Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has revealed that the company is already planning its successor to the Wii U.
The news comes from the Q&A session which followed the release of Nintendo's latest financial results. Iwata explained:
"Once we launch a new platform, we naturally start to prepare for the next one.
"As it takes several years to develop a single platform, if you ask us whether we are preparing for our next system, then the correct response will be that we are always developing new hardware.
"On the other hand, the most difficult question for us to answer in public in concrete terms is when we are going to launch our new hardware and what kind of hardware we are going to launch, and I am afraid that I cannot talk about this in more detail.
"However, I can certainly assure you that we are not at a dead end of any kind in which we are out of ideas for developing new hardware. I of course believe that launching new hardware will not produce good results unless we first make sure that those who have already purchased our platforms are satisfied.
"We will continue to work hard to ensure that consumers who already own our platforms are satisfied, and make sure that people will continue to see great value in our software, but I would like to say that we are preparing for our next hardware system, and in fact, we already have a clear idea to some extent about the direction our next hardware is going to take."
The Wii U's sales have been poor and we may see what comes next sooner than Nintendo might have liked. As a result of its current difficulties, Iwata announced Nintendo would be making a "Quality of Life" platform but not much is known about it yet. Iwata did however stress that the company believes a Wii U turnaround is possible if the right game catches on:
"The fate of a video game system is often influenced greatly by the introduction of a single title. As many of you probably remember, before the release of the Pokémon game, Game Boy had been showing slow growth, and many people wondered whether it was the end of Game Boy. But the Pokémon game singlehandedly changed the landscape of the system, which then started to show the strongest sales in the lifecycle of the system."
The compay is set to forego a traditional E3 press conference for a second year in favour of direct streams and other online events. As to what Nintendo will show at E3, Iwata said:
"The titles we are preparing to show you at E3 vary from being nearly complete to still in the early phases of development but with the core of its appeal noticeable."
We'll likely get to see some Zelda Wii U but what else are you hoping for?
