Don’t expect new console hardware from Nintendo in the near future. When asked “When do you think it’ll be time for new hardware?” in a recent interview with Gamespot, Nintendo’s Cammie Dunaway replied, “I don’t think it’ll be any time soon because even though our installed base is, at this point, 5 million households larger than the PS2 installed base was at the same point in its lifecycle, it still has a lot of room to grow.”
Dunaway went on to say:
“If you think of the PS2, there’s been about 50 million sold; Wii, close to 28 million sold. So that says to me that there’s still a big audience out there that we can access with Wii.
That being said, part of Nintendo’s heritage is to always be looking at innovation and to start working on the next hardware as soon as we launch a platform. So we’ll have it ready when we think the time is right.”
That last sentence is probably the key right there. The time likely doesn’t seem right for new consoles from any company, and Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have all figured out ways to spur current console sales by adding new and/or improved control schemes. Wii MotionPlus, Project Natal, Sony’s Motion Controller (Orb, Gem, Arc, whatever it’ll be called) all open the door for an entirely different segment of games.
Nintendo’s not quite pushing the envelope as much since MotionPlus is more of an improvement than anything else, but Microsoft and Sony are definitely looking to squeeze more life out of their current consoles. And given the economy, the thought of purchasing a new console this year is likely a non-starter for most average consumers.
The State of Nintendo 2010 Interview: Cammie Dunaway [GameSpot via Kotaku]