Among the three upcoming next-generation consoles, Nintendo's newest, code-named NX, is the one that fans have the least concrete information about. There has already been plenty of discussion about Microsoft's next two consoles, and Sony has already released something of an official statement about the Neo, but even with a slated March 2017 release, Nintendo has been fairly quiet about the NX.
However, even though fans — and apparently third-party developers — know nearly nothing about the NX, many are already quite optimistic about Nintendo's upcoming console.
In an interview, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick stated that the NX could be "very exciting" and the company as a whole is "very interested" in seeing what Nintendo will do next.
"[The NX] could be very exciting. You never want to count Nintendo out. They go quiet for a while and then they come to market and do something really exciting. We are very interested and watching closely the development of what Nintendo plans to do next," said Zelnick.
These comments are similar to what has been said by other third-party developers such as Spike Chunsoft, Level 5, Square Enix, Koei Tecmo, Bandai Namco, Ubisoft, Activision and EA. Of course, all of these developers already have a bit of history with Nintendo, so their positive outlook isn't all too surprising.
However, that isn't the case with Take-Two, which has never before stated much interest in a Nintendo console pre-launch. In fact, Take-Two, the parent company of Rockstar and 2K Games, doesn't have a history of supporting Nintendo consoles post-launch either.
Sure, sports games like NBA 2K and MLB 2K appear on them (with the last appearance being in 2013), but games the company is known for such as Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead, Borderlands and Bioshock, have never shown up on a Nintendo home console before.
Granted, this doesn't mean that Take-Two - or any of the other companies already mentioned - are ready to go all-in with Nintendo. They don't have much to go by after all, but the fact that these companies are expressing any interest at all is a far cry from the negativity that surrounded the Wii U pre-launch.
And, of course, everyone knows about the flak the Wii U got (even big shots at Nintendo are willing to admit that there were some missteps made with the console), so the fact that developers can seemingly ignore that to a degree only means good things for the NX, at least for the time being.
When all is said and done, however, it will be interesting to see just how much third-party support Nintendo will have when it finally unveils the NX down the road. The success of a console hinges heavily on support from third-party developers, and as things stand Nintendo needs plenty of it.
