When will Wii U owners be satisfied enough to accept a new console?

[Cheebee]

zorg1000 said:

Cheebee said:
I don't think it's just a matter of an unspecified number of games, but also (very much) a period of time. If they stopped supporting Wii U by the end of 2015 and revealed a successor around that time, I'm pretty sure a LOT of people wouldn't be satisfied, no matter if they'd released a truckload of AAA games in the meantime. That would mean a 3-year lifetime (at the most, since it would be even less for everyone who bought a Wii U after launch). I don't think that's acceptable.

Imo Q4 2016 is the absolute earliest they could possibly stop supporting Wii U and unveil a successor, ad even that would be pushing it.
Then again, I don't expect Nintendo to release a follow-up to Wii U until Q4 2017, at the earliest. 3DS will likely see a redesign sometime next year, and a successor in 2016.

In the OP I said new console Q4 2016, excellent output in 2015 and a few solid releases in 2016.

Yeah well... I agree with the excellent output in 2015 (which is already confirmed, really), and the solid releases in 2016 (I for one am expecting a new 3D Mario and whatever Retro's working on that year, plus I have a feeling Zelda will slip into 2016, too).

However I do think 2016 will be too early for a Wii U successor, mainly because of the time they need to create games. Right now it takes years to get a game done, that's only going to increase next gen, meaning they'd have to be working full-force on games for Wii U's successor right now - that's simply not feasible. Also, a 3DS successor is to be expected before a Wii U follow-up comes around, and they'll have to focus on that and its games, too.

It's pretty obvious Nintendo's teams are concentrating their software efforts on Wii U right now (which is why there's so very little announced for the future of 3DS). It was the other way around last year and in 2012, when 3DS software development was in full swing and the system saw tons of excellent titles coming out, whereas Wii U suffered badly from a drought back then. To me, 2016 seems much too soon, realistically.