Super Smash Bros for 3DS and Wii U when development had not even started. Now people have multiple years to wait.

Look at The Last Guardian... all that excitement and waiting for the game has slowly turned into very low expectations from the same fans.

They are wise not to announce things that wont be available anytime soon especially since they are acknowledging that these games are works in process but not ready to be talked about in any detail.

Apple announced new hardware mere weeks before it releases that stuff... why shouldn't Nintendo try to do the same with Software? Keep the consumer focus on currently available products until new products are actually ready to be released.

Hmmm... I was hoping to see a Custom Arena Robo.. or Animal Crossing.. Oh well maybe sometime.. but anyway this is great news.. but not surprising.. at this point I think Mario and Zelda is almost a requirement for each of their systems..

Let them take their time. I am fine with not knowing what is going on with Zelda WiiU and other key Nintendo franchises.

Look at Blizzard as a good example to not announce stuff years ahead of time. The Heart of the Swarm expansion for StarCraft II is coming out March of next year, nearly 3 years after Wings of Liberty. How long will it be until the next expansion, Legacy of the Void, comes out?

I prefer to have a game announced when it's mostly done so I don't have to wait 4 years for it.

Valve is doing the same thing with Half-Life 3. Nothing wrong with waiting until it's almost done.