New Nintendo Hand-held Device Seen Likely This Year

TOKYO-- Nintendo Co. is likely to release a new hand-held game device this year, an analyst at U.S. research firm IHS Inc. said on Thursday, strengthening a market view that the videogame company's new system, code-named NX, will include a portable machine.

"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," said Hiroshi Hayase, a senior principal analyst at IHS Technology, part of IHS, at the firm's display forum held in Tokyo.

The research firm expects shipments of displays sized between 3.1-inches and 5.0-inches wide to increase to 16.5 million units this year, up from 14.1 million units last year. OLED displays would remain unused by the market players, the data show.

Mr. Hayase declined to specify what size of display Nintendo is likely to use for its new device, but said he expects the product to be a stand-alone portable gaming machine, such as the 3DS, rather than a display-equipped controller for a console such as Wii U.

A Nintendo spokesman declined to comment on the IHS projection, saying the company plans to elaborate on NX this year. He refrained from saying when this year it plans to give more details about the new product.

NX was briefly mentioned last year by the late Nintendo chief Satoru Iwata, when the company said that it would join the smartphone game industry with mobile game and platform provider DeNA Co. The unveiling was a message that the company isn't pessimistic about the future of game devices and remains committed to the business, he said. Mr. Iwata didn't offer any detailed insights into NX, but said it wouldn't simply replace the company's current Wii U console and hand-held 3DS system.

Analysts watching Nintendo closely expect the Kyoto-based company to unveil details of the new system at a Los Angeles videogame show in June, and make the product available in stores by the end of this year.

David Gibson, an analyst at Macquarie Capital Securities, wrote in a recent report that he expects "a portable NX" to be launched in November, at a price range between $200 and $300. A partner console will follow in 2017, and the platform would include augmented reality functions, he said.

Apart from NX, Nintendo, together with its partner DeNA, plans to release about five smartphone games by March 2017. The first one, dubbed Miitomo, is scheduled to launch in March and promotional campaigns for the software are likely to commence soon. Mr. Gibson said some of the five titles will "work with" NX and could help to drive sales of both.

Nintendo will report its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday next week.

IHS makes data and forecasts based on its own discussions with companies including component suppliers, said an IHS spokeswoman.

Write to Takashi Mochizuki at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 28, 2016 07:55 ET (12:55 GMT)

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