This is the time of year when everybody is releasing their financial reports for the first quarter of 2015, and in them, Nintendo gave some cause for worry. Nintendo, while reporting release dates for various titles, have curiously left Zelda U's release date as TBD. This is noteworthy due to the fact that every other game except Project Giant Robot receives a release window of some kind (sans one European 3DS release), whether it be a specific season, or just 2016. As everybody was expecting a 2016 release date to be fairly set in stone, it is becoming increasingly difficult to figure out what exactly Nintendo is planning for their Zelda title for the Wii U. Or rather, maybe it is becoming increasingly clear.

There has been speculation since the NX really set the rumor mill ablaze that perhaps Zelda U wasn't going to be so much Zelda U as Zelda U + NX. With the increasing likelihood that, whether it be the NX or something else, Nintendo's home console successor is on the horizon for a 2016 announcement and maybe even late 2016 release date, many sources are speculating more and more that Zelda U may pull a Twilight Princess scenario. The lack of certainty in Zelda's release date could be a lack of certainty in the console successor release date, whether it will be 2016 or 2017 at this point. This is a very real possibility to entertain, and even if it doesn't necessarily follow any trends, it should be considered.

I'm hoping we will all be proven wrong, and that Zelda U will be the exclusive title Wii U owners have been waiting for, but Nintendo's suspicious behavior is causing people to draw some different conclusions. Whether the struggling Wii U will receive this title exclusively has already been a subject of debate on this site ever since Zelda U was delayed to 2016 back in late March.

All of that said, I'd like to ask you all: what do you think? Has your opinion changed? Do you think Zelda U is still guaranteed to be a Wii U exclusive, or is the magic eight ball starting to predict a more uncertain future?

I'll make it clear now that Nintendo reporting the release date this way does not set in stone any kind of facts about the way the game will be releasing, so please be sure to treat your speculation and others appropriately.

Nintendo Financial Report - See Page 5

 

[ddrrmm]

Am I the only one who actually kind of hopes that the new Zelda game will be moved to the next console? The Wii U is pretty much charred at this point and I think they might be able to make the game better on better hardware.

yeah sure just stab the wiiu buyers in the back one more time

 

[RichHomieSupreme]

yeah sure just stab the wiiu buyers in the back one more time

If they did that the nx would fail too.

The nx needs to come out in 2018 and not 2016 if they want their consumers to buy their next system.
Also they need to stop trying to compete with the other systems because they seem to have forgotten how to do so since the n64. They should strive to make their system worth owning alongside the other consoles of the generation.

 

[amoulton]

Nintendo already told us that, the NX will not be a replacement for the Wii U, which means no backwards compatibility.

I don't think that's what it means. They could easily be leaving an intentional performance gap between the NX and the underpowered Wii U specifically so they *can* emulate the PPC hardware.

 

[FusionGamer]

yeah sure just stab the wiiu buyers in the back

They don't give a rat's ass about you. They're in it to make money and not to hold your hands.

 

[sarkwalvein]

They don't give a rat's ass about you. They're in it to make money and not to hold your hands.

It is the same for the consumers.
The "love" for a brand only goes so far.
If you feel like one brand is backstabbing you, you will end up giving a fuck about them and jumping to some other brand.
So you should take that into consideration before backstabbing consumers and hurting the brand popularity. (It impacts on the possibility to make money out of their asses in the future)

 

[ddrrmm]

They don't give a rat's ass about you. They're in it to make money and not to hold your hands.

The only group likely to be interested in a nintendo console right now, are for the most part the people who have already purchased the wiiu.. do you really expect all of the wiiu users to buy nintendo's new system again and end up with another system full of empty promises and game droughts?

In that case I wonder who they are planning on selling their next console to .. they dont give a rats ass according to you but unless they have magically found another group of people willing to spend their money on them..im afraid they will have to.

And if you sell a console and make promises about a new zelda, then you should follow through. This has nothing to do with holding anyone's hand.

 

[FAST6191]

The only group likely to be interested in a nintendo console right now, are for the most part the people who have already purchased the wiiu.. do you really expect all of the wiiu users to buy nintendo's new system again and end up with another system full of empty promises and game droughts?

Well they did it for the N64 (though that might be a case of fool me once), the gamecube, the original wii, the dsi and the 3ds.

 

[RichHomieSupreme]

All of those were good consoles through, idk about the dsi though since I never saw any reason to buy one.