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HappySqurriel on 12 June 2010
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Khuutra said:
HappySqurriel said:

Since 2007, Nintendo has maintained a strategy where they are not releasing much information about products until they’re very close to release; and with the success they have had I wouldn’t expect them to change their strategy. The 3DS is a very good example of this because it is only a few months from being readily available on store shelves and no one knows anything about it.

It is likely that Nintendo is finalizing their next generation home consoles and some key third party publishers (EA, Activision Blizzard, Sega, etc.) have information about it to anticipate its release; and it is possible that Nintendo might release this system at the end of 2011. I personally see it as being amazingly unlikely that Nintendo would really talk about this system before E3 on the year they’re releasing it though; and with the 3DS coming out this year it certainly won’t be released before E3 next year.

This is generally true but not strictly true, especially not for new pieces of hardware (even if they are peripherals). I can't remember, but weren't Wii Fit, Wii Sports Resort, and Mario Kart Wii announced a year or more before their respective releases?


There have been instances of announcements that were (roughly) a year before the product was anticipated to be released, and products that were announced before Nintendo took this approach (Super Smash Bros.) but Nintendo has maintained this strategy as much as they could. Wii Fit was announced but no information about it was known, and we didn’t see the balance board until the E3 prior to its release; and Mario Kart was unannounced by Nintendo (although there were rumours) until Nintendo was demonstrating their holiday season games and showed off Mario Kart less than 6 months before its release.

The main reason why I wouldn’t anticipate any information about their next home console is they want everyone’s attention to be on the 3DS; and this (probably) won’t change in the next 12 to 18 months.