Nintendo NX To Surprise Gamers With Innovation, President Iwata Says

''Mario'', a character in Nintendo Co Ltd's ''Mario Bros'' video games, is seen at the company's showroom in Tokyo July 28, 2011. Reuters/Toru Hanai

There has been a great deal of buzz surrounding Nintendo's upcoming video game console dubbed as NX. The console is currently under development, but there's no tangible information available about it. All that is known right now is that it's going to be something more than just a new console, but a "dedicated" platform in itself.

Now Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has revealed that the company plans to surprise the industry with its latest offering. The company boss states that the NX won't just be a simple spec-improvement over the existing Wii U console. His comments allude to a device that could radically change the game for the next generation of consoles, according to a Gamespot report.

Since there is no real information on the Nintendo NX available at the moment, it's not clear whether it will be a hand-held portable console, or the home console successor to the failed Wii U. However, Iwata's statement makes it clear that the company's strategy involves a focus on meaningful innovation over simple iterative upgrade over the previous generation.

"If you only expand upon existing hardware, it's dull," Iwata said in an interview with Nikkei, which was translated by Kotaku. "In some shape or form, we're always thinking about how we want to surprise players as well as our desire to change each person's video gaming life."

There's enough precedent to take Iwata's statements at face value. Nintendo has always been a console maker that has chosen to take huge risks in its quest to bring innovation to the table. The Nintendo Wii took the industry by surprise with its radically disruptive approach to motion controls. The DS was the first ever console to dabble with touch screens, whereas the 3DS brought stereoscopic 3D to handhelds. These were resounding success for the company, but the recent Wii U gamble didn't pay back.

The ambiguity surrounding the delivery mechanism of NX, which was announced through a presentation last week in Japan, could be tied into the sweeping policy changes surrounding the company. IGN has already reported of Nintendo's decision to enter the smartphone gaming market in a big way. Some analysts believe that the description of the NX as a cohesive platform and not just a console could allude to a device that seamlessly blurs the line between mobile and dedicated console gaming.

Conjecture aside, there's no certain way of knowing the true shape of the NX project until 2016, when more concrete information about the console is expected to be revealed. In the meantime, MCV points out that Australian retailer EB Games has already begun accepting pre-orders for the console.

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