As far as the lineup of Nintendo’s Wii U goes, it’s pretty transparent and clear, through to March 2016- we have Splatoon, Star Fox, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Mario Maker, Fatal Frame, Devil’s Third, Yoshi’s Woolly World, and maybe Miyamoto’s Project Giant Robot and Project Shield (whatever those are), with maybe a release for Shin Megami Tensei x Fire emblem and The Legend of Zelda following some time after all of these. Considering that this is, after all, just one company, that’s an impressive output, and you would think would cover everything.
Except that is not true- speaking to investors in Nintendo’s financial briefing, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata confirmed that the company has more titles for the Wii U planned in the pipeline, that have not yet been announced. What is more, these unannounced titles are slated for release before March 31, 2016.
“These are the already announced Wii U titles that will be released in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016, and there are also unannounced titles that are not listed here,” Iwata explained to investors.
“Among these titles, there are games that actively utilise the Wii U GamePad, including several we showed at E3 last year that are considered part of the Wii U GamePad utilisation project led by Mr. Miyamoto.
“In the case of other such titles as Mario Maker, I believe that the type of gameplay that lets consumers use the GamePad to take advantage of their creativity to create UGC (user-generated content) for everyone to enjoy offers tremendous possibilities, and I also believe that the nature of the gameplay that encourages parents and children to play together has great potential as well.”
So, for these unannounced Nintendo Wii U games- exactly what could they be? Metroid? F-Zero? Another Donkey Kong? Maybe a Wii U port of Pokken? What exactly is Nintendo working on? One thing is for sure, this sure made the prospect of Nintendo’s E3 event this year a whole lot more interesting.