Nintendo recently delayed Zelda Wii U, officially announced Zelda NX, and confirmed that both games would launch alongside the Nintendo NX in March 2017. In their wake, Nintendo won’t have any flagship games for this holiday season, and will be betting it all on the new console’s launch. It seems like a desperate move—an admission that Zelda isn’t ready and the console isn’t ready, and the company has no other choice. And even Nintendo admits that the timing isn’t great. But what if the company isn’t that desperate? What if Nintendo actually knows what it’s doing?
What If Nintendo Has The Nintendo NX All Figured Out?
The worst case scenario for the Nintendo NX is the one we’ve all gotten into our heads: Nintendo launches the console early next year, after the PlayStation 4.5 and Xbox Whatever have already been announced. The new system is on par with the PS4, but doesn’t have 4K or virtual reality support. It’s too little, too late—a last desperate push by Nintendo in a console market it doesn’t have the economies of scale to sustain itself in. The company is gambling it all on Zelda NX being freaking amazing.
What if our narrative is wrong, though? What if the company actually making these plans knows more than we do? The Nintendo NX is not destined for failure—and just because Nintendo has disappointed many of its fans the last few years doesn’t mean it will keep on doing so. It knows what went wrong with the Wii U, and the company has been preparing to fix those mistakes with the Nintendo NX for some time. That’s part of why the Wii U didn’t get tons of support this last year and a half.
Here’s the best case for the Nintendo NX: It launches in March 2017 with Zelda NX as its flagship, and a very strong launch lineup. Zelda is as revolutionary as Nintendo promises, but it’s far from the only Nintendo NX launch title. Retro Studios introduces its new game, and it’s Metroid NX. We get other flagship launch titles too—maybe Pikmin 4, maybe a new Super Smash Bros. And, along with that, the rumors about easy ports between systems prove to be true. Nintendo NX ports from PS4 and Xbox One games require minimal investment, so we get a slew of them early on—everything from Call of Duty and Battlefield to flagships like Final Fantasy XV and, eventually Final Fantasy 7 Remake. The PS4.5 and Xbox Whatever remain too expensive for most people, but the Nintendo NX comes in at a reasonable price point, maybe even with a cool controller idea. Fans flock to it; it’s a respectable hit, and beats GameCube and Wii U numbers.
That’s clearly what Nintendo wants to happen. And you know what? We don’t know too much about the company’s actual plans. All we see are the bad optics of having Legend of Zelda as the only playable game at E3 2016. That doesn’t mean Nintendo won’t announce other games, either at E3 or when it unveils the Nintendo NX. It doesn’t mean big other games aren’t coming, or that the Nintendo NX will be a failure. Nintendo could have this all figured out.
I sure hope so.