The Nintendo NX has been delayed to March 2017, but according to the latest Nintendo investor presentation, that choice was made for a good reason. Nintendo wouldn’t give up on a holiday season lightly and although to those of us in the gaming world it feels like an act of desperation and necessity, Nintendo’s leadership wants to stress that it’s a carefully evaluated choice. Nintendo is skipping the holiday season for a reason… and that’s so it has a strong launch lineup.

Nintendo NX Launch Lineup: The State Of The NX Is Strong

As reported by Nintendolife, Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima recently spoke to Nintendo investors at one of the company’s periodic briefings and they grilled him pretty hard once he announced that the Nintendo NX and Zelda Wii U were both missing the holiday season this year. But he had an explanation (translation by Cheesemeister3k, again via Nintendolife): “Having a full software lineup when the hardware launches is one reason for the NX launch timing. Also, we must be in a state to release titles not just at launch, but continually afterwards. We are planning for it to be a platform that will be played for a long time.” What’s more, the console will be profitable from launch, and won’t be a loss leader the way the Wii U was.

If what Kimishima says is true, then Nintendo may not be in such trouble after all. If the system really does have a strong launch lineup, and a strong ramp-up after that, along with a respectable amount of third-party support, Nintendo may still be able to make the Nintendo NX into a success. Let’s just hope that new hardware from Sony and Microsoft isn’t too compelling.

A weak launch lineup killed the Wii U. The console had just a few games at launch, and no major titles for the better part of a year thereafter. By the time enough titles were out to drive some real sales momentum, third parties had given up on the console, and a lot of consumers had too. The Wii U GamePad itself never really got as exciting as it could have been either. Nintendo didn’t push its own innovation as hard as it should have. And it all stemmed from the weak launch lineup.

If Nintendo NX can avoid that, the future could be entirely different—even if the system is weaker than the upgraded hardware Sony and Microsoft have been hinting at lately. Let’s hope the lineup is really as strong as Kimishima is saying.