Will this be the year that Nintendo finally catches up?

Nintendo is already an entertainment powerhouse, but it has the potential to be so much bigger, and it’s frustrating to see the company fail to meet that potential because of how slow it is to adapt to the changing market. This might be the year that Nintendo finally catches up, however, as president Tatsumi Kimishima has revealed some of his plans for Nintendo this year, and they look promising. Aside from some hints about the company’s next console, the most interesting part about the plans is the fact that Nintendo will be focusing a lot on anime and mobile games this year, two areas that the company has been reluctant to delve into, despite the fact that many of its franchises would be perfect for them.

Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima has revealed some of his plans for the company in 2016. The plans were published in the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun, and subsequently translated by games industry consultant Dr. Serkan Toto. They offer hints about Nintendo’s upcoming console — codename NX — as well as intentions for anime, and mobile apps. Regarding the NX, Kimishima says the company isn’t looking to build on old ideas, but offer entirely new ones. Nintendo will offer more concrete details sometime this year, however, Kimishima made no mention of the console actually arriving in 2016. Nintendo also plans to branch its characters further out of its traditional games. Smartphones and theme parks are one thing, but “TV anime” with licensed characters is also on the docket. More specifically, Kimishima says that Nintendo’s first smartphone app will launch in March of this year. This could be in reference to the already announced Pokémon Go. Of course it could also be some other as-yet-unseen software. Finally, the president is, rather obviously, looking to raise his company’s profits. The number thrown out was 100 billion yen, or $855 million in the next few years. For comparison, Nintendo posted a $208 million profit last May, the first time the company had been in the black in four years.