Creator of Wii reveals it has new machine in production, but gamers shouldn’t expect more details for another year

Nintendo has officially confirmed that it is working on a brand new dedicated games platform, under the development codename “NX”. The company has not stated whether this is a home console or handheld gaming device.

The announcement was made during a hastily convened press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday. The main purpose of the event was to explain Nintendo’s decision to enter the smartphone gaming market, via a partnership with smartphone games specialist DeNA.

However, Nintendo’s chief executive, Satoru Iwata, went on to announce the hardware platform in order to assuage fears that Nintendo may move away from manufacturing dedicated games machines.

During the press event, Iwata said: “As proof that Nintendo maintains strong enthusiasm for the dedicated game system business, let me confirm that Nintendo is currently developing a dedicated game platform with a brand-new concept under the development codename NX. It is too early to elaborate on the details of this project, but we hope to share more information with you next year.”



Nintendo’s current home console, the Wii U, has not been as successful as its 100m-selling predecessor. Released in 2012, the machine, which comes with a touchscreen controller called the GamePad has sold around 10m units. In comparison, Sony’s PlayStation 4, released over a year later, has already passed the 20m mark.

However, Nintendo has seen continued success with its 3DS handheld console, releasing several iterations, including this year’s New 3DS with improved stereoscopic effects and a larger screen. The series has now sold over 50m units.

Nintendo has been slow to embrace the rise of smartphone gaming, which now makes around $30bn (£20.3bn) a year, and both analysts and investors were becoming impatient. There have been suggestions that Nintendo may be about to abandon hardware production entirely and concentrate on developing its world-respected IP, such as Super Mario Bros, Mario Kart and Zelda on other devices.

With the announcement of NX, however, Iwata has confirmed Nintendo’s dedication to gaming hardware.

“Of course, the challenge of asking our consumers to purchase dedicated video game hardware has become harder now that smart devices have widely spread,” he stated. “However, we recognise that our business model of producing both video-game hardware and software is effective even today, and we do not share this pessimistic view of the future for dedicated video-game systems.”

There is no other information about the machine, though Nintendo may well provide an additional teaser at this year’s E3 gaming exhibition in Los Angeles in June.