Fire Emblem Fates has broken all kinds of sales records for Nintendo. It’s far and away the best-selling game in the history of the series in the United States, and that’s because the game is great. And that bodes well for the future of Fire Emblem both in Japan and the U.S., a future that was once in doubt. But does that mean we’ll get a console Fire Emblem in the near future, a Fire Emblem NX? Don’t count on it.

Why You Shouldn’t Expect A Fire Emblem NX Anytime Soon

Fire Emblem Fates sold 300,000 copies in three days in the United States, breaking the sales record set by the last game in the series, Fire Emblem Awakening. Truly this is the golden age for Fire Emblem, isn’t it? It sets the series on a firm footing for the future and we’ll get another one down the road sometime soon. That said, we don’t think it will be on a console.

Let’s set aside for a moment the question of whether Nintendo NX is a hybrid console and handheld system—at least for the moment. After all, we know Nintendo is going to continue supporting the Nintendo 3DS for a good chunk of time. Any new Fire Emblem is most likely to come to that system.

Consoles and handhelds are, in a sense, more different than they’ve ever been. It’s expensive to develop new games for the Nintendo 3DS, but creating games for the Wii U and other HD consoles is astronomically more expensive than that. These modern console games need full HD 3D graphics. Compare that to Fire Emblem Fates, which has graphics fit for a tactical RPG. It looks good, especially the FMVs, but it’s not what you see on PS4 by any means.

This isn’t just a Nintendo thing. There’s a reason that Firaxis Games made XCOM 2 a PC exclusive. It’s just more economical to focus on the less graphically intense platforms. 300,000 sales for Fire Emblem Fates is a huge success, especially in such a short period of time. With the Nintendo NX, which is expected to have PS4-level graphics, development costs will spiral even higher. That means you need more sales to break even, and games like Fire Emblem (or XCOM 2) are never going to be as mainstream as something like Legend of Zelda. And the economics don’t justify making such games for consoles anymore, except for a few marquee titles like Final Fantasy.

For the time being, JRPGs, tactical or otherwise, don’t make sense on consoles. But Fire Emblem is a big deal now, and we can expect more investment from Nintendo… just not the console versions we saw once upon a time.