Mum’s the word: Nintendo won’t talk NX or smartphone games at this year’s E3

By Kris Wouk May 11, 2015

nintendo nx mobile games e3 2015 stale ideas for reinvention — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Last week we reported that as part of its partnership with DeNA, Nintendo plans to ship five mobile games by 2017. When Nintendo first announced that partnership, it also teased a new console codenamed the NX. Exciting stuff, right? Unfortunately we won’t hear a single thing about either one at this year’s E3.

At least when it comes to the Nintendo NX, this shouldn’t really come as a surprise. Even when its existence was first revealed, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said that further details on the console would be shared in 2016.

“We do not plan on talking specifics about the the NX until 2016,” Iwata reiterated in a recent investors meeting. Many have speculated that the NX was announced at the time it was in order to assure fans that Nintendo would continue to make its own console hardware, and Iwata confirmed this to investors at the meeting, Kotaku reports.

It sounds like the console is in a very early state, given that the company won’t talk about when it will be released or even what it is like. “Because we are calling it a ‘new concept,’ we are not thinking of this as a ‘simple replacement’ for the 3DS or the Wii U,” Iwata said.

As for its upcoming smartphone games and “quality of life” strategies, Nintendo has a simpler reason for not touching on these subjects at its E3 showing. Iwata again: “Since we understand that E3 is an event for dedicated video game machines, we do not intend to discuss the smart devices as well as quality of life.”

Nintendo will be present at this year’s E3, which runs from June 16 to 18, but presumably the company will stick to sharing news relating to its existing platforms, the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.

It seems that until 2016, Nintendo fans will have to be content with simply speculating on what the NX will be, or become. Considering the company’s history with hardware, there are a lot of possibilities to consider.

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Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…

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