Nintendo isn’t going to rush to the market with a Wii U successor. This comes straight from company boss Satoru Iwata. He says that until current owners of the console are “satisfied” the company won’t be launching a Wii U successor. Though he did hint that work may already have started and that Nintendo has a clear idea of what the next console will be like.
These comments were made during a question and answer session with investors. Iwata explains that Nintendo is always developing new hardware as it takes several years to develop a single platform, and like any other company, once a new platform is launched they “naturally start to prepare for the next one.”
He also added that the company will continue to work hard to ensure that current owners are satisfied and that people continue to see value in Nintendo’s software. Iwata revealed that the company is preparing for its next hardware system and they “already have a clear idea to some extent about the direction our next hardware is going to take.”
Nintendo launched the Wii U back in November 2012 and to date it has sold 6.1 million consoles. In comparison, Sony’s PlayStation 4 has sold 7 million units in under six months. The company expects to sell 3.6 million Wii U consoles by the end of the next fiscal year and Iwata believes it won’t be the peak of its lifecycle.
The Nintendo boss says that they’ll continue to work hard to “give sufficient momentum” to the system so that it brings in good results in the subsequent fiscal year as well.