Hiku said:
Sony and MS were in a completely different situation though. Their consoles had been out for 7 and 8 years respectively by the time their new consoles came out. It didn't feel like they were abandoning the PS3 and 360. People had years to prepare for the expected transition. On top of that, Sony have a reputation for still supporting their old consoles for a long time. If Nintendo launch at end of 2016, their console will only have had a lifespan of 4 years, leaving many surprised people with little time to prepare for the transition. Especially considering how few of them bought the console during its first year.
Moreover, people know what to expect from Sony and MS's new consoles, where's Nintendo often need to explain their vision due to wanting to be different.
'Have to' isn't meant literally of course, as they could announce it 1 day before its release if they so chose. But Nintendo have so far always announced their home consoles several years in advance. 3 years for N64. 2.5 years for Gamecube. 2.5 years for Wii. (1.5 years from when it was first shown).
If they were to do what Sony and MS did now, I'd be surprised, as I think they need more time to build up the trust and interest of the consumers. If they just throw a new console out on the market so soon after the announcement, I think it would send the wrong message, and would feel like they just abandoned the Wii U, and might do the same to their next console.
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Four years is plenty of time for a console. It's not like the Wii was supported for much more than that. There's no consumer trust to build up. The Wii U is not a popular system. There is very little consumer to offend and much more to satisfy, and frankly, I don't think people would be nearly as offended as they are saying now. There was a minor outrage at the anouncement of the N3DS, then people got over it. The same would happen here. When the Wii is four years old, it won't feel new anymore.
It won't feel like it's being abandoned, and like I said, it's very likely that many of the games will be available on both platforms anyway. Just like no iphone 5S user was suddenly offended when the iphone 6 came out, Nintendo has been building the foundation to be able to do just that with the Wii U's successor. They've already said that they're using the Wii U as an architectural foundation for their next gen hardware. When that new Metroid game or whatever comes out as a launch title for the successor, you better bet your bottom dollar that there will be a Wii U version of the game as well, only it's the same game. There would be no separate disks. Putting the disk in the Wii U would play the Wii U version, and doing the same for the successor would play that version. Saves are in the cloud, so you're progress is kept through out the transition.
Again, a firmware patch would match the Wii U's OS with the new console. Even if you didn't upgrade to the new console at it's launch, you'd feel like you already had the new console in some capacity, just like what happened with iOS 7. The hardware upgrade would be painless. Upgrade hardware whenever you want and keep everything you had before. You'd just enjoy the new tweaks and exclusives. More powerful hardware. Much smaller, sleaker gamepad, more premium quality gamepad.
