Without Zelda, Wii U’s 2016 looks bleak — and Nintendo’s outlook suggests it’ll stay that way

Nintendo just announced that its code-named NX gaming console will debut in 2017, and the company delayed The Legend of Zelda for Wii U because it wants to launch that simultaneously on both the incoming and outgoing systems. But that has also left the Wii U in a bleak situation.

As of today, Nintendo’s Wii U home console has three confirmed first-party games coming before the end of 2016. At the same time, third-party publishers have almost entirely abandoned the system, so they will not make up the difference. The gaming industry is a $99.6 billion business, and Nintendo is trying to get to a point where it can capture a bigger piece of that revenue — but the Wii U is not going to have a lot to do with that.

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Here are the games Wii U owners can look forward to:

• Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE: June 24
• Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games: June 24
• Paper Mario: Color Splash: 2016

Nintendo may also launch Project Giant Robot, and it may have new announcements at the upcoming Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show. But you shouldn’t expect any “system sellers” because, well, the publisher doesn’t expect to sell many Wii U consoles.

For the fiscal year that came to an end on March 31, Nintendo sold 3.26 million Wii U systems. But the company is estimating that it will only sell 800,000 Wii U consoles between April 1, 2016 and March 31, 2017. That’s a tiny number, and one that essentially screams: “we aren’t going to give consumers a reason to buy this device over the next 12 months.”