Ubisoft CEO Praises Nintendo NX Yet Again

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As excitement continues to grow around the Nintendo NX console, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has once again praised the device.

Nintendo is looking to compensate for the poor performance of its last console, the Wii U. The company has confirmed that it is developing a next generation machine, known by the codename Nintendo NX, but details have proven hard to come by. Now French journalist Chloe Woitier spotted that the Ubisoft CEO praised the NX during a meeting with investors.

“I believe Nintendo will be back in the race with the NX,” Guillemot said, as reported by Woitier on her Twitter account. The Ubisoft CEO has previously spoken of his positive opinion on the Nintendo NX.

A few weeks ago he claimed that the next Nintendo console would be “easy to use” and allow for ” a different experience from what exists today.” Ubisoft is committed to the new platform, and will be supporting it with multiple games titles, including Just Dance 2017.

Since its release in 2012, the Wii U sold just 13.02 million consoles. Its predecessor, the Wii, sold over 100 million units before it was discontinued.

Guillemot has also hailed the “new approach” offered by the upcoming Nintendo NX.

“The new Nintendo [console] is a fantastic machine,” he said. “It’s really a new approach, it’s really Nintendo, [which is] coming with something new again. We love it.”

He said that Ubisoft is “working on some [other] projects” for the console in addition to Just Dance 2017. There have been no further details about these projects.

It is rumored that the Nintendo NX will be a handheld/console hybrid device. The Pokemon Company recently added weight to these rumors.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, The Pokemon Company CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara spoke about the new Nintendo NX.

“The NX is trying to change the concept of what it means to be a home console device or a hand-held device,” he said. “We will make games for the NX.”

Rumor has it that the upcoming console will make use of cartridges, in a nod to Nintendo’s history. A report in The Wall Street Journal cited analysts who claim that Nintendo could reveal the NX in early October. It is scheduled to launch in March 2017, just 6 months from now.

The latest positive comments from Guillemot were made during a meeting with investors. Before the meeting it was feared that Vivendi could push for a board seat as part of a rumored hostile takeover bid, however no action was taken.

Some are worried that Ubisoft could lose some independence if it were taken over by Vivendi. Ubisoft took a risk in making the original game ZombiU for the unproven Wii U, and those kind of risks may be cut down under new management.

However Guillemot and Ubisoft are backing the Nintendo NX to the hilt at this stage. Guillemot has praised the effect of new hardware on consumers.

“What we see is, players are more open when new hardware is coming. So we have the chance to come with something we have never done before, because we know that if we are the first there, people will try our game and maybe we’ll be able to get into that new genre,” he explained.

There are plenty of Nintendo fans who will be hoping that Guillemot is right to be confident about the Nintendo NX. Now it’s just a case of waiting for more details about the upcoming console.

While we don’t know much about the technical specifications of the Nintendo NX, it looks like it will be less powerful than the PS4 Pro and the Xbox Project Scorpio. The upcoming consoles from Sony and Microsoft will concentrate on delivering 4K gaming and virtual reality capabilities.

It seems unlikely that Nintendo will be able to compete on these terms. Instead the company is rumored to be targeting consumers who want a novel user experience and different games.

This is arguably a decent strategy from the company. With Microsoft claiming 6 teraflops of GPU power for the Xbox Scorpio, Nintendo would be really up against it.

Another positive is that Sony and Microsoft are essentially competing for the same users. By offering something different, Nintendo can attract a different community of gamers.

All will be revealed once the consoles are on sale. As it stands we are left to speculate on what may be happening. One thing is for sure, things are about to get very exciting.

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