Nintendo NX is not the next Wii or Wii U, Nintendo pres says

So far we know a lot more about what NX won't be than what it will be. Nintendo's new president Tatsumi Kimishima toed the company line about NX when he talked to Time, though he did offer up one more expectation we can strike from the new dedicated gaming platform.

"I can assure you we’re not building the next version of Wii or Wii U," Kimishima said, after noting how difficult it can be to get owners to migrate from a platform they already own to a new one. "It’s something unique and different. It’s something where we have to move away from those platforms in order to make it something that will appeal to our consumer base.”

That would fit the bill for a platform that could work both as a home console and a handheld, though the company says it won't speak openly about NX until 2016. Kimishima noted earlier in the interview that Wii U had passed 10 million sales, and that making those customers feel satisfied with their purchase was the company's "first job." Before working on NX, mobile apps, or the franchise-spanning Nintendo Account (which could give you points for visiting Nintendo theme parks), Wii U still takes priority.

"Of course we are working on NX and looking at the experiences we can bring to that platform," he said. "But first our job at this point is to support the consumers who have purchased Wii U and make sure that they have software experiences available to them.”

Oh, and about that codename? Kimishima says he doesn't think NX has any particular meaning, “or perhaps Mr. Iwata had meant to tell me and then never got the chance.”

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Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.