Without Zelda, Wii U’s 2016 looks bleak — and Nintendo’s outlook suggests it’ll stay that way

Nintendo just announced that its code-named NX gaming console will debut in 2017, and the company delayed The Legend of Zelda for Wii U because it wants to launch that simultaneously on both the incoming and outgoing systems. But that has also left the Wii U in a bleak situation.

As of today, Nintendo’s Wii U home console has three confirmed first-party games coming before the end of 2016. At the same time, third-party publishers have almost entirely abandoned the system, so they will not make up the difference. The gaming industry is a $99.6 billion business, and Nintendo is trying to get to a point where it can capture a bigger piece of that revenue — but the Wii U is not going to have a lot to do with that.