A few days ago we covered a rumor that stated that the NX (in some form) is releasing in 2016 with Zelda NX arriving on the platform within the launch window, either at the same time as the Wii U version releases or shortly there after. The source of the rumor is someone who goes by MetalDave64, who claimed to have contact with someone inside Nintendo of America. Naturally these rumors are generally made up, even if MetalDave truly believed in the person who contacted him. It’s not hard to be fooled and I know this from personal experience (Remember Zordiana, anyone?).

We covered the rumors because Kevin Cassidy from GoNintendo endorsed MetalDave for reasons that he unfortunately did not divulge. We tend to put some faith in respected people when they back people reporting on certain things – hence why we covered the Wall Street Journal Netflix rumor last year. That being said, MetalDave64 just got a big win in his corner to add some substance to his claims – his source has been verified as legitimate by the moderator team at NeoGAF. Now to many this may not seem like a big deal, but NeoGAF is a gathering ground of journalists, gamers, and developers. When someone comes to their boards boasting claims and having a source, it’s dangerous waters because lying and posting falsified information gets you permanently removed from the community. It also makes you look terrible in front of actual game developers and other journalists.

He provided all of his sources information and verification resources to the moderator team who in turn went about verifying the source as legit. As far as the moderator team at NeoGAF is concerned, MetalDave’s source does indeed work at Nintendo of America, and according to MetalDave the person works in Nintendo’s marketing department. NeoGAF’s moderator team has a pristine record of verifying sources due to all of their inroads with the industry. While I am unsure exactly how they verified that information, reality is that the only way a source is truly protected is for these methods to never be known publicly. So we know really as much as the rest of you know about this.

What this does do, however, is add a bit more weight to the original reporting by MetalDave. While we can’t possibly know definitively if his source is legit, reality is that a highly respected place has seen all MetalDave has seen and has been able to verify who the information came from as being who they claim to be. Obviously, you are free to feel otherwise – until Nintendo publicly says or releases information we can’t call this anything other than a rumor, but we feel it’s important to update our viewers on the situation, because this information is of significant impact to all of us.

That being said, now that we there has been an extra layer of verification, I feel it’s fair we share the totality of the information in terms of what’s coming this year to you directly from MetalDave:

Nintendo NX Launch games for 2016 besides Zelda NX and marketing focus remain hidden for now

Wii U $34.5 million marketing budget for 2016 total – Zelda Wii U has $10 million with the possibility of the funding being switched to Zelda NX version depending on launch timing in 2016.

3DS $56.25 million marketing budget for 2016 total

3DS release list 2016:

Spring-Early Summer

Mario and Sonic Rio 2016

Nintendo Selects Wave 1

Hyrule Warriors Legends

Disney Art Academy

Bravely Second

Code Name: “Caviar F” (casual friendly smaller budget game)

Metroid Prime: Federation Force

Summer

Code name: “Torte City” big budget unannounced game for all gamers core/all ages

Dragon Quest VII

Code name: “Cadillac” (casual friendly smaller budget game late summer)

Fall-Holiday

3DS Hardware Price Cut

Code name: “N-Stars” big budget game for all ages

Nintendo Selects Wave 2

Code name: “DMW2” possibly Disney Magical World 2

Dragon Quest VIII

Pokémon 20th Anniversary game “Niji” Japanese translation: “Rainbow”

Key Wii U releases for 2016:

Coming very soon (new few months): A new Minecraft project featuring Nintendo IP (Nintendo characters), which could be a new title or simply add-on content, is coming to the Wii U (of course I speculate that it’s DLC for Minecraft Wii U Edition)

April: StarFox Zero still on track to release

Summer: Mario and Sonic: Rio 2016

Second Half of 2016 has the second Wave of Nintendo Selects coming but only has 1 unannounced new Wii U game releasing besides: Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem and Zelda Wii U

As for Pokemon Rainbow, there was a rumor back in 2013 that had such a name, so to clarify a bit on this particular name:

“my source said to not go too crazy with Pokémon Niji (translation Rainbow) code name. While it is the 20th anniversary Pokémon game on 3DS, code names rarely are the final name”

It seems possible that rainbow is just a general codename they use for all Pokemon games until the final titles are decided. Either way, this is all the information MetalDave has currently. Obviously, this is all a big fat rumor. Do with it what you will!

Source: Nintengen, NeoGAF