IGN reports that Guillemot made the comments while at Ubisoft’s quarterly earnings call yesterday. The Nintendo NX is being built as Nintendo’s next-generation games console, following the unsuccessful Wii U that failed to capture a significant audience.
The original Wii sold over 100 million units, becoming one of the most successful consoles in history. Its successor, the Wii U, has shipped only 12.8 million units though, a dismal failure by Nintendo’s own estimates. It had internally predicted the Wii U could sell as strongly as the original Wii.
Guillemot said that Nintendo is using the NX to return to its console roots. Nintendo’s older devices, the handheld DS and the original Wii, were hugely successful products. Unlike the Wii U, they did not attempt to become a major rival to the products of Microsoft and Sony, instead carving out their own niche. The DS and Wii appealed to casual and family players, people looking for light-hearted entertainment rather than hard-core gaming.
With the NX, Nintendo will reportedly return to that ethos. It will target the console more towards casual gamers, deliberately avoiding direct competition with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. This supports earlier rumours that suggest the NX won’t have cutting-edge hardware capable of competing with the upcoming revised versions of Microsoft and Sony’s consoles.
“What we have seen is really great,” IGN reports Guillemot said. “We think having a new machine coming is going to help the industry to continue to grow, and to take lots more casual players back to the industry.”
Over the past two weeks, Nintendo has indicated it is able to return to form and appeal to casual gamers. The worldwide phenomenon Pokémon Go has dramatically increased Nintendo’s stock value and demonstrated it is still capable of creating products with mass appeal.
Ubisoft has already given its support to the NX. It is currently the only major publisher outside of Nintendo itself to announce a game for the console, Just Dance 2017. The title will be available on all major platforms, including the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Its accessible nature could help to get the NX into living rooms, supported by Nintendo’s own Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Hardware details on the NX remain unclear. A series of rumours have revealed some potential features of the console, including the prospect of a return to a cartridge-based system instead of game discs. Some reports have suggested it could have a handheld element, like the Wii U, creating a kind of hybrid gaming experience. The console is expected to launch at some point in 2017.
