Because it's turning a profit and if you release a new console too early the spectre of the PS5 is going to kill it just like the PS2's existance killed the Dreamcast's sales?

If they announce a new console, the Wii U profits die and sales drop, and then the new console's early release is marred by the announcement of Sony's PS5 complete with bullshots of live-action actors pretending to be what the console is capable of doing. If the next Nintendo console launches before next gen, it'll compete against the large install base of the PS4 and the announcement of the technically superior PS5.

Do you people really think Sony and MS would sit there while Nintendo releases a new console butter than PS4? They'd organize a new show to announce the PS5, with specs higher than the new Nintendo console, minutes after the Nintendo launch. The next Nintendo console would be dead on arrival for an easily preventable reason.

Without third party the Wii U's development cycle cannot sustain itself past 2018. NIntendo kind of has to take the dive. They will need to be in touch with third party and find out how much power the next gen consoles will need so they wont get alienated.

Going up YoY with a "dead" console is impressive. Turning the Wii U profitable when it was a money destroying black hole is impressive. 2014 had far worse droughts because they'd actually built good momentum and it was killed off because nothing else existed.

I also NEVER claimed they'd be out in 2015 and I'm advocating them supporting the Wii U until the PS5 (and by that I mean 9th gen) comes about. That means 2015 and beyond. 2015 already has XBCX, Splattoon, Mario Maker, Zelda U, and Star Fox U, with several smaller titles planned between like Clay Kirby, Yarn Yoshi, Devil's Third, Mario vs DK, and others. There's also Pokken Tournament somewhere in there depending on region and when the port comes in.

Zelda is traditionally as big as Smash, Star Fox is a being made by the team that made the best game in its series, and XBCX essentially has the JRPG market to itself. these games benefit from not being sandwiched between a pair of 4 month droughts like MK8. If 2016 is as good as 2015 it's hard to imagine the YoY not continuing to increase for a forth straight year, meaning more money, which is exactly what a company wants.

Murdering profits to drop hundreds of millions on a new console that will have a short life span is the height of stupidity. Take the money you're getting and do the new gen console right.

You are forgetting the power of PlayStation and Xbox brands, and that Sony's first-party offerings have been able to turn the PS3 into a successful console.

I've personally said that they're going to release their next home console in 2017. That's not because they should, but because they are. Most people are in agreement that by holiday 2016 Nintendo will have probably released all of their heavy hitters once, so it's safe to assume that they probably will release a new console by 2017, with 2018 being the absolute latest. Also, their home consoles don't have very long lives as well.

The next PS/Xbox won't probably release until 2019 at the earliest (it could be longer) and I just don't see Nintendo holding on that long to release their next console. I do agree though that the ideal situation for Nintendo would be release them around the same time as the other next-gen consoles, but it's just unrealistic to think that it could happen.

They've already found a way to support the Wii U indefinitely, and have outlined it.

1) Nintendo has finally learned HD development which cuts down crippling delays.

2) Asset creation is being outsourced to third parties, which cuts dev time significantly.

3) Existing assets are being used in new ways. Captain Toad was developed in less than a year, at a fraction of the cost, and looks absolutely amazing. More will come. Expect more Mario characters to get their own adventures with the "spinoffs" Nintendo was talking about. This isn't a new process either, Majora's Mask was done the same way and shows it can be successful and extremely profitable.

4) Nintendo is opening first party properties to third party developers, which is also known as second party games. Did you ever imagine another company making a console Zelda title with free reign? Bandai got to be a big part of the latest Smash Bros and will likely be a huge part of the franchise going forward thanks to Sakurai being done.

5) Nintendo is rescuing projects that have gone over budget or lost funding. We keep hearing there's at least two more we don't know about, one of which is likely Shadow of the Eternals (semi-sequel to Eternal Darkness) which Nintendo owns key elements too. rescuing projects like these not only nets Nintendo exclusive games on the cheap, but improves relations with the third parties releasing said games.

There's also a huge library of games waiting for HD ports too. HD ports are widely accepted now, and there are many games that would be easy to improve and rerelease. Twilight Princess, Mario Galaxy 1/2, Xenoblade, Skyward Sword, any of the Mario Sports games, etc.

Sony has a great list of exclusives and far more in number than XB1. However, Besting the XB in exclusives is quite different than besting Nintendo.

Nintendo has easily twice as many first party IPs that are multimillion sellers than Sony does. Two types of Mario platformers, Mario RPGs, Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario Sports, Mario vs DK, Zelda, Star Fox, Metroid, Donkey Kong, Smash, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, Luigi's Mansion, F-Zero, Punch Out, Yoshi games, Kirby, Wario, Art/creator games, and more.

That's not including franchises that are sub 2 mil, or games that are almost exclusively published by Nintendo, mostly on handheld, these days: Pikmin, Yokai Watch, Monster Hunter, Layton, Phoenix Wright, etc.

IMO Nintendo has a number of issues they need to address and they can potentially lay some ground work this generation. Online can be vastly improved to meet a similar standard to what Sony and Microsoft provide, tbh that's something that can be constantly evolved all of the time, but from what I hear it needs a big boost to match what the other platform holders provide.

The biggest factor that effects Nintendo's image in the community (both gamers and developers) is that the exclusives they have on their platform don't appeal to the wider audience that buys all of the 3rd party titles.
In short the line-up needs added diversity beyond what Nintendo and any of their partners provide.
The only way that Nintendo can make this happen is to make a lot more partnerships with new external studios and/or expand their own 1st party developer line-up.

Power is important, as is ease of development, great online too, but without developers that release games that drive all kinds of customers to your platform, outside of Nintendo's current wheelhouse then you can't expect the wider community that has become accustom to getting the fix that the 3rd party titles offer on a Nintendo system and if there's nothing in the way of exclusives that appeal to the audience that buys 3rd party then you can't expect the publishers or developers that make those games to make a Nintendo console version or take advantage of that system's hardware.

Sony and Microsoft have been laying that groundwork from the very first day they stepped into the console market, Nintendo have taken several steps back in the eyes of 3rd party and Nintendo only has themselves to blame for this.

To be honest this obsession with a tiny form factor kills the performance potential, the obsession with constant supposed innovation that gets in the way of the pure gaming experience of a decent box, needs to stop, they have all of the tools they need, they can always create new peripherals to innovate later, but gamers don't want overly complicated boxes or control schemes, they want the basics and comfort.
If you come up with something interesting and innovative that is unobtrusive later on, then make a new peripheral that can add to the experience, with good software support for that later.


Now as for the title topic, Nintendo won't have a clue when Sony or Microsoft are launching their next consoles, so they have play by their own timeline as far as product development goes. The process of developing a games console takes time, but if they're willing to go bigger on the form factor and release at a time when a new architecture or some tech that will make for a quantum leap in performance is mature enough within the market to be cost effective then IMO that's when they should begin manufacturing their next machine.

In 2015 Universal Memory may become a reality (at least within the server market), which means no more need for DRAM for system memory, basically it's solid state memory, with superior speeds to DRAM.
If that doesn't pan out Samsung are beginning to make stacked DDR4 for the server market this year, by 2016 this will probably begin to filter down into the PC market, by 2016 we're talking mutiple Terabytes Per Second of Bandwidth for probably pretty reasonable cost.
AMD will have their Zen line of CPU cores dropping in 2016.
High Broadband Memory will be stacked on Processor Dies (AMD's own R9 390X GPU is rumored to feature this technology for a crazy improvement in memory bandwidth), so the next Nintendo console could be the 1st to use super fast memory built onto an AMD APU (given that AMD has all but confirmed they're working with one partner looking to make a new console).

Basically we don't need to look at Sony or Microsoft's potential schedules for releasing their next consoles, we should be looking at when new technological developments in Processor and Memory technologies are available from the suppliers that Console Platform Holders buy from.

If people are saying that 2016 could be when Nintendo unveils their next console it's because that's when a lot of revolutionary, new processor and memory technologies are likely to become available to them.

A 2017 release would basically fit with some stellar tech developments going on in the industry and 3rd party developers would be developing new game engines to take advantage of this new tech, so if Nintendo lays the groundwork of building better online and most importantly expanding their developer base to interest a wider audience of gamers in the 9th generation they may not be left behind by 3rd party like they have this gen and in generations past.

If Nintendo wants to win 3rd party support back then they also need to ask 3rd party developers what they want in the way of specs, Nintendo can always add in extra bells and whistles that their own 1st party studios can take advantage of within the hardware, although going with tech that AMD will no doubt make appealing to the PC market isn't a bad move as it would give Nintendo's own developers hardware with huge scope for results.

Just imaging what a Metroid, Zelda, Mario or huge open world Pokemon game would look like developed with terabytes of ram (Universal Memory), GB's of VRAM on die, cost effective, full sized, multi-threaded CPU cores and a decent modern GPU based on 2016/17 technology and more importantly imagine what that would play like.

Technology is right on a precipice of huge improvements that will be amazing to see in the next few years.

The only thing you're talking about is higher specs, which to me sounds like you expect Nintendo to do a WiiU2, which obviously would be a bad decision and hardly Nintendo's strength.
WiiU profits only fall when Nintendo is abandoning the console, which they usually do quickly. If they learned something from the transition from last to this gen, they would develop cross gen games (pretty much like they already did with Twilight Princess).

Also why would MS and Sony already show new hardware, when their own barely launched. Just to piss off Nintendo? They would harm only their own console sales with that.

Trying to create a second Wii-like success should be their priority and not giving a console life support that will probably never turn profitable at all.
A lot seem to forget that the thing needed R&D to even exist, which was only possible due to the huge profits they got from Wii and DS sales.

The only way Nintendo would stand a chance against PS5 would be if Sony messed up and Nintendo made something radically different and appealing. Both of those conditions have to be met. If Sony keeps its stride it will always win against Nintendo in the home console arena even if Nintendo made something radical. If Sony messes up but Nintendo makes another GC/WiiU they (Sony) will still win.