As of writing, today is October 10th, 2016. In 5 months Nintendo has confirmed they will be releasing their new console, codenamed NX, to the public and we have yet to see it. Not only have we not seen it, we haven't received ANY confirmed information on the console that has come officially from Nintendo. Literally, everything you're reading on the web has come from leakers and media sources who are tired of the secrecy surrounding the console.
In fact, if we didn't have the report from Eurogamer (which is the source of literally every "everything we know" post you'll see on the web) back in July confirming from several sources key features of the NX console, we wouldn't have any information on this console period.
Somehow, inconceivably, Nintendo is making the exact same mistake they made with Wii-U all over again. This is especially sad when company wide, it was acknowledged the console failed universally due to a lack of marketing and explaining to a mass public WHAT the Wii-U was.
Keep in mind that the Wii-U was announced and demoed at E3 2011 (June 2011) and released November of 2012. So Nintendo publicly acknowledged that a year and a half of lead time wasn't enough to promote a console, yet here they are five months from release and they haven't even shown the public what their latest console looks like nor have they confirmed any of its details.
It's hard to even justify their actions because what Nintendo is doing flat out hasn't been done by any company leading up to their consoles launch. I don't believe ANY major console has launched with less than a year between it's reveal to the public, much less under 6 months.
So what's the reason for the secrecy? It's clear developers have copies and are aware of the hardware capabilities of the console. Miyamoto was quoted in saying he was afraid the competition would "copy" the NX if they revealed it at E3, but if the media is getting leaks from those inside the industry do you really think Microsoft and Sony isn't 100% in the know?
What sounds more likely than not, is that Nintendo hasn't fully locked down what they're going to do with the NX, which is a huge problem. The hardware for NX is said to be as powerful as a current PS4, so it'll already be dated at launch. Pushing the release date back will only date it further, although Nintendo hasn't been afraid to launch a lower tech console alongside competition historically.
It won't just be hardware that's the issue, however. Putting your console on the market late to the game only further detracts third party publishers for including you into their releases and decreases the ever dwindling support the company already has with outsiders. The only real industry giant we've heard speak pleasantly about the console is Ubisoft, which means Just Dance is probably ready to ship as a launch title. I'm sure you just can't wait to play that right?
Nintendo needs to reveal something by the end of this month, and if they don't they're stupid for thinking they aren't riding another sinking ship further into the red.
