With games on Wii U seemingly drying up and Nintendo NX having been confirmed last summer, most people expect the new console to launch next year. But famous video game business analyst Michael Pachter says he doesn't agree with this, although he doesn't rule it out completely:
"Nintendo's past practice has been to announce their next generation consoles at E3, and to release them 18 months later. And they typically will have a prototype and a couple of game markups... where you can play something.
But they take about 18 months, and last I checked we don't have 18 months until the end of 2016. So, it is less likely that something is coming out in 2016. But, the rumours are that there are NX dev kits out there. We don't know how long they have been out there, but if the rumour has leaked they have probably been out a couple of months. It is really slightly possible that developers can make something for NX console launch in fall 2016, and do a quality product in 13 - 15 months. Slightly possible."
Pachter says since we don't know what the NX is and how much the games for the console needs to be tweaked and reworked, he can't says for sure when it's going to be released, but that 2017 is a safe bet:
"So again, not knowing what the NX is, I don't know when it's coming out. I'd say 20 percent chance it comes out in 2016 in the US, 80 percent chance it comes out in 2017. If you don't see it before E3, there's a zero percent chance it's coming out in 2016."
Thanks, Nintendo Insider