Speculations surrounding Japan-based Nintendo's plans for the upcoming NX console have been circling online for a while, and now, the company's president has finally broken the silence and shed some light on the impending device.
Tatsumi Kimishima, the president of Nintendo, spilled the beans on the Nintendo NX console — which the company confirmed earlier in April this year — in an interview with Japanese publication Asahi.
The Nintendo NX is slated to debut worldwide in March 2017, and during its financial reporting, the company revealed that it was "currently developing a gaming platform codenamed 'NX' with a brand-new concept."
Rumors have been rife that the Nintendo NX console will be far more powerful when compared to Sony's PlayStation 4. It will also house a superior GPU, CPU and memory capacity to boot.
When quizzed on what his thoughts were on the next-gen Nintendo NX console, Kimishima said, "It's something very new. The hardware, the software lineup, all of it is something I'd like to play for the first time myself."
He was also queried on the company's decision to release the Nintendo NX in March 2017, as that would mean that Nintendo would miss out on the year-end sales. Kimishima was pressed further by the publication and was asked if the release time window for the Nintendo NX wasn't "a bit late."
An unfazed Kimishima responded that the idea behind the upcoming console's release in March 2017 was in keeping with Nintendo's schedule for game development. He further added that when a gamer completes playing the launch titles for Nintendo NX, they will want new games they can purchase "in spring, on summer break, at Christmas." This follows the logic that releasing the Nintendo NX is not hinged on the fact that its hardware is ready but ensuring that the "software lineup is also in a good place."
When asked if the March release will not be a hurdle and lead people to stop buying Nintendo consoles in 2016, Kimishima replied that while the Wii U sales may see a slowdown post the NX's release, there is the fact that the 3DS is set to benefit from the much-awaited Pokemon in autumn, so he could not fathom that "the NX will have a negative impact on the 3DS."
With a slew of next-gen consoles poised to release in the near term, namely Microsoft's XboxOne Slim, the Sony PlayStation Neo and the Nintendo NX, gamers can look forward to some exciting times.
