Very well put, I agree. 

Most people who use the SEGA analogy don't even understand it in the first place. 

The Genesis released 3 years after the Sega Master System and was Sega's biggest success. The Saturn release 6 years after the Genesis and was a big failure. Previous console duration doesn't have nearly as much of an impact as people here try to make it out to be. 

NX Q4 2016 seems unlikely NOT to happen.

Wii U will have been 4 years on the market by then, which while relatively short, isn't unheard of nor unacceptable (especially for a console with sales as low as Wii U's). 3DS will be close to 6 years old by then. The time will be ripe.

People have to understand. Nintendo had no choice but to announce the codename for their console. I specifically say that because they had already announced their intentions of making a new console the previous year. But yeah, they had to make that announcement. When they announced their mobile plans, If they would have ended on just that, that would have made everyone assume that they were going to abandon the hardware business altogether since Wii U sales are kind of poor. That's the reason NX was announced that same day. By announcing a codename for their supposed next platform, that reassured the public whatever they were working on was far enough in the development stages to be given an actual codename and since Nintendo had intended on staying in the hardware business, that meant that they HAD to continue supporting Wii U for the next several years.

This move may have possibly caused a few people to hold off on getting a Wii U but I think it did reassure even more people that Wii U was going be around for a little while longer because it has to be.

Could you imagine a NX LoZ tech demo and a LoZ U playable demo at the same conference? Think of the interest in the series a Zelda NX tech demo could give Zelda U! Maybe they are delaying the game for a different reason than most believe.

Narrowed down to this one topic.

No it doesn't. That's the beauty of how the WiiU and others launched. NX can launch in 2016 and then still be replaced in 2019 or so when MSony go to their next hardware (should they come).

I see the hardware cycle of one console for 5~6 years is gone now. If they build the platform well (pc based) with solid software that is more like OS revisions, then there is a better opportunity to have a 3~4 year hardware cycle.

- Continued hardware advancement
- Lower up-front game costs as SDKs don't have to be recreated at each iteration - minor continuous revisions
- better backwards compatibility and longer life per game
- Lower game dev costs as ports largely become obselete - never a last/gen next/gen build again - build once and software scales
- brings consoles more in-line with mobile and pc environments as well.

Times are changing.

I was going to hit the reply button to say pretty much the same thing.

They had no choice but to announce the NX the day they announced their partnership with DeNA. It was the only way they could reassure people that developing dedicated game systems is still a part of their strategy. A premature announcement of the NX followed by a long silence is probably a compromise between showing the Wii U isn't being cut short and showing they're still going to be in the dedicated game system business.

I agree somewhat with this, the time of 7-10 year lives for consoles has passed. The consumer electronics industry is becoming really fast-paced and consoles become static products in a turbocharged overall environment.

Times are indeed changing, I believe I've said as much in the UNITY thread as well.

Because it'd release with no gamez otherwise.

Just wait.

I'll wait if it means that the NX's launch is a strong one, so the timing of this needs to be right.

I have to disagree. Unless they're going for a blue ocean strategy again (yet to be seen), a 2016 release for a home console makes no sense. Who are early adopters going to be? The people who just bought a Wii U  or the people who just bought the PS4/X1? They'll be entering a competitive market at its peak of competition, with a tarnished name and probably a disenfranchised core audience who were abandoned on the previous system. The question should really be,  whats to be earned by an imminent release? Who is their market going to be and why will third parties support a late thrid wheel?

The current situation is that they're financially stable and have an underperforming home console, thats been the situ for the last 3 years. I don't get why people are acting the Wii U only suddenly became a flop, waiting out bit longer is not going to damage them