I really wonder why the hell is Nintendo being so secretive about everything: NX, Zelda U, other WiiU games coming out this year.

I think there's something wrong. Or something bad happening. Nintendo was not like this in the past. Hell, I still remember the first Nintendo Direct in October 2011 (it was a live conference in Japan) or the January 2013 WiiU ND. It was giving us confidence in the product. The latest one was the E32014 ND, awesome and announcing future titles. But since E32015 something is getting worse.

I think there's something wrong. Or something bad happening. Nintendo was not like this in the past. Hell, I still remember the first Nintendo Direct in October 2011 (it was a live conference in Japan) or the January 2013 WiiU ND. It was giving us confidence in the product. The latest one was the E32014 ND, awesome and announcing future titles. But since E32015 something is getting worse.

Or it's simply that things are handled differently now as they restructured in 2015, the new President is more business minded from a financial background, working in finance myself this likely means information will be strictly kept to a strategic release schedule. What you described here in your post is catering to the minorities on forums and not actual significant business moves, most people here wouldn't like things being business like.

It's more likely everything is saved for E3 as that's where the main press are to spread the word of NX to the masses rather than excite the loud minorities on forums.

Really? Let's go through this hypothetical scenario:

1. Nintendo announces that they will create applications for smartphones and assures people that they will continue to strongly support the 3DS and Wii U.

2. E3 2015 - I don't think I need to recap their game announcements. Nintendo's commitment to dedicated gaming hardware gets called into question because of the 3DS and Wii U lineups. Articles about Nintendo preparing their exit of the console business and transition to mobile gaming begin to spread everywhere.

So a mere three or four months after the DeNA annoucement, the situation is already significantly worse on all possible accounts than in the scenario that actually played out where Nintendo announced that they will make successors to the 3DS and Wii U.

Not putting an end to all the speculation is actually the best course of action, because people obviously would love to know more and the speculation keeps Nintendo constantly in the news. Additionally, other companies can't prepare downplaying campaigns of the upcoming Nintendo hardware because they don't know what they will be up against. If Nintendo keeps things close to their chest until E3 2016 and unveils NX with lots of games, and launches the system about six months later, that's really the best thing they can do. With one swift move Nintendo can rally potential consumers behind them and at that point it won't be detrimental when the industry speaks out against Nintendo in the months leading up to launch (it's already clear from the few things we know that NX won't follow industry standards); rather it will have the opposite effect, because the fans of what Nintendo will have shown will only double down on their decision.

"Or just say that they are working on future hardware"

Like always, just say they are working on the succesor of the current platforms. No need to announce a codename or keep mentioning so constantly.

And I agree with the release timeline you are mentioning. The post was just to show how the 2016 release is still possible.

How often have they mentioned it though? They gave 2 letters and have said it's a new concept that they will talk about at some point this year. That's basically it.

Saying that they work on future hardware would be too empty of a statement. The mere mention of a codename spices it up tremendously. It makes people speculate what the codename could stand for, and such speculation is a good thing. A codename also implies that a company has already a concrete plan that they are working on, so it instills more confidence than "we are working on future hardware".

Then it must be handled very different from a bussiness perspective because it is bussiness sense to show support for your current platforms. They are so quiet that we don't know if there's more support for Wii U and 3DS outside of "unnanounced titles" that just excites forum minorities while the outside mainstream people just see the lack of games or info on new games as non-support.