Topic: Is Zelda's delay the writing on the wall for the Wii U?

We can look at this many different ways, but the way I see it- The Wii U is going to have a shorter lifespan than the other Nintendo consoles. The NX is announced and then a week later we learn that Zelda is being delayed into the following year, which is the year we are supposed to learn about NX.

We're 2.5 years into the Wii U's lifecycle, and it has totally not caught on the way Nintendo hoped it would. Sure, they typically wait their 5 years until they give up on a system, but this one has failed to meet all expectations they had for it. I understand N64 and GCN also sold similarly but these past couple weeks just feel very much like Nintendo saying... "Hey guys, since the Wii U hasn't caught on like we hoped, we're moving on. We're entering mobile and working on our next console"

I think best case scenario, Zelda U is getting the Twilight Princess treatment and being released on both the U & NX. Nintendo isn't giving up on the U, it's still releasing abunch of great games this year, but its pretty clear that they aren't talking much about it's future or announcing any more games other than what we've known about for half a year already.

If NX is indeed a hybrid, then every Nintendo team is working for games for it, VS. "a handheld team" and "a console team". This will ensure Nintendo doesn't make the same mistake and launch with no titles, as well as having MUCH less lulls in software in between. I think Nintendo is moving on, and I, for on, am excited.

I sense you're unaware of the attitude to new threads on this forum.

Nintendo delaying their major franchise releases can only prolong the life of the Wii U, unless they decided to abandon it altogether, which I can't see them admitting defeat like that at this point. They'll make it successful no matter how long it takes them to do it.

Iwata only talked about the NX to silence the rumours about Nintendo going completely mobile. If they didn't go the mobile route, I doubt we would've heard anything about the NX until next year at its earliest. Hence I think that all Wii U doom and gloom arguments that involve the NX are completely nonsense.

How are people figuring that Zelda U will be on NX when Zelda U might even come out BEFORE the NX is actually fully revealed?! We'll get the NX at the earliest Q3/Q4 2016, maybe even 2017.. Zelda U WILL come out next year. I don't know, I think people are just jumping the gun and assuming like crazy. The Wii U still has life left in it.

Actually..."The new launch timing has not yet been determined. Because we’d like to focus on developing the game" (http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/28/nintendo-says-e3-will-just-be-focussed-on-wii-u-2015-games/) it may not even come out next year no one can be certain when this game will come out.

Guess it's all ogre now guys.

No, the Wii U will be just fine. Nintendo is always working on the next big thing, that's how companies operate. They have to plan years ahead and there's always something in the Research and Development pipeline.

And i never believed in a 2015 release date for Zelda U, that was just unrealistic wishful thinking. But that's okay, i'd rather play a good game one or two years later than a rushed game now.

Hoo boy, another one of THESE threads...

My thoughts exactly.

Maybe Zelda U will launch on both the Wii U and NX (if it's a third pillar or new home console) like Twilight Princess, when it was released on GameCube and Wii?

Maybe this thread will quarantine the more hostile people away from the other thread.

Couple of things. If the new console Zelda does indeed release on Nintendo NX, Wii U will be the first console not to have its own dedicated Zelda game. Which brings me to my next point. Throughout the years Aonuma has discussed the gamepad and its implementations in Zelda Wii U. If this game were to release on NX it would be a downgraded version unless it supported the gamepad in some way shape or form.

We were about due for a new one anyways. This fills the quota.

I don't think there was actually a person on earth who's been a Zelda fan more than four years and actually expected this game to come out in 2015. That was probably the most obvious lie the company executives have given in my lifetime. They can't delay major games in this series time after time for the same "we just want to make it better" excuse, then say they JUST started working on this game and it will be exponentially larger than any other in franchise history and then actually expect us to believe it would be ready in a year.

So bottom line is no. The "2016-2017" release date for "The Legend Of Zelda for Wii U (tentative title)" is, in reality no different from the "2015 jk/lol" release date they originally gave, so nothing is any different than it was two days ago.

I won't deny the possibility, but I must point out that just about every argument made since the announcement is just pure conjecture. We don't know when Zelda will come out. We don't know anything about the NX including its release date.

We cannot draw any conclusions right now at all.

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Well, it got me thinking - the new nintendo home console has been announced with the Wii U just 2,5 years out - thats pretty early on in the game, unprecedented I guess. The Wii U has been a commercial failure so far, nintendo doesnt seem to be able to put out as many quality games as their fans would hope for. Zelda U would have been a killer application this holiday season - its doubtful, however, that it would have changed that much - and maybe nintendo knows that they just don't have so much up their sleeve after zelda - I mean, there is a possible metroid game, but what else can they bring out? - they realized that they have lost almost all third party support and will not regain it, at least not for the wii u. There might be something to it.

They only have a couple of options in my opinion

They can either have all their development teams develop awesome wii u titles and try to keep the systems alive as long as possible and when they finally bring out the next console they will again have just a few launch games and software droughts as their teams might have trouble coming up with new titles because they have spend their ideas, time and resources on wii u titles.

Or they can finish a those couple of games they had already announced, like yoshi, star fox etc. and bring out a game per quarter, while having their development teams already working on the new gen thus ensuring a more or less succesful launch and less software droughts later on.

IMHO the only thing that can save them if they make their next gen console fully backwards compatible with wii/wii u titles. If they were to bring out a new, much more powerful system with awesome launch titles that could run the entire wii/wii u library that could be a game changer. I know some people said its impossible as they are moving on to x86 architecture - but I think it could be possible somehow. Lets just say I would be very disappointed if its not backwards compatible after having invested in a system that just spawned a couple of titles worth mentioning and lasted only 3-4 years