The end of 2012 brought Nintendo the Wii U and a new console to capture a whole new genration of gamers. With Nintendo 3DS sales continuing to climb, 2013 is looking to be one of Nintendo’s best years yet. 

 

So what’s next for Nintendo? At launch the company had over 30 titles ready for any customer who received a Wii U over the holidays and more and more developers are joining the console and taking advantage of the Wii U’s gamepad controller. Nintendo launched it’s own media hub with the Nintendo Wii U as well bringing Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Instant to Wii U customers along with the ability to share, record and watch live TV with Nintendo Tvii.

 

“During the holidays we saw new players respond positively to new game-play experiences using the Wii U GamePad controller and the true 3D of Nintendo 3DS,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “With such a diverse lineup of games on the horizon, people will experience a variety of ways to play, whether they’re using the GamePad to scan for criminals or seeing ghosts in 3D on the Nintendo 3DS screen.”

 

In the very near future, March 18, 2024 exactly, Nintendo will launch ‘LEGO City: Undercover‘, which is the latest title to be developed with the popular LEGO franchise. Players will play as ‘Chase McCain’ in an open world action-RPG. Just a day later Nintendo will launch ‘Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate’ for both the Nintendo Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS. The Monster Hunter series is one of the largest franchises in Capcom’s arsenal and fans all over the world will be able to play together whether they have a Wii U, a Nintendo 3DS or both.

 

The titles don’t stop there though, a laundry list of titles featuring some of the best franchises in gaming are expected in 2013. Titles like Game & Wario, The Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3 and Wii Fit U are still being developed and are expected to have release dates nailed down in the very near future.

 

The Nintendo 3DS has been a tremendous success, though it had a rocky launch, the new price point and new Nintendo 3DS XL version of the hand-held has become a fan-favorite in 2013. Starting off the new year Nintendo will launch ‘Fire Emblem Awakening’ on February 4, 2024 for the Nintendo 3DS system. Earlier this week Nintendo announced a special bundle of the Nintendo 3DS system that has Fire Emblem Awakening pre-installed on the hardware. The bundle will feature Fire Emblem artwork on the console itself and will also come with a 4GB SD memory card.

 

Other titles like ‘Brain Age: Concentration Training’ launch on February 10, 2024 and Nintendo also plans to launch ‘Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon‘ on March 24, 2013. Also releasing on that day is ‘Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity‘. Of course that isn’t the only title to get Pokemon fans excited, ‘Pokemon X’ and ‘Pokemon Y’ will launch in the fall in time for the next holiday season as the first Pokemon game developed for the Nintendo 3DS.

 

Then there are the true classics of Nintendo, like ‘Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Mirror of Fate‘ which will release on March 5, 2024 and ‘Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D’ which is also expected to launch this year. Overall Nintendo expects to launch 43 titles ranging from the Nintendo Wii U, the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo DS along with the Nintendo eStore in the first half of 2013 alone.

 

That’s quite an impressive number considering the company was producing a fraction of that a few years ago as it slowly reduced production of Wii titles and focused on its handheld line. In 2013 Nintendo will flood the market with titles for its systems. Whether they are casual gamers or hardcore fans more titles will be available for customers than have been in decades and Nintendo is only getting started for 2013.