S.Peelman said: Whimps . Mario is the least of WiiU's problems anyway, if it weren't for 3D World or Kart we could slash the system's sales in half. Also, over 6m amiibo (5.7 misses a few holiday weeks) is pretty impressive.

Well I think in general the Wii U isn't the core problem for Nintendo. Though it certainly isn't helping Nintendo's cause much either. 

Amiibo sales are nice though. 

Exactly

When Iwata said that it would take two years, I'm very sure he was talking more in general terms. You do have a point about the software, though. They could release a Metroid and a new Pokemon, but that's basically it. I mean, there's F-Zero, but let's be realistic; there's no F-Zero. I'm suprised it's even getting another Fire Emblem. I'm sure we all were.

I used to also think that the handheld would come out in Spring of next year, but as more news came to light, it seemed like pushing that back a few months seemed like the more intelligent prediction. But now that I think about it again, I guess a late May/early June release can make a lot of sense.

I don't think the timetable to release the 3DS successor is as strict as it was to release the DS. The biggest thing is, again, the launch software. If their selling point is the unified platform this time around, they need compelling software to launch it with as well as something during the holiday to sell it with. Maybe they'll have the Gen 7 Pokemon game ready by then. They absolutely can not release that game on the 3DS like they did Gen 5 on the DS.

I don't care what anyone says, that absolutely stupid decision has to be one of the biggest reasons the 3DS didn't launch with a vengance. It was absolutely stupid to launch two games in your biggest franchise on older hardware. It's the sole reason I personally didn't upgrade, and I remember being frustrated that Nintendo forced me to play the newest Pokemon games on older hardware. I can imagine it was much the same for the other 10m+ people who bought those games. Either Pokemon takes 2016 off, or they release it on the successor that year. Releasing it on the 3DS would be the dumbest move they could make. They need those systems flying early.

I think they have the software thing figured out. Wii U isn't going to get the next 3D Mario or the next Animal Crossing. Those two games are being held off for the next Nintendo portable launch window. 

The Animal Crossing producer had this sort of odd statement from last year where he said the Animal Crossing franchise as is was better suited for portables but they were considering the next one to be either on Wii U or "some other platform". That mystery platform that he was talking about is the 3DS successor I have to think. 

Architecturally too if the 3DS successor shares several things with the Wii U, it means development will be relatively snappy for Nintendo's dev teams already accustomed to Wii U development. If the 3DS successor is relatively comparable to the Wii U in hardware power and even design philosophy on the GPU side, for example the Mario 3D World team could transition to it for Mario Galaxy 3 with not a whole lot of issues. 

Theoretically really a new Animal Crossing and a new 3D Mario are overdue for 2016, the Animal Crossing team has been free for several years, even the spun-off portion of it doing Splatoon will wrap on that game in spring 2015. The main EAD Tokyo group responsible for the 3D Mario games has been free since fall 2013 when 3D World wrapped. Some worked on Captain Toad, but the bulk of the team has been working on something else -- IMO this will be a 3D Mario for the new Nintendo handheld. 

Soundwave said: S.Peelman said: Whimps . Mario is the least of WiiU's problems anyway, if it weren't for 3D World or Kart we could slash the system's sales in half. Also, over 6m amiibo (5.7 misses a few holiday weeks) is pretty impressive. Well I think in general the Wii U isn't the core problem for Nintendo. Though it certainly isn't helping Nintendo's cause much either.  Amiibo sales are nice though.

Yeah investors probably weren't very happy with the 3DS sales and the downgrading of the forecast by a fairly sigificant amount. I agree with that.

why would they announce a new handheld when they just announced new 3ds a couple of weeks ago. it doesnt matter sony and ms have never made money. u sell lots of systems u lose money, sell less systems u lose money. anyone who thought wiiu was gonna do what wii did needs there head examined

I still think that the Wii U will share some cross compatability with the next handheld, and I definitely have a hard time believing that 3D Mario won't be one of those cross compatible games as I don't see it ever possibly skipping the Wii U, so we'll have to agree to disagree on the bolded, as we've debated that point to death already.

As for everything else, I pretty much agree with you/believe that what you're saying is possible and even likely. It's freaking me out.

But then Nintendo's stuck with the Wii U architecture moving forward. They want to forget the Wii U as quickly as they "safely" can (which is to say, soon enough that Wii U owners don't feel burned by early abandonment, but no later). The next handheld will lead the next console's structure.

Unless they match GPU, which is more possible.

2001 - GBA

2002 - Nothing

2003- GBA SP

2004 - Nintendo DS

2005 - GBA Micro

2006 - DS Lite

2007 - Nothing

2008 - DSi (Japan)

2009 - DSi (North America), DSi XL (Japan)

2010 - DSi XL (West)

2011 - 3DS

2012 - 3DS XL

2013 - 2DS

2014 - "New" 3DS (Japan)

2015 - "New" 3DS (West)

2016 - ?

Nintendo has been releasing new handheld revisions on virtually a yearly basis for a long time now. I guess we just kinda never noticed? They announced the DS a few months after the GBA SP was setting new sales records. They announced the 3DS the same month the DSi XL went on sale in the US, lol. Nintendo doesn't give two sh*ts about spacing out their handhelds. They will change course on a whim if they believe it suits their longer term interests. 

To be fair, India likely WILL grow faster than China as China's economy has many difficult transitions ahead of it. Perhaps more importantly, though, is China has one heck of an aging population ahead of it due to their own one child policy. Also, as there are exceptions to allow you to have another child if the first is a daughter in an attempt for a son, there's a fairly significant (~30 million by 2020) discrepancy in the gender ratio. What has frequently resulted is what's called the "four two one" effect, where one child has to provide for both his/her parents and four grandparents.

Basically, China has a rapidly aging workforce that will soon require the support of an artificially low population of young adults. India, meanwhile, has a very young workforce with a rapidly growing population that will almost inevitably pass China's.

I'm not saying that India's economy will be stronger than China's anytime soon, mind you, but it's certainly possible that they'll continue to outpace China's growth, especially as they have more room for improvement.

But yeah, I never read Bloomberg for the most part. This article is written for potential investors, after all, so it is only concerned with potential returns from Nintendo, not what this news means for fans, consumers, or the gaming world. One can't blame them for that of course, but the jargon shouldn't concern anyone who's only interested in Nintendo's games and well being as opposed to the potential gains for its shareholders. It's been doom and gloom for a few years now as a lot of people hopped on the Wii/DS gravy train and still expect Nintendo to somehow return to those lofty heights ASAP.