Nintendo has already begun distributing development kits for its next console, currently code named NX, according to a report published early Friday by the Wall Street Journal.

The article references “people familiar with the matter” and provides educated speculation that the successor to the Nintendo Wii U could be launching as soon as 2016.

Is it almost time to say goodbye to the Wii U?

The WSJ article quoted David Gibson, an analyst with financial management firm, Macquarie Capital Securities; “We are increasingly of the idea that Nintendo might launch NX in 2016 because of the softness of the 3DS and Wii U.”

Gibson’s claims run parallel to analysis offered by this reporter regarding Nintendo’s potential NX timeline in a report outlining Nintendo’s performance at this year’s E3 conference.

“Nintendo made it painfully obvious that focus is now shifted towards NX, leaving the Wii U a lame-duck system that is now way over-priced considering the future that it has left.”

“[w]hatever form this new console (or operating system, as some rumors have it) takes will be well supported at launch, because NX is coming, and given the state of Wii U at E3 2015, I’d say it is coming sometime in 2016.”

The Wall Street Journal Article further echos rumors regarding the NX being a hybrid device between portable and home consoles. Word from the rumor-mill has suggested a number of potential forms that NX could take, such as a traditional home console and portable model which share the same operating system, to a single unit that could be plugged into the television while at home, then unplugged and able to act as an independent portable unit while on the go.

The most encouraging, as well as tantalizing info to slip out of the unnamed sources of the WSJ piece was that Nintendo was planning on utilizing “industry-leading chips” as part of the NX’s architecture, which if true, would be in response to the wide spread criticism over the graphical capabilities (or lack thereof) of the Wii U and the Wii before it.

Nintendo has not commented on the NX since the initial confirmation that they were working on it earlier this year, opting to wait until 2016 to release more information. However, given precedence of previous console launches, and the typical schedule on which development kits go out to publishers, it’s becoming a safer bet that NX will be launching next year.

Written by The Watchman

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