Nintendo plans to gain back its lost footing in the gaming console market with the Nintendo NX?
Nintendo was once the name to beat when it comes to gaming a few decades ago. Does NES ring a bell? Those days could return with the possible release of the Nintendo NX early next year.
Nintendo recently revealed in a press conference the existence of a work-in-progress next-generation console system, which they referred to as the Nintendo NX.
"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," Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said.
Although not too many details were revealed, additional information about the existence and even the build of the Nintendo NX was the fact that chipset and processor manufacturer AMD said recently that the company was working on a design for a "next-generation console scheduled to be released in 2016."
The NX will utilize "new membership service that encompasses smart devices and dedicated videogame systems". This includes upcoming smartphone and tablet games jointly developed with DeNA, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS family and PCs.
The American game console manufacturer's current one is the 2012-relased Wii U, which sold 10 million units so far. It is the lowest figure among the consoles out in the market, which had to get help from the Legend of Zelda game release.
EEDAR video game analyst Kyle Lemmon believes the existence of the Nintendo NX is a tacit admission that the Wii U continues to underperform and won't have a long shelf life.
Possibly contributing to what some consider as a lackluster market performance, is the unit's specs. The Nintendo Wii U has an IBM Power-based multi-core CPU and an AMD Radeon 700 GPU with 2GB RAM (1GB of which is dedicated for games). It is capable of a 1080p Full HD output, which some say is not on par with the two other competitor consoles.
Time will tell if the Nintendo NX can bring back the glory days of Nintendo and get their marbles back together.
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