Nintendo NX may be coming out as soon as next summer, and it looks like Nintendo is going all-in. The company has remarked repeatedly that it’s doing things differently this time, changing the way it approaches the release strategy compared to the relative failure of the Wii U. Most recently, Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata has noted that the NX will avoid the Wii U’s greatest failure: A weak launch line-up. And that means it really is true… Nintendo is saving the good stuff for the Nintendo NX.

Nintendo Promises A Strong Nintendo NX Launch Lineup

Satoru Iwata shared some hard truths in Nintendo’s shareholder meeting recently, as covered extensively by Nintendolife. Fun quotes like this: “For Wii U in particular, it cannot be said that it had a successful launch.” Iwata attributes this failure—and a failure it indeed has been—to the lack of strong titles at launch. And he promises that Nintendo NX won’t have this problem:

I will not share details on NX today but with regard to the launch of Nintendo 3DS and Wii U not necessarily having progressed well and not acquiring sufficient support from software publishers, we intend to offer NX through a Nintendo-like solution. Thank you for understanding that we are making various considerations and preparations in order to avoid what happened with the previous generations. [Emphasis mine]

The focus on a strong Nintendo NX launch lineup means that, considering Nintendo’s relatively limited in-house software development capacity, some titles that were in development for Wii U have been pushed off to Nintendo NX. This has long been suspected, but Iwata’s comments basically confirm it. Instead of throwing good money after bad, they’re going to save the next generation of mega-hits—Metroid, Zelda, Mario—for the Nintendo NX. And the company is trying much harder to wrangle up some third-party support, which will be a hard sell, but is much more viable if the Nintendo NX actually does have a strong third-party lineup.

Can Nintendo actually pull it off, though? That’s what I’m not sure about, and I say that as a long-time staunch defender of the company. The deck is stacked against them. Their first problem will be the rage of the Interent community, the entitled part of the gaming community, at a new system coming so soon. They’ll wail and cry: We were promised Zelda Wii U, why are you releasing it for both systems now? And such bellyaching will have a noticeable effect on the release of the Nintendo NX, since it will bring bad press. The thing had better be damn cool, and have some great games coming for it. Basically, Nintendo had better get this right. There’s not much room for failure anymore.