Zelda Wii U Delayed to 2017, Releasing on Both Wii U and NX

Nintendo has revealed that their next console will be releasing worldwide in March 2017. Nintendo also announced that the NX will be absent from this year's E3 and will be showcased at a later event.

This year's E3 instead will be mainly focused on the new Zelda title that is now confirmed to be coming simultaneously to both the Wii U and Nintendo NX, and will be the only playable title from Nintendo at E3. Unfortunately this also means that the Wii U version has been delayed, a third time, to 2017 after confirming a 2016 release last November.

This means the Wii U will be the first Nintendo console without it's own exclusive Zelda title.

It's likely we will see Zelda Wii U as a launch title for the NX as Twilight Princess was for the Wii, but will Zelda fans flock to the NX to buy the new Zelda title on there? Or will Zelda fans that already own a Wii U feel burned by the move?

It will be interesting to see what, if any, differences will be between the Wii U and NX versions of Zelda. Does this mean that the Wii U gamepad will be compatible with the NX? We will find out later this year.

 

[Tarvis]

March is such a weird time to be releasing a console. Hasn't the earliest console release been like late summer? I guess since it's worldwide that it's not to weird for Europeans as I think they used to get consoles in early/late spring.

Also, with only one playable title for E3 this year, being Zelda, doesn't look like much of anything to look forward to this holiday season from Nintendo.

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

This is pretty expected for me, but still very disappointing. I think the only games I'll be picking up for Wii U now will be older titles I missed. I probably will skip Zelda on Wii U and hopefully get an NX and Zelda on there... but I can't help but be disappointed that this game has been delayed since 2015.

I read that there will be no NX talk at E3, so it will be a very strange E3 for Nintendo. I'm hopeful that they will at least be showing more than Zelda on their Treehouse streams and their Direct...

 

[Tarvis]

I really wish Nintendo would go back to doing real presentations at E3, but at this point I think it's more likely that Nintendo stops doing anything for E3 all together. It was a lot more exciting to hear the audience reacting to things such as the Twilight Princess reveal back in 2004:



The directs just don't contain as much excitement as those presentations did. I think this might be the absolute worst E3 for Nintendo if they only really have Zelda to talk about. There might be a few 3ds games thrown in there, but I think it's safe to say that Nintendo has stopped putting any more money into Wii U development. Which is not really unexpected after the Wii U sold so poorly.


(as of Sept 2015, I think the Wii U is closer to 13m now)

No matter what happens, I'll be picking up a NX regardless, but the marketing team really needs to get on the ball with the NX to ensure it doesn't have the same failures the Wii U did. Them not even promoting it at E3 and selling it outside of a holiday season seems like two pretty big missteps already.

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

Its pretty early to be guessing, but if we see PS4.5 and Xbox 1.5 at E3, then Nintendo may have had the right idea to wait so it wasn't competing with their exposure. And I'm still hopeful that their E3 Direct will be focusing on more than just Zelda, but the only playable game will be Zelda.

 

[John Marston]

well this isn't a real surprise. they usually do stuff like this.