Topic: Should Nintendo bring out a next gen console sooner or later?

If Nintendo wants to stay in the home console market or become more relevant in regard to the so-called modern gamer they will have to bring out a new console. A new console seems inevitable.

Now I was thinking (now that have been a wii u owner for about four weeks that I would feel a little bit disappointed if they moved on too fast. As it is now I would like to see more games coming out, especially from Nintendo and maybe some third party exclusives (or second party if you will). 2015 seems to be a good year with Zelda, Yoshi and Xenoblade up ahead but 2016 could be the year when they bring out their new stuff. In fact they should, cause if they wait too long they might just repeat what they did with the Wii U, by bringing out a console that is just a little bit above par with the other consoles and new next gen rumours might cause people to wait up and see sony's or microsoft's next move.

What do you think? Should they bring out the next console sooner rather than later?

From my point of view it doesnt really matter as long as its gonna be backwards compatible with Wii U products and hopefully Wii games as well. In fact I believe full backwards compatibility with all wii/wii u games might earn them sympathy points as I believe that sonys or ms next consoles again won't have any backwards compatibility.

Later.Nintendo's doing good at bringing great exclusive titles to the Wii U right now and I think they should wait until the next generation comes around.

Later, because...what Drobotic said.

Late 2017 at the earliest.

I'm expecting the WiiU to last a normal five year life-span.

I think it's important to remember that the Wii U is a necessary step for Nintendo to learn HD gaming. Where Sony and MS had the previous generation (and some of the current) of spending big bucks on R&D, processors and staff to actually produce the games, selling their 7th gen machines at a loss, Nintendo sat back with their low powered Wii and instead made a big pile of money. But now they know they need to move on. If anyone thinks they could have just jumped to produce PS$/XB1 graphical level games from the Wii they need their heads examining. The Wii U has already been hampered by delays whilst Ninty's teams learn how to make these games. Sony and Microsoft relay on EA, Ubi, etc... to spend the big bucks on making these expensive shiny games, they aren't cheap to make and are held to deadlines that Nintendo don't adhere to. Personally I don't expect Nintendo to care that much in making their games any more shiny, but perhaps making a machine that 3rd party teams could. Personally I would think Nintendo will make a unified system of Console and Portable, so they can share the games between the two systems.

As for us fans, I don't think it's a case of 'how many years the Wii U has left', it's more if we get our Zelda (next year), Starfox (also next year), a new Metroid, another Mario (can't see us not getting another one for the Wii U even if the next system launches with one), and then another 10-20 back up titles. You would assume to release all of that would take 2-3 years, with maybe the 3rd year being pretty lean. The 3DS will probably stretch out to that as well, which will line up the consoles together.

As for backwards compatibility, I doubt this will be likely, as Nintendo will probably have to move to a similar system that the other two consoles are using to make 3rd parties happy, plus I doubt the Gamepad will carry on, with a lot of Wii U games needing it to function.

Sega released the Dreamcast sooner rather than later, and look what happened.

2017 seems like the ideal year for next gen at this point. That's right about when New 3DS and Wii U will probably run out of momentum.

Nintendo will push it as far as they possibly can, which even Nintendo doesn't know the answer to.
It's not like they sit there and say that a new console will show up in 5 years, and that's that. If the Wii U is doing well enough in 3 years, they'll aim for another 3 years. Sony and Microsoft are following the same line of thought, of pushing their consoles as far as they can go, in the market.

Later. Releasing their new console first will put Nintendo into the exact same situation they're in now with the Wii U as Sony and MS would just release theirs a year later and make Nintendo's the weakest again. If Nintendo wants 3rd parties, they must release a system that is on par with PS5 and the next Xbox and it must use a similar architecture (meaning no backwards compatibility sadly).

Late 2014. Yes. In 2-3 days.

It's five years between every console release, except the Wii U which was six. I don't see that changing.

That being said, by the end of 2015 the majority of their IPs would've been released for the Wii U. So for 2016 & 2017 they either need to dip into some of their more niche IPs like F-Zero, Pilotwings, FE, or release big hitters like Metroid and Papermario or release a Galaxy3 and some great third exclusives. Otherwise, without third party support the last two years are going to be very bleak.

This time next year it's going to very interesting.

I'd prefer Never. I sat through both the 3DS and Wii U's launch so they can wait forever to release a new one if it means avoiding all that nonsense again, thank you very much.

Long live the WII U! Seriously I hope it will stay out there as long as possible (as long as they put out great games that is )

Today I read the WII U has passed 8 million in sales by the middle of december, seems good to me, could be the onset for some japanese third parties to start releasing games (harvest moon, rune factory etc.)

nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope

Wii U is the best!

I think it would be more wise for Nintendo to continue going down the lack of 3rd parties route then to fall into the generic super powerhouse console approach that would hurt them more than help.

I agree with you. As long as they bring out the games they have been bringing out so far! However, more sales can mean more games, like more interesting ones, like niche products that otherwise wouldnt be produced.

So what, you want them to go out of business?

Later because the wii u is still very new and im sure that Nintendo haven't maxed out its potential....plus im broke so i wouldn't be able to buy a new console any time soon