NX fervor runs rampant all over Nintendo’s social feeds

Nintendo announced a Pokémon Sun and Moon-themed New Nintendo 3DS XL system today, and it’s heading to retail on Oct. 28 for $199.99. It’s black with the silhouettes of the games’ cover legendaries on its face. It’s ... fine. Nothing special, really: It’s just a handheld with Pokémon on it, something we’ve seen before.

When the company tweeted out the handheld, its fans had a much ... stronger reaction. A sizable portion ignored the Pokémon news altogether, instead pestering the company for an announcement of a different order.

This is the recurring theme of Nintendo of America’s Twitter replies; we don’t envy the company its social media notifications, which are littered with messages of this nature. Desire to know more about Nintendo’s next gaming system, known only by its codename and healthy rumor mill, is reaching a peak as we approach the six-month mark until its announced March 2017 launch. (Or, put another way, 576 days since the company first mentioned it.)

It should go without saying that Nintendo will unveil the NX as it wishes, when it wishes. The begging and pleading of its nearly 5 million Twitter followers will have zero effect on the company’s business plans, no matter how polite or affectionate they can be. Yet it’s remarkable that the social media outcry for the unseen, mostly unknown device has dominated all conversation.

Some have poked fun at Nintendo fans' anxiety to know just what is this thing, including Kevin Pereira, a gaming personality who's hosted the Nintendo World Championships in the past. After hinting at a Nintendo announcement of some kind out of this week's GameStop expo, his Twitter was besieged by people who needed to know more. Things escalated quickly when a tweet encoded with "NX news tomorrow" got fans into a tizzy, leading Pereira to delete the message and admit to the prank.

Why? Because I received snaps threatening me if there wasn't an announcement of a thing game forums were making up. I leaned in. Xo

— Kevin Pereira (@Attack) September 12, 2016

There’s even a Twitter bot programmed to tweet back at Nintendo every time it posts something that is inevitably not related to the codename NX hardware, politely requesting information on the hardware instead of Pokémon or Mario or Zelda. It’s the account that best represents the entitlement felt by Nintendo’s fanbase to know more about the console already.

With Nintendo’s continued silence comes more chances for hardware details — true or not — to eke out of the company’s NX cabal. We’ve already heard rumors that it’s portable and cartridge-based; other anonymous sources have said Pokémon and Mario games will appear within the console’s first year on the market. What is confirmed true is that the NX console will come out eventually, Nintendo will reveal it eventually, and fans will never be sated regardless.