Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot threw a few interesting comments regarding the Nintendo NX, and the incredible success Pokémon GO has had so far. In fact, he said to be “very” surprised by the app’s impact on the market, and he said he was confident the new ‘NX’ console would lure casual gamers and return the company to console-gaming glory days.
If someone had said two months ago that the next Nintendo console was going to be a success, people would have been very skeptical. However, Mr. Yves comments come after Pokémon Go, and everybody knows how that is going.
The company broke sales records when it released the Wii. The console was backed up with a brilliant marketing strategy, and everybody went nuts with it. It brought a new experience to gamers, and the company has reported around 100 million units sold worldwide which is incredible.
In contrast, the Wii U didn’t bring much change, and it seemed like Nintendo was heavily relying on its classics to make it through the sales season, again. In fact, the Asian company last reported only around 13 million units had been sold, a huge setback after the success of its predecessor.
Will the Nintendo NX change the gaming industry?
In 2015, the company behind classics like Mario, Zelda and Perfect Dark announced their developers were working on a new console and codenamed it “NX.” Later, the company also unveiled March 2017 as a potential release date.
The company let clear their team wasn’t working on a high-end console to compete with the PlayStation and Microsoft, so everybody was wondering what the company could do to improve the Wii gaming experience. That was until Niantic released Pokémon Go and Nintendo’s actions and reputation sky-rocketed in a matter of days.
Curiously, Mr. Guillemot also mentioned how surprised he was about the success the mobile app was having and how Ubisoft was working on their Augmented Reality projects. He said they were nothing like Pokémon Go and that they were not going to be released anytime soon.
The comments give strength to the rumors that have been flying around the “NX”. For example, Nintendo’s directors have said in the past that the new console could be a hybrid between a standard console and hand-held device to cruise mobile gaming waters. Also, other sources have said the new console might ditch discs and return to the game cartridges which would further support the portable console theory.
In March 2015, the company started bringing its game to the smartphones and tablets with the help of DeNA, so the developing team has been gaining experience on how to make robust console games run on simpler devices.
Adding the massive success, the new AR project is having around the world; it would not be far-fetched to think the Nintendo “NX” might be a mobile game console that runs AR games. However, the company has confirmed nothing, nor denied anything.
Source: IGN