Shame, never played that either. Is it recommended to play xenoblade on the Wii and the wiiu before playing xbc2? I might just play the one on switch and not bother if it doesn't matter too much.

play Xenoblade Chronicles first before you play Xenoblade Chronicles 2. then if you get the opportunity play Xenoblade Chronicles X, but you should play 1 and 2 in order

That interview was a big blow to me. I thought for sure that Nintendo and Monolith had a 2019 port of XCX up their sleeve. With the video quality of X being so much better than XC2, even Torna, I was looking forward to less pop-in and less slowdown in a definitive Switch version.

Here's hoping for X2?

I'm not buying any of those ports, out of principal.  Frankly, I think Nintendo has kind of screwed the loyalists that bought both the WiiU and Switch, as they're just recycling many of the good games.  

I am still hoping that it's some clever avoidance of leaking the game before an official announcement. Denying the existence of projects in the works isn't outside of usual behaviour for Nintendo execs or their partners.

If a port is in the worlds for XCX, it is unlikely that Monolithsoft would be working on it; rather, it would be a studio who specializes in porting. The only items which require Monolithsoft are feature/UI/Art concepts and asset/milestone signoffs; although, they can even delegate that to other parties and contractors.

Each game is mostly independent of the other. There are links, but the games stay enjoyable without knowing the others.

Nintendo doesn't see a commercial advantage in porting XCX so they'll remain that way and Nintendo are the type of company today that couldn't give a shit about preservation too ...

Basically reiterating what the others have said, but I'll add that there is a link between XC1 (Wii) and XC2. It's not revealed until the last 1-2 hours of the game though, so the games themselves are essentially self-contained, just that there's a scene towards the end that will have more impact as a fan if you've played the Wii game. If you don't care much, you can't go wrong with starting with XC2 though.

I never finished XCX (Wii U), but my understanding from the ~60 hours I played and from what I've read is that the story has no definitive connection to the other two, so it can treated as a separate story entirely that can be played in any order.

Well thanks everyone, I guess I can skip X which is handy as I don't have my WiiU anymore, but I might play the Wii one before XC2. Shame I have an old 3ds.