NX launching in March 2017. Good business decision or not?

I agree with this.

I also agree with this agreement

In all reality the new system is releasing in March because it won't have any/enough software ready in time for Christmas and while that might be a fair assessment it's other home console, the Wii U, is dead and the status of future titles is relatively unknown. Who knows what will be released, when it will be released and on what system will it be release on. Essentially anyone who is interested in a Nintendo home console is waiting in limbo because the next 11 months look to be pure hell.

Another bang up job Nintendo!

Here's some other news

Koei Tecmo Confirms They Have Started Nintendo NX Development

https://mynintendonews.com/2016/04/28/koei-tecmo-confirms-they-have-started-nintendo-nx-development/

That's what I see as important. I agree it they don't need to reveal the system at E3, but to not have it there at all is a huge blunder, especially considering the system is less than a year off. Yea, they'd be competing for press coverage, but let's be real: this is new hardware from Nintendo. Seen throughout the industry as a monumental event to take notice. The net is going apeshit to hear anything about it, ready to explode. Trust me, going against Sony and MS would be no issue in getting the spotlight this time around. Nintendo has powerful ammo to use. It would be the talk of all of E3 and would resonate long after the event if executed correctly, even had they revealed it a month or so before and used the show to expand upon.

Nintendo needs to be seen in the spotlight alongside Sony and MS. That they'd be competing for press coverage is what matters, because people would see them out there finally asserting themselves instead of always being perceived as running off frightened. I heavily disagree a Direct should be the way they reveal. It should be the last thing they should do, as it preaches to the diehards. All the main press is at E3 that don't focus on gaming exclusively that would reach a much broader audience (Forbes, etc) would be there. To do it in a Direct would go even further to demonstrate Nintendo's stupidity and myopia.....which means that's probably going to be exactly what happens.

No, you misunderstood. I mean that, during the E3 Direct this year, they should announce when they'll hold a reveal event. Also, it's like you said: A Nintendo console reveal will get attention no matter what. It is 100% false that mainstream media only reports on gaming events during E3. Forbes and such will still report on a Nintendo press event just as they always have. Unless you can find proof otherwise, that is.

NX is DOA they can't even compete with Playstation

Seen this a few times, and I feel it's wrong for a few reasons;

1. Not everyone gets a tax return.

2. Those that do either budget for some other pre-planned luxury purchase (trip, shopping, TV, car), or use it to pay off bills. [usually a mix of both]

3. Outside of the U.S. how many people are getting tax returns?

It's just an idea. Either way, a lackluster launch lineup would hurt them more, even if it sells more at launch. Initial buyers are always the hardcore anyway.

Nintendo tried to depend on one game to carry them at launch with Wii U. It didn't work out. You're talking about something that isn't even an exclusive. It's a risk that might have killed the console out of the gate if they had taken it. At least this way they'll have a good first holiday for sure with Black Friday discounts. Sometimes you need to consider what's best for the long-run.

@techhog89: of course they'll report on a specific event for the reveal, but you're delusional if you believe the prestige and relevance (yes, it is relevant despite what Nintendo fanboys would believe) of E3 isn't more impactful.

A lot more people are going to be paying attention to E3 simply due to the fact that it's a convergence of the industry instead of being a press event dedicated solely to only one aspect of it.

Then why did Sony and Microsoft risk pre-E3 reveals in 2013? Why have several companies such as EA decided not attend E3 at all? Why hasn't the Nintendo Direct idea completely fallen on its face already? What you're talking about is based on what you want, not any actual data. I'm not saying that E3 is irrelevant, but it's also not as huge as you think it is these days. The average person doesn't even know that E3 exists. It being at E3 might have been better than what we're getting, but being revealed before E3 would have been the best choice by far. Either way, it's not a death sentence in terms of media coverage by any stretch of the imagination. Don't beleve me? Just take a look at how many mainstream sites have reported on the financial briefing press conference.

You can quote me on this: you will never see a true next-generation console (PS4k NEO and Xbox One Point Five don't count) revealed at E3 again.

it was a good move by Nintendo.

I just took a look at Nintendo Direct viewership and it is on the decline for the past several months.

Much like the content.

I think Nintendo no showing NX at E3 is going to hurt the console. I mean sure they can do a direct, but only Nintendo fans watch those. E3 has the attention of all gamers.

Nintendo is both revealing and launching their next console after E3. That's the problem. The NX won't get any E3 coverage until after its already out on the market. The PS4 and XB1 on the other hand had a strong E3 showing after their pre E3 reveals. Its all about building hype and I think Nintendo is going to fail at doing that.

E3 isn't the only way to build hype, and a rushed, botched E3 reveal with no software would do more harm than good. Just look at Wii U's reveal and tell me if you think something like that would be in their best interest.

Don't think the March launch is a big deal. Consoles usually sell out at launch, and Nintendo is generally really terrible at having inventory. So it might make it more manageable at launch compared to if they had something with insane Christmas demand, over the long term I doubt it matters much at all. The lack of E3 is slightly curious, but even that doesn't' matter much because of the existence of later trade shows, Nintendo Direct, etc. When they reveal NX people will hear about it.

All that matters is if Nintendo gets the hardware right and has some nice looking games to deliver. Either they create a product people want (SNES, Wii), or they don't (N64, Wii-U). The timing of the launch isn't that important IMO.

They could just give a little tease of the controller or console and say, "You will learn more soon." Just anything to get people excited and talking.

I'm telling you a no show at E3 is going to hurt them.

@emgesp: While the NX might not be "shown" it could be "seen" in a video. As long as it doesn't confuse people like the Wii U did, it will be okay. I'm ok with that. And your right, it could hurt them, but their own press conference between the week after E3 or a month would be a bandaid for the wound.

It might be that NX is weaker than PS4Neo...hence when they want to reveal it...they want to have enough games to show for it..so that people won't be focus on the hardware specs & focus on the games. If they can get enough "good looking games" out ...by that I mean 3D games ..none of that NSMBU like they did for Wii U...was shit. Here's our new console and here's a 2D game ???..that look like an up res of Wii game. Maybe they are upping Zelda U NX version...that will hopefully be at higher res & quality details than Wii U one...and not just a straight port. :P

I'm not saying they have to demo anything or announce specs. Just literally show the form factor of the console or controller like they did with the original Wii in E3 2005. Again their main goal from now until the launch of the NX should be to build up hype. Revealing the NX via a Nintendo direct a couple months after E3 would be stupid as hell. The only people who watch Nintendo Directs are Nintendo fans.

I agree, a tease of some sort (hell, even just a silhouette) is a good idea, and technically not 100% ruled out. It seems like they're afraid that people would be confused if they don't "explain how it works" all at once, but the fact that they need to explain it is a bad sign in and of itself. (Though, I still personally have doubts that the new concept is just another new controller.) On that same token, being vague during the Wii U reveal was a huge blunder that cost them millions of sales, so I can see why they would want to be more careful. We'll just have to wait and see what they do. Missing E3 won't be a death sentence either way if they know what they're doing.

That is a big "if."

A "rushed, botched E3"?

The system is launching in 10 months. For Nintendo's sake, they had better have software well in the works at this point, not to mention the system already laid down. To say that they would be rushing it to E3 is absurd when retail's less than a year away. The Wii U was announced on April 25, 2011 and launched on November 18, 2012. We saw it more than a year and a half before market. It didn't have games to show, which if the rumors are accurate, is not the case with the NX given the restructuring and years they've had to prepare. It's why everyone is saying we see no games on the Wii U: they're in the works for the NX. If things have not progressed well enough to show at E3, even if it's just video snippets, Nintendo's in real dire straights.

As for your previous post:

As Pedro mentioned, viewership of Directs have declined, as has Nintendo's brand awareness and relevance once they took precedence. As people say, to the chorus. Yes, what you are showing with your examples is directly implying that E3 is irrelevant. It's not, it's the biggest gaming extravaganza on Earth. Sure, I admit it's not the end all-be-all go to means of acquiring our news as it was before the advent of the internet, but it's nonetheless the place to be, annually, for gaming to explode in a furor of activity, excitement, and news. Just ask Sony from last year's performance how irrelevant E3 is. The impact that held on their business cannot be ignored (especially shoving DRM in MS's face), and the amount of goodwill and public favor those announcement created was enormous.

But let's assume you're right....E3 doesn't mean much. What do you (or more importantly, Nintendo) gain by downplaying it? They need to take advantage of every opportunity to show the NX soon. Again, I'm not saying they have to reveal it there, but it should absolutely be there. What's the sense not to? Is more exposure/press bad? Sure it's not a death sentence to miss it, but it can only help. Nintendo's in a situation currently where they have literally no momentum going from a system sitting dead in the water. People are skeptical of their future, they're pissed, many feel let down and betrayed. The negative mindshare surrounding Nintendo right now is at an all-time high. We need something to assure us, and E3 is a golden opportunity they are choosing to ignore.

Every chance to instill us with some confidence that what they're doing currently is a change from what they've BEEN doing for the past few years (i.e., constantly fucking up) is something that should be jumped upon and exploited to its fullest.

Exactly, something has to be ready to be shown at this point if the NX is indeed going to release in March of 2017. I don't buy that they don't have enough demos to show at E3.

@emgesp: Well... The other possibility is that the March date is a lie to appease investors and it's really targeted for Holiday 2017.

I wouldn't be surprised if that ends up being the case.

-_- that would be even worse.

without more details about this new "platform" i can't really say

Well, now there's a rumor from a NeoGAF user that Xbox 1.5 and NX are being fabbed at the same plant, but there was a screw-up that caused the production timing of Xbox and NX chips to be swapped, causing the delay. It could be bunk, since if it's true it means that Nintendo is on 14nm. That might be enough to call it fake since Nintendo is always a node behind, right?

EDIT: Wii was the last time Nintendo wasn't a node behind. Wii U was one node behind, 3DS was three.

Kids don't get tax returns silly.

Agreed. Launch will be tough. Possibly worst than launch will be the summer just after launch -- summer is typically a drought for software.

I bet Nintendo doesn't think where ready for the NX because its tooooo gooooooood.

If Emily Rodgers is correct, Nintendo should have some filler titles for that. Likely one of the Wii U ports as well.

thatsbait.jpg

I can't see the Nintendo NX being on 28nm if they release in 2017 and are using an AMD APU. Especially when you consider how much of a hard on Nintendo has for devices that don't consume a lot of power. I'm pretty confident the NX will use Polaris.

Yeah, and I've since done research and determined that Wii U was the only time that they were behind a node at launch as far as consoles go (and there were multiple reasons for why). The thing is that this was originally planned to launch this year and you can't change nodes and architectures in just three months.

Well if PS4 Neo launches this year and it uses a Polaris GPU then we'll have a better idea of what Nintendo might be using.

NEO is 14nmFF. There's no doubt about that whatsoever. We can't say if it's Polaris or not though, and we can't say for sure when it'll launch.

I think it's a good decision if they don't have everything all planned out as of now, which I'm guessing is the reason they delayed it to begin with. Get everything ready, and give it a good showing. They may not get the holidays, but a rushed product is never a good thing.

Really wish they would show anything decent though. A name would be nice at the very least.

Which begs the question: what the hell have they been doing these past few years? Splatoon? They've been busy throwing out half-assed, lazy attempts otherwise. Mario Tennis, Amiibo Festival, Federation Force, Starfox, and a bunch of new mobile-esque IPs nobody can even name. If they are working on the NX and its software, then they've had years already to get it ready, unless Iwata passed without having any plan set in motion at all, which is very doubtful.

Or Iwata did, and Kimishima came in and recognized that what Iwata had planned would repeat the same mistakes that had plagued Nintendo's systems before. If the delay is because of that, great, but I still don't believe it justifies passing up E3.

@techhog89: I don't know if Nintendo understands media impact if that is why. There is a case to be made for what they're doing, but the thing about E3 is it's all about the brawl narrative, and the way you come out of it really winning is if you one-up the other two. They're missing that opportunity to outshowcase their competition and instead isolating themselves.

Or maybe they're still insisting they don't compete with Sony and Microsoft. Who knows.