Rab said:
GC First spoken about at NPC 1999 First unveiling at a press conference in 2000 Launch - Holidays 2001
Wii First spoken about at E3 2004 First unveiling at E3 2005 Launch - Holidays 2006
WiiU First spoken about at E3 2010 First unveiling at E3 2011 Launch - Holidays 2012 |
Fundamentally we have no idea. Nintendo could also take their time in the past as they had at least one good selling system at the time of all those previous announcements.
People don't realize how low Nintendo's 3DS sales are sinking. At a target of only 9 million 3DS' for this fiscal year (one they are very likely to miss), Nintendo is looking at the lowest handheld shipment they've had in like 20 years. And the Wii U is selling very poorly, obviously as well.
Also the handheld time line for reveal to launch is much tighter.
DS was unveiled at E3 2004 and launched six months later. 3DS was announced in March 2010, and was released less than a year later (Feb 2011 in Japan).
So these things are obviously subject to the situation.
It could also be that Wii U/3DS sales are so weak right now they could have shown a hardware tease for NX at this past E3 but opted not to to preserve whatever holiday sales this year that they can.