Nintendo enthusiasts like myself have had a lot of juicy rumors to mull over the past few weeks. Surveys and analysts have been teasing predictions and suspicions that Nintendo will be releasing NX – or at least the portable component of the NX – sometime this year. About a week ago it was the Macquarie group who upgraded its outlook for Nintendo, predicting the release of a new portable console by November 2016 for around $200-300. This broke the surface around the same time as a GameStop survey polling consumers, asking if they were aware of certain products (Nintendo’s NX being among them), and whether or not they intended to purchase any of those products this year.
Today Nintendo-Insider (via the Wall Street Journal) has turned the spotlight on research firm IHS, which has shared its expectation that the Nintendo NX will ship in 2016. Principal analyst Hiroshi Hayase stated, “We expect a small recovery in shipments of flat-panel displays for game devices because of Nintendo’s new game hardware expected to be released in 2016.” The report goes on to state that displays sized 3.1-5 inches wide will see a huge increase in manufacturing and that the data indicates that OLED displays won’t be used. Nintendo declined to comment, stating instead that we’ll hear more about the NX this year. I can’t wait!