Nintendo: NX is not a simple replacement for Wii U or 3DS

We might not be so easily rid of the Wii U.

Speaking to investors today, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said that the company does not intend for its next system, codenamed the NX, to replace either the home console Wii U or portable 3DS. We don’t know much about the NX, other than that it’ll be “a dedicated video game platform with a brand-new concept,” according to Iwata.

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Iwata told investors that it only announced the NX so early, the same time it announced a mobile deal with DeNA, so that it could calm fears that Nintendo was leaving the traditional games business. He also said that Nintendo won’t reveal any information on the NX until 2016. No, really. He told investors this, so don’t expect some surprise announcement at next month’s Electronic Entertainment Expo. You’ll only be disappointed.

But can three systems really co-exist? The Wii U has struggled to compete with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Still, Nintendo has invested a lot of software and time into the console. It might not want to abandon it so early. Of course, you also don’t want your own systems cannibalizing sales.

It’s also possible that Nintendo knows that the NX will likely replace the Wii U, but it doesn’t want to hurt Wii U sales in the near future by publicly abandoning the platform. Back in 2004 when Nintendo released the portable DS, it claimed that it wouldn’t replace the older Game Boy Advance. Of course, once the DS proved to be a hit, that’s exactly what happened.