Nintendo NX controller allegedly leaked as Nintendo denies Wii U death rumor
Earlier this week, Japanese news publication Nikkei reported that Nintendo Co Ltd would be stopping production of new Wii U consoles later this year, but now Nintendo has denied that claim, saying that it has no plans to kill off the Wii U in the near future.
“This isn’t an announcement from our company,” a Nintendo spokesperson told IT Media (translation via Kotaku). “From the next quarter and thereafter as well, production [of the Wii U] is scheduled to continue.”
Of course, Nintendo is known for being vague when it comes to the game company’s future plans, and the spokesperson’s statement could be interpreted a number of different ways.
“The next quarter and thereafter” does not exactly rule out the possibility that the Wii U’s life cycle could be coming to a premature end, and as rumors of an announcement for Nintendo’s next console, Nintendo NX, become more and more frequent, that possibility seems all the more likely.
Nintendo NX controller leaked?
Rumors about exactly what type of game console Nintendo could be cooking up next have been flying around since before we even knew that NX existed, and speculation about the console’s controller in particular was fueled by a patent application filed by Nintendo last year.
This week, photos of a controller that look identical to Nintendo’s patent were posted to Reddit by user perkele37, who claimed that the photos are the actual controller for Nintendo’s unannounced console.
Of course, there is no guarantee that the photos are genuine, but if they are, it seems hard to imagine that NX will be the holy grail Nintendo needs to match the success it had with the Wii. The alleged NX controller looks unwieldy even by Nintendo’s standards, which has had its share of oddly-shaped controllers.
There is the possibility that the device in the image could be a peripheral for the new system rather than its sole controller. Otherwise, we could have another Virtual Boy on our hands, which is the last thing Nintendo needs after the mediocre performance of the Wii U.
Image courtesy of Nintendo Co Ltd
A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:
Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. Join theCUBE’s Alumni Trust Network, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities.
- 15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos, powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more
- 11.4k+ theCUBE alumni — Connect with more than 11,400 tech and business leaders shaping the future through a unique trusted-based network
Are you an AWS customer? Support SiliconANGLE financially by buying your AWS services from our Marketplace portal page and links: https://siliconangle.com/aws-marketplace/
About SiliconANGLE Media
SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation, uniting breakthrough technology, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE, theCUBE Network, theCUBE Research, CUBE365, theCUBE AI and theCUBE SuperStudios — with flagship locations in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange — SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology and AI.
Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a dynamic ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands that reach 15+ million elite tech professionals. Our new proprietary theCUBE AI Video Cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.
