Everyone seems to be linking Zelda U's delay to the NX, and its easy to see why. The major claim is that it's going to have a dual platform release (like Twilight Princess on Gamecube/Wii), and the main counter-claim is that it's not going to be a home console.

There is a lot of evidence suggesting Wii-U is up for replacement in 2016. Since the Playstation 4 and Xbox One were released, sales of the Wii-U stagnated, and have ground to a halt since December. There's no new third party retail games coming out for it (thanks partially due to the boycotts and flamewars directed at Watch Dogs and Sonic Boom), and the only games we'll see for it definitely this year is Splatoon and Yoshi's Wooly World. With no new games, nobody will buy a system, and both new and preowned units are bound to gather dust on store shelves for the foreseeable future.

The only evidence against this is that the Wii-U has being on sale since 2012 (4 years in 2016), and the 3DS since 2011 (5 years in 2016), so due to age the 3DS will be replaced sooner. However the DS (2004) had a lifetime of 7 years and the Wii (2006) had 6 years - the handheld lasting longer. In addition, the Virtual Boy lasted only 6 months on the market before it was pulled. There's nothing stopping Nintendo pulling another white elephant from the market and replacing it sooner rather than later.

If Zelda-U will also be on NX, at the very least it gives us an idea of what hardware the new system will have. For a straight port, it would mean the following specifications at a minimum:

- PowerPC Processor (4 cores @ 2ghz minimum) - Hopefully a G5 rather than a G3.
- 4 GB+ Shared RAM (2 GB accessible by developers)
- AMD Graphics processor that exceeds the Wii-U (and maybe matching the PS4/Xbone)
- Blu-Ray Drive
- 500 GB+ Hard Drive (for digital downloads)
- Wii U Gamepad emulation (possibly via New 3DS?)

Mobile chips will be able to match/exceed Wii U's performance by 2016. 

This mobile chip Tegra X1 (as in one designed for tablets/smartphones/mobile)

Can generate these graphics:

That's Crysis 3 multiplayer running in real time on that chip. 

And that's coming this May in a $199 box with 3GB RAM. Nintendo could theoretically have something more powerful for a 2016 launch. 

In other words ... yes even a handheld come late 2016 could theoretically run a game like Zelda U. 

Mario Maker, Devil's Third, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Rodea The Sky Soldier, Star Fox, Fatal Frame V (if it gets localized)

Keep in mind Nintendo passed on using a much higher performance PowerPC processor (G4, G5, A2 etc.) in the Wii-U in favour of a processor (PowerPC 750 aka. G3) that Apple stopped using 10 years before, and the system itself struggles to match the previous generation PS3 and Xbox 360. Even now cellphones have better processors than the Wii-U, and they are only going to get better.

If Nintendo have any sense at all they'd use the chip you suggested, or go to x86 like Sony and Microsoft. But its unlikely considering their recent record of going for cheap, obsolete hardware.

They likely will use a mobile chip, but it'll be their own design with their own partners like AMD and ARM (not Nvidia). 

It's just more of a point that you can today get that level of performance from a mobile chip already. 

Nintendo's job listing for a Next Generation Graphics Engineer Lead from last year also specifically cited that they're looking for someone with experience with low power/mobile chips. So that's kind of another tip off.

A lot of the bad design decisions with the Wii U were rooted in having to have backwards compatibility with the Wii because of its early market success. Since Wii U is a total dud sales wise, Nintendo is freed of the obligation of having to have direct Wii U backwards comp next time out. So that gives them more freedom too. No business suit at Nintendo is breathing down their engineers' necks saying they must incorporate the Wii U backwards compatibility. 

NiKKoM said:

LEAVE WII U ALONE!

agreed I'm sick of these threads

It is obviously coming for the NX, the writing's on the wall. If it wasn't, we would see it at E3, we're not.

You should stop editing stuff in after you have hit submit... I sometimes edit my stuff too but it is usually for words that I have mispelled or I usually say Edit: if it is what you are doing

I am a Nintendo fan but unlike you, I know how hardware works, how software works and how the game transition works and that is how I base my statements. While you seem to base ur statements based on what other companies are doing that are in completely different situtions than in Nintendo and make up stuff that Iwata said which isn't even there... And not to mention that your ability to prove my statements wrong is laughable at best because you don't seem to do so

And yes, Nintendo must introduce its franchises to new gamers but they also need to keep their old gamers in case the shit hits the fan while not ruining their business at the sametime... The things that you suggest sends them one way ticket to business hell because they will lose an entire market which is their console market and they will also lose the market confidence which has also been proven by Sega when they tried to do similar things. It is always interesting to me that people that understand things the least seems to always come with the worst ideas... I wonder if there is a connection

Edit: Now that I think about it, Nintendo making more Nintendo games is a Nintendo fan's wet dream... That won't bring in new gamers.. That will just bring in more Nintendo fans...

Sorry you don't dictate who discusses what who do you think you are?? Making a thread about it is also silly. Your contributing to what you're whining about. Thread whining should be bannable like it is on GAF, don;t like topics stay out of them. The mods decide what's allowed