Wii U’s End—And a New Nintendo Console—Might Be Here Soon

Unlike everyone else at E3 last month, Nintendo was resolute in its pledge to not talk about the future.

Its booth at the trade show, and its livestreamed presentation, were limited only to only games that will be available in the next few months (and in many cases already are available in some places). But Nintendo, which has announced that it will pursue mobile gaming this year, does have a new piece of dedicated game hardware, the NX, that it will unveil next year. And it couldn't help dropping a few hints here and there about it—hints that make it sound as if NX's release, and the phasing out of Wii U and 3DS, will be sooner rather than later.

First, let's review what we knew before E3: Nintendo has merged its previously separate portable and console teams with the aim of creating a single platform—not a single device, mind you, but a common development environment, the way many different devices all use iOS or Android. Said platform would "absorb the Wii U architecture," meaning Nintendo's future portable and home gaming devices would stem from work done for Wii U, but probably not the 3DS.

At E3, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime referred to NX as "our next home console." Although there were a lot of assumptions floating around out there that Nintendo was planning to replace Wii U (which, having launched in 2012, is hardly long in the tooth) with NX, in no previous statement was it called a "home console," but simply a "dedicated gaming device," which could just as well refer to a portable-only machine.

Another mention of NX came during an interview with Metroid Prime producer Kensuke Tanabe, in which he said a future high-def, home-version Metroid Prime title would have to appear on the NX, rather than Wii U.

So it seems clear Nintendo is looking to replace the flagging Wii U—and soon. The reason Nintendo didn't announce many new Wii U games at E3 may simply be because there aren't many—if any—new Wii U games to announce. We might be looking at the end of the Wii U lineup.