Nintendo’s NX remains an enigma, though the mists around it have started to clear somewhat, thanks to a spate of recent rumors and leaks. And while no one quite knows what the NX is going to be (except for Nintendo themselves, and they’re not sharing- not until E3, presumably, anyway), on the whole, sentiment regarding the new machine seems to be positive.
However, one person disagrees with the general optimism around the console. That someone is Michael Pachter, well known analyst at Wedbush Securities, who has been known for his outspoken analyses and projections regarding the gaming market. We recently had the chance to sit down with him, and talk about multiple things pertaining to the future of the gaming market. And naturally, the discussion swung towards the NX too.
“I’ve no idea what that thing is going to be,” Pachter said, when we asked him about the NX. “I don’t think it’s coming out this year- Nintendo’s practice has been to show things a year, year and a half before they come out, so… I think they’ll show it at this E3, and I think it’ll come out next year. It might not come out in November, it might come out in March…
While Pachter admitted to not knowing what the NX is going to be, he still had his own ideas about what it could be- ideas which echo those that a lot of people seem to hold. However, unlike those people, Pachter isn’t impressed by what he is hearing.
“You know, it’s sounding an awful lot like it’s a handheld and console hybrid, where you have a handheld and you do some stuff on it, and the console will be like an Apple TV or something, and you can pull games down from that,” he said. “I’m not really sure. I would say based on Nintendo’s recent history, it is not going to be very good. I know they are pretty excited about it, but I would say it’s a backward looking technology, that is just not an improvement over everything else that we’ve got an option to do, and it will completely miss the point of games getting away from consoles.
“We’ll see,” he said. “But I think Nintendo is desperately clinging on to an old business model that is passing them by.”
Those are some scathing words from Pachter about the future of one of gaming’s most beloved companies- no doubt Nintendo fans are hoping they do not hold true.