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Aielyn on 22 November 2015
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Hiku said:
Aielyn said:
It'll probably happen. I'm in the camp that says NX is coming in 2017 (there's no way, if it was coming in 2016, that companies like EA and Capcom would still be "considering" making games for it - they'd either be "waiting until launch to decide" or already working on games for it).

Then why have there been no new games announced for 2016 and beyond for WiiU? Nothing that we didn't already know was in production since a long time ago is coming in 2016.
The only "new" game is Pokken, but everyone expected that one to be part of the deal with Namco from the start. There's also Mario Tennis and Amiibo Party released recently, and those were new announcements, but clearly are rushed/budget games to fill a void.
2016 will be ok for WiiU with what they already have. But because there's been nothing new of quality announced for a very very long time now. WiiU can't get through 2017 with the current support it has right now.

As for the companies stating that they consider making games for NX, "considering" can be interprited as "waiting for launch". Or they don't know the full details of the system yet, and are waiting for Nintendo to fill them in properly. After what happened with WiiU, every developer is cautious about supporting their system, and many will still take the wait and see approach. If the specs are up to standards, and it looks like the system will be popular, then I can see many jumping back in again.

Nintendo rarely announces titles more than a year in advance, so obviously they're not going to talk about 2017 titles now. Not when those titles are likely to be filler titles, rather than major offerings.

Here is Nintendo's roster so far for 2016 on Wii U: Twilight Princess HD, Star Fox Zero, GIR X Fire Emblem, Pokken, and Zelda U, plus whatever has become of Project Guard (unless it actually releases in the next month or so) and Project Giant Robot, plus the next Mario & Sonic olympics title. And that's just what we know now - Nintendo always has new unannounced titles to show at E3, like Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival, Mario Tennis, and Star Fox Zero (which was set to release in 2015 at the time).

Nintendo only needs to tread water in 2017. Hype for NX will be the primary focus. I wouldn't be surprised if, assuming NX is both a handheld and a console, the handheld gets released early in the year, and then the console near the end of it.

As I said, Nintendo will be focusing on getting back third parties. Launching with the next console too quickly is a bad idea - they need to have third parties on it from the start, and they need to make sure that there's motivation to stay on it. That means they need to give the third parties enough time to get their first titles up to scratch in time. If they're still "deciding" whether they want to support NX, then they won't have enough time to get a decent game ready. Nintendo supposedly started distributing dev kits in October - that would give third parties about 11 months to get games ready for launch (allowing 2 months for printing, etc).

For comparison, Wii U dev kits first started appearing in the wild before E3 2011. And Nintendo had already lined up a heap of publishers.

I can't say with absolute certainty that NX will launch in 2017. But in my view it's highly likely.

Also note the comparative lineups for final years of consoles. Wii's biggest title was Mario Party 9 (and unless you count PokePark, nothing else really significant). Not counting Twilight Princess, Gamecube had Chibi-Robo. Indeed, Gamecube's entire final year consisted of four titles - Baten Kaitos Origins, Chibi Robo, Odama, and Twilight Princess. Wii had a few more, but mostly due to delays of regional releases - The Last Story, for instance, was a 2011 game in Japan.

The Wii U has two different major franchises getting main entries, plus spinoffs of two other big franchises. Add Pikmin 4, which has been practically confirmed but unannounced (Miyamoto specifically said it's nearly finished), and you've got a fairly strong lineup. And if Animal Crossing shows up, too, then you're talking about a lineup much more like Wii's 2011 lineup, which had Skyward Sword, Xenoblade Chronicles (admittedly a 2010 game in Japan), Kirby's Return to Dreamland, and a Mario spinoff (Mario Sports Mix).

I'm expecting the Wii U's final year to look a lot more like Gamecube's final year - just treading water with a few final titles, only one of which could be called "notable".