Nintendo president reiterates NX console will not expand on existing hardware

Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima has reiterated the company's NX console will not expand on existing Wii and Wii U hardware.

Speaking in an interview with Time, Kimishima said NX is "the next step in our dedicated device strategy," and remains a "primary focus of our business.”

“As far as NX goes, it’s different and obviously a new experience,” he said. “The transition from Wii hardware to the Wii U hardware was difficult to explain to the consumer base what is different and new about the new hardware. It’s difficult to convince them to switch from their current platform to the next platform.

"It’s something where we have to move away from those platforms in order to make it something that will appeal to our consumer base.”

Even with a new console on the horizon, the company doesn't have plans to discontinue supporting Wii U.

Kimishima said Nintendo will continue to support game development on Wii U, as you can't force customers to "move on to the next thing."

"Our job at this point is to support the consumers who have purchase Wii U and make sure that they have software experiences available to them," he said.

Kimishima's comments on NX mirror those of former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata who assured the public and investors alike the next console would be different from Wii or Wii U.

Back in October,  a report stated that Nintendo was handing out Nintendo NX dev kits to third-party developers, and that the console would be powered by an AMD processor.

It has also been suggested the console wouldn't contain a disc drive, instead supporting a cloud environment due to a patent which popped up earlier this year.

Other reports suggest NX could support Virtual and Alternate Reality products.

More details on the console are expected next year, and rumors suggest it will be released in June 2016.