Is Zelda Wii U Being Deliberately Delayed for Nintendo NX?

SegmentNext - Nintendo’s mystery console, dubbed Nintendo ‘NX’ has been catching a lot of attention for a platform that we know nothing about.

[nX]

If that's the case I'll sell my WiiU and never buy a Nintendo console again. Zelda is pretty much the only WiiU game I'm waiting for.

[nidhogg]

I stopped buying Nintendo products after the Wii.

Best. Decision. Ever.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

Most. Obvious. Troll. Ever.

Get back under the bridge.

[inStereo]

That's a shame, nidhogg... you're missing out on a lot of excellent games that exist for the WiiU!

[stragomccloud]

Okay, so, I thought a gamer was one who enjoyed games. Apparently not.

Try harder troll.

[truechainz]

Considering that having sex is a decision, that makes me feel very, very sorry for you.

[YosefH64]

Its the best decision because you have less games to play?? Ive played more games on Wii U than I have on my PS4 and XB1 combined... I dont understand this comment. Is it just me?

[Whymii]

If that's the case, why do you own a wii u? You're probably better off selling it now and putting the money towards games on another system. There's some great games competing for your money on PS4 and Xbone.

Myself, I'll still be enjoying Splatoon, Bayonetta 2, Pikmin 3, Mario Kart 8, Smash Bros, (Super Mario Maker when it arrives) etc, etc with my kids. One game does not make a system but only one system will ever play those games.

As for the topic, my 2 cents is it'll be another twilight princess and be a launch title for one console and a swan song for another.

[freshslicepizza]

why would you sell your wii u if the game is still coming? this article talks about the game getting delayed so that it could also come to the nx.

i said this months ago when nintendo announced its delay. it would make sense to also have it on the new nx system because of the lack of wii u sales and how much nintendo is investing into this zelda game.

[LCEvans]

Im a massive fan of zelda, have been since watching my cousin playing ocarina as a kid!

waiting for this to release to get a Wii u, Can you get the old zelda games on the wii u atm? if so i am going to pick one up this weekend!

[Whymii]

You can play skyward sword, ocarina of time and wind waker. There's also the older ones, minish cap, legend of zelda 1 & 2, and link to the past.

[Venoxn4g]

twilight princess as well

[LCEvans]

that's good to know! thankyou for the information! bubbles up!

[deafdani]

If that's the case, then it wasn't a wise decision from your part to buy a console that didn't have any game that you wanted out yet. Your fault, not Nintendo's.

Anyway, if this new Zelda indeed comes out for NX, it's very likely that it will be a cross-platform release and come out for Wii U as well. Like Twilight Princess' case.

[ABizzel1]

@Bloodborn

I'm about to sell mine as well. I can't deal with or justify spending $300 on a console with 2 - 3 games I'm interested in per year, and this is the 2nd time in a row I've been burned by that with Nintendo.

I like Nintendo games, but I only like a handful of them (maybe 10 - 15 the entire generation, and I'll pick up the rare 3rd party game for support if it's good). So I've promised myself not to buy their consoles until much later in the generation, closer to the end when the transition from PS4 / XBO to PS5 / XB4 occurs. Those +10 games I missed on Nintendo should hold me over a full year until the dry spell for PS5 and XB4 is over, plus the hardware will be cheaper for both Nintendo and hopefully one of the other two by then, with a decent bundles.

My 10 Wii U games

Bayonetta
Mario Kart
Smash
Super Mario 3D World
Zombi U (just ok)
Splatoon
Wind Waker HD
Need for Speed Most Wanted
Darksiders 2
Deus Ex

The last 3 I wanted were

Mario Maker
Xenoblade
Zelda

It just doesn't make sense to me anymore to spend $300 on a console that at tops I'll by 20 games over the generation, whereas for $400 on a PS4 I'll buy at least 2x that amount of physical games, will have 150 digital games free from PS+ over the lifecycle of the console, and more than likely another 50 digital games over the lifecycle of the console I buy from PSN sales (especially around X-Mas).

Just wait until the end of the generation, and buy one for around $100 and I'm sure you'll enjoy it more. And at the same time you can wait a full year to see what happens with the PS5 / XB4 before deciding to pick one of them up. It's what I plan on doing going forward. I'll buy the NX when the PS5 and XB4 get ready to replace the PS4 and XBO.

[hennessey86]

and tomorrow is definitely not thursday

[Chupa-Chupa]

Bet all your money on it! It will be much like Twilight Princess.

[PhoenixUp]

No! Nintendo's next console will not have parity with Wii U

[ABizzel1]

I don't know.

Technologically speaking it's not hard to match the Wii U's performance at a entry level price. A $199 console today has already done it and surpassed it.

http://shield.nvidia.com/an...

NX isn't launching until next year so it can go beyond even that. Zelda also isn't launching until next year. With a more powerful CPU and a GPU that's over 2x better than the Wii U, and at least 2x the RAM porting the game over would be easy, and highly likely at this point.

720p @ 30fps Wii U
1080p @ 30fps NX

[gameboy1]

Try 1080p/60fps on NX mate,oh let me just say all 3 current gen consoles are nothing special and all 3 have about the same graphics output....

Xbox1/ps4 have weak laptop cpu's end of all 3 are limited due to not having serious cpu's they all have very capable gpgpu's,all 3 have enough memory with ps4 having lots of RAM and WIIU having tons of edram on everything even the cache they are all fairly capable but nothing special.

If FUSION rumours hold any truth then expect 4k on NX,Miyamoto said a while bk 4k would be good for pikimin...

[ABizzel1]

@gameboy1

http://www.evilenglish.net/...

They have nowhere near the same graphics output, besides the fact all 3 are currently locked in 1080p as the max resolution. The XBO is almost 4x more powerful than the Wii U GPU-wise, and the PS4 is over 5x. Wii U doesn't have enough memory for any current gen-games which are eating up 4GB of memory regularly now even on PC, it's 1GB of RAM for games is nowhere near enough, but more than enough for games that function alongside the PS360 era. All 3 have low end CPUs.

4k gaming is never going to happen for Nintendo unless they use it for games that aren't really graphically demanding. Pikmin could be one of those games and they could get by with a entry level GPU like a 750 / 750 Ti / or 260x, all of which could be put into the NX at the price of $299 - $349. But that leaves a sore spot for having a good CPU in the NX.

[PhoenixUp]

Nintendo won't release another console until 2017 or 2018, and there'd be too much effort to make Zelda U multiplat like Twilight Princess

[ABizzel1]

Nintendo said they're discussing NXE3 2016, there's no way it's getting a 2018 release date with that happening. It's 2016 - Holiday 2017 at the latest.

[gameboy1]

It would be less effort then building a ground up Zelda that's for sure so expect Zelda WiiU/NX also expect RetroStudio's new game on WiiU/NX plus i also think we will see a few more of these WiiU/NX multiplats it makes sense for profit basically WiiU will have at least 15 million install base by the time NX is released so doing multiplat WiiU/NX games will be a big focus as it would be less risky as you would have 2 platforms for sales performance basically.

December 2016 is when i think the NX will release or at the very latest July 2017,i think they will go with 2016 because of the holiday period and also i think the games they are preparing should be ready by dec2016 that's another 18 months.

[d_g]

the game looked absolutely amazing at E3

http://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/ass...

https://33.media.tumblr.com...

[ABizzel1]

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

They have some cool grass tech, and the artstyle is amazing, but they turned it down a tiny notch in the actual gameplay footage. Still it looks great.

[gameboy1]

What are you on about they said only a few weeks ago that Zelda on wiiu looks even better now....GROW UP..

[addictedtochaos]

Oh for crying out loud Nintnedo has already reconfirmed that Zelda is still coming to Wii U.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

No.
They've already said it's for Wii U.
They have said nothing about it being on NX.
It's stupid to assume they will until they specifically state otherwise.
The people insisting it will are mostly just people who despise the Wii U and want Nintendo to do something stupid to hurt their reputation again.

[Hoffmann]

The situation reminds me a lot at 2004/2005 before Zelda Twilight Princess was announced to be one of the first Nintendo Wii games though.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

TP was the exception, not the rule, and we already have statements confirming that it is coming to Wii U next year.

In lieu of official statements from Nintendo, all claims that it's going to be for NX are fact-less assumptions.

All of their efforts with Zelda U have been towards making the most of the Wii U for the game, as well.

[deafdani]

Uh, I most definitely don't despise the WIi U, and I absolutely don't want Nintendo to do anything stupid (but that won't stop them, lol).

Anyway, I don't think there's absolutely anything wrong with the new Zelda coming out for NX... as long as it always comes out for Wii U, preferably first, as promised. I don't understand why some people seem to think that, for some reason, it isn't possible for a game to release in two platforms at once.

So, a cross-generation release of Zelda for Wii U and NX wouldn't damage Nintendo's reputation. That didn't happen with Twilight Princess (even though it even released for Wii first), so it won't happen with the new Zelda.

[ReesesPuffs]

Personally I doubt it. Supposedly they've been developing it to showcase what the Wii U gamepad can do and I would imagine they would have a lot of puzzles and maybe even a few items centered around the gamepad. It wouldn't make sense to do a Twilight Princess thing unless they were intentionally pulling features from the Wii U version so they could release it simultaneously in which case they would never see a purchase from me again.

[ABizzel1]

And who's to say the gamepad won't work with the NX?

Also most of the stuff they showed was inventory for gamepad, and mapping sections to travel to on the gamepad, all of which have been done in game for the longest.

The gamepad features shown so far are good uses of it, but that don't make it impossible to port to the NX.

[ReesesPuffs]

First off we don't know what type of features they'll be using the gamepad for in this Zelda. We have a brief idea but a lot of reports, and prior history, point to multiple inventive uses for the gamepad (although they're not fact but you can't rule them out either). Second, every 3D Zelda game I can remember for the last decade has been delayed for "improvements" so in reality they could've delayed this game for any number of things. Also we don't know what the NX is yet, so you could be correct, but I would imagine Nintendo would try to seperate themselves from the Wii U with this next console.

Honestly we can speculate on this all day but in the end neither one of us are right or wrong yet. We're just speculating and I'm of the opinion it's not being delayed for the NX.

[DualWielding]

of course... I think it won't even be like Twilight Princess, it would be a full NX exclusive... yes they've said its still coming to Wii U but its not like they have never lied before

[Hoffmann]

Nintendo has a damn long history of lies.

I remember them talking about 1:1 arcade perfect ports of Killer Instinct and Cruis'n USA for their new Ultra 64 console.

Instead KI got a 16bit port to the SNES ..a not 1:1: port of KI2 later and their N64 was not strong enough for the 2 year old (at the time) Cruisn USA either.

1996 was the year I had enough from Nintendo.

[MSBAUSTX]

I dont understand. They did release an awesome KI in KI Gold and Cruisin USA did come to the N64 and both in 1996. How exactly did they lie to you?

[Hoffmann]

@N4G why is it not possible to directly reply to replies since some days?

@MSBAUSTX
Killer Instinct Gold is not Killer Instinct 1. They announced an arcade 1:1 quality of the original Killer Instinct back in 1994, what we got was a very downgraded (understandable port of it on SNES and a port of Killer Instinct 2 that was not reaching the graphical quality of the original arcade version either and also had to remove sound and video clips due to their dumb decision to rely on cartridges.

[gameboy1]

Your just trolling they wont just release it on NX only as that would be silly games sell millions on wiiu in fact Zelda will sell a guaranteed 6 million worldwide if you think they wont put it on WiiU for a console that has zero install base get a life troll they will put it on WiiU looking better then ever and then on NX with more detail Resolution ect and prob even sell it a second time to 50% of the people that bought it on WiiU as well....

[jay2]

I hope the roumors of it being less powerful than the current consoles, but I'd say it would be, as usual. They won't win their 3rd party support. But I would like Zelda out on launch day.

[ABizzel1]

Well if it's less powerful then my guess is that they're selling it for $199 - $249, which would be understandable (if they were smart $199 would be their target goal).

At $199 it's an entry level console, and a much easier buy for the vast majority of gamers core and casual, who'll only buy 10 games tops.

And at that price they can build a console that's around 2/3 the power of the XBO, which is more than enough for Nintendo and their first party, and just barely enough to get 3rd party games ported to their console in 720p at their lowest settings.

Not what the core wants to hear, but it's the smartest thing to do in their current situation.

[RPGrinder]

They already said it is coming to Wii U too. This is really just a terrible flamebait article.

[Activemessiah]

http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

[Ocsta]

when I said this was happening people freaked out on me. But its so obviously what Nintendo is planning.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

Taking assumptions based off of a one-time exception like TP, against statements that it is a WII U title, isn't going to convince anyone.

It's a Wii U-only title until further notice.
Nintendo's own statements support this.

That's just the way it is.

[truechainz]

hilarious you acting like you came up with this idea on your own.

[MSBAUSTX]

Does nobody remember watching like 15 minutes of Miyamoto playing Zelda U on the Wii U jumping off Epona and gunning down goblins in a Nintendo Direct? Yes it will come to Wii U.

[MSBAUSTX]

A later edit to what I said earlier is Aonuma was there too playing it. Dont remember or believe me? Here. Proven it is coming to Wii U.

https://www.google.com/url?... http://m.youtube.com/watch%...

[Summons75]

No! Why? Because Nintendo has already stated it's still coming for Wiiu NEXT YEAR and they had a whole thing ready for e3 but decided not to show it (probably to keep the spot light on Star fox) and NX is still 3 to 4 years from launching. We are only getting some details next year but they only said NX so crazy news outlets like you wouldn't blow the DeNA deal out of proportion.

[superchiller]

NX isn't "still 3 to 4 years from launching", come on. It is most likely coming next year, initial production starts in Fall of this year, with mass production in May/June of next year:

http://www.ign.com/articles...

You think they're going to manufacture millions of consoles, then leave them in warehouses for years?

[Summons75]

They said they are going to reveal SOME details next year, not release it. Even if you do think the Wiiu will be a 5 year console then its still not next year. The earliest is in 2017 but 18 or 19 are more realistic because that's when Sony and MS will start gearing up for next gen.

[bass4g]

That's just a rumour right now though. As is pretty much everything about the NX right now and most of it's contradictory. Supposedly third parties saw the NX at e3 and they were please, but then if the nx is also supposedly less powerful than the ps4/xboxone. I don't see why third parties would be pleased with that situation. If the NX is to release a month or so after next year I REALLY don't see third parties being happy as that gives them a year between seeing the console and releasing games for it. Unless hardware wise it's pretty much identical to ps4.xboxone that's not happening and again according rumour it won't be. Until we start hearing about dev kits getting released and/or leaked we won't know when the new system is releasing. I really don't think it'll release in 3-4 years, 2 years maximum, but at this point we don't know enough to say that it'll definitely release next year.

[marloc_x]

Nobody likes a gossip schiller ;)

[ABizzel1]

@Summons75

NX is not 3 - 4 years from launching. Nintendo said at E3 this year they're talking about it at next year's conference, which means at the longest it's a 2017 launch (1 1/2 year top).

They also said they didn't show Zelda, because it wouldn't be ready this year, which had nothing to do with Starfox.

And unless the NX is a $99 box, then it's going to easily be more powerful than the Wii U and a port of Zelda can be released on both NX and Wii U. GPU hardware has taken 2 steps up since the launch of the Wii U, and another step is due sometime next year, meaning even if they use old tech again, it's already a leap ahead of what's inside of the Wii U.

CPUs have had slow gains
GPUs have taken 3 steps since then (680 -> 780 -> 980, soon UHD 180)
And they were already behind in RAM (DDR3 / GDDR5 -> DDR4 / HBM)

Nintendo can produce a console that's around 2.5x the performer the Wii U was at $199, with an A10 7700 APU + 4GB GDDR5. And that console will run that Zelda game effortlessly if the Wii U can.

[gameboy1]

Nintendo have said they want to excite gamers with NX and also had a job advertised for a graphics engineer from the West which had a quote to work on low power hardware it said it wasn't a must this meant low power high performance basically and that's where the not aiming for ps4 power rumour came from...look at ps4 they employed a graphics engineer Mark Ceeny so if anything it proves Nintendo are being serious about graphics with NX simple...

Employing a Graphics Engineer from the West.
Wanting to Exite Gamers.
A new Concept/Hybrid portable/Home ?

The portable/Home Console concept if correct could provide a more profitable environment for developers which would make sense and Iwata keeps talking about that new building that unifys Handheld and Home Console devisions also points to a hybrid console.

[SilverClock]

NX or not, it's going to be an awesome game. It's one of the few games the hardcore crowd are getting from Nintendo, and if they screw that up they're going to piss off a looot of people. Moreso than usual, haha.

[Relientk77]

Yes it is, that's why it wasn't at E3.

[MoveTheGlow]

I'm pretty sure that's the case - distancing the public from what Zelda looked like a year ago seems like they're geared up for a big change. It's possible that it'll get a dual release, if the rampant speculation about a handheld/console hybrid with backwards compatibility is true.

I bought my WiiU this year at a good deal as a sidecar to my PS4, and I have no issues with NX releasing next year. The games that are good on the WiiU are stellar titles you wouldn't see elsewhere. It's Dreamcast-esque the way it prioritizes joy over deep narratives and too much detail, far more so than the original Wii. It's also Dreamcast-esque in that there aren't many games. I'm getting my money's worth, if only because there are a small amount of pretty evergreen and awesome games for it that I could enjoy over a year's time. If that NX looks halfway decent, it'll have a place in my home! Zelda will be played.

[bass4g]

I reckon, it'll release exclusively for the wiiu BUT the nx will be marketed heavily on having backwards compatibility of some kind (maybe even being able to transfer save data through whatever nintendo is doing with their network) so they can market zelda wiiu as an NX game. That way they don't upset fans and they also highlight a feature the other consoles are lacking (The bc stuff will be there for xbox but will be limited), it'll also allow them to "compete" with the xboxone/ps4. People will be unsure whether or not they should buy a system with 0 games as opposed to systems that are already established and will continue to get games. Having a high emphasis on bc will give the nx an inbuilt library at launch and alleviate some of those concerns.

[KryptoniteTail]

Duh. They already did this with Twilight Princess. Nintendo is greedy.

[Wonder_Punk]

Whether it comes out on the NX in some form or not, it's still coming to Wii U or they wouldn't keep saying so repeatedly.

[Variant]

If the Wii U version is going to utilize only the GamePad, the NX version could offer different control styles such as a more traditional one, or maybe even a new one.

I just want to be able to play with the Wiimote and Nunchuk again...and hopefully with the map on the GamePad--similar to one of the control schemes for PIKMIN 3 because that is a lot of fun!

Either way, we get another LEGEND OF ZELDA! :D

[DeusEx-Machina]

Though it might make economically sense, Nintendo really shouldn't cannibalize their saving grace of the Wii U.

The Wii U needs to be send off with a bang. This would send a strong message that Nintendo won't let you down with a half backed library for their consoles.

Leaving the Wii U for dead, won't incite trust into their next console.

The NX should get it's own Zelda.