It’s been a long year of intense waiting and anticipation for Nintendo fans of all sorts. Ever since Nintendo confirmed the existence of a new console in development, fans have been speculating, and trying to piece together various rumors, like some large conspiracy theory. Needless to say, we’ve been waiting quite some time for an official reveal of the upcoming “NX” console, and now, I think everyone can agree with me when I say that – many of us just don’t have that much patience in us left.
Just weeks before E3 2016 kicked off, Nintendo announced that the NX would not be revealed, nor discussed in detail at the show. While this wasn’t really much of a surprise at all, considering the company did not even hold a Digital Direct Event for E3, it was still a pretty hard blow to the fans; considering E3 2016 would arguably be one of the best opportunities, to announce a brand new console. Instead, we were teased with brand new gameplay footage of the upcoming Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild title, which basically took everyone’s mind off the lack of an NX reveal.
Following E3 2016, the only fresh reveals coming out of Nintendo were centered around Pokemon Sun & Moon, no surprise there, as both versions are arguably the companies biggest release of 2016. Gamescom recently took place, about a month ago, and while it was highly rumored Nintendo would reveal the NX sometime during the show, this was ultimately not the case. It didn’t come as much of a surprise to many, as Nintendo generally does not have a much of a showing, if at all, at Gamescom. This years Gamescom was also the event in which many expected Sony to unveil their PS4 Pro, what was once known as the PS Neo; this was also not the case, as Sony ended up holding their own event in NYC to reveal the upgraded PS4 model.
Now here we are, quickly approaching mid-September and Nintendo is the last company to unveil their “next-gen” console. With Microsoft’s light-reveal of the Xbox Scorpio at E3 2016, and with Sony finally unveiling the PS4 Pro last week during their NYC Event; Nintendo is the last company on the map to officially reveal their brand new console.
Tokyo Game Show 2016 is set to kick off only a few day’s from now, and while this was the more likely event for Nintendo to reveal the NX, mainly due to the event being held in Japan, their home turf; it seems the likeliness of a TGS reveal is close to non-existent at this point, as Nintendo has not even confirmed their presence as of yet, for the upcoming show. Nintendo is also not even listed as an attendee for the event, which leads us even more to believe that a TGS NX reveal is now completely out of the picture.
Recent reports from various analysts are now stating that the NX reveal will likely take place sometime during early October. Well, naturally that would be the next likely time frame, right? A prediction for an early October reveal shouldn’t really surprise anyone. While this speculation has no backing and or confirmation whatsoever, the time frame for such a reveal does give Nintendo a bit of time to let the public know, as well as setup their own event. Theoretically, if Nintendo did in fact have a reveal set for early October, up their sleeves; this would likely mean that the company plans to hold an event of their own, much like what Sony did for the PS4 Pro & PS4 Slim reveal. This event would likely take place in either NYC or Japan, as in the past, Nintendo has held various standalone events within these regions.
While many of us still may be holding out for a possible NX reveal at Tokyo Game Show, those of us who are a bit more realistic, likely have our eyes directed at early October. While a bit of a wait is still at hand, October would be just the perfect time-frame for Nintendo to reveal the console, and begin marketing it as the holiday season kicks off. A reveal taking place any later than October, would put Nintendo is quite a risky situation, as generally, you want to have at least 6 month to advertise/market a newly announced platform, before it’s release. With that said, October would be just the mark for Nintendo, assuming that they do in fact still plan to release the NX during March of 2017.
