Nintendo is trying to convey that everything is calm at home, but the web has kept its radars on since March, and the first signs have begun to emerge. I'm referring to the Nintendo NX project, the working name for a future and theoretical console whose existence has barely been confirmed by the Japanese giant. Players and experts have gone from whispers to murmurs, and a recent patent has only added fuel to the fire.
A Tough Year for Nintendo
It's been a rough 2015 for Nintendo. From financial troubles to the loss of Satoru Iwata, not to mention the questionable strategy of arbitrarily monetizing fans' "Let's Plays" on YouTube, the historic Japanese company that gave us Mario, Zelda, and Metroid faces a very complex situation in the coming months. Of course, not everything has been bad. The announcement of its agreement with DeNA to develop games for smartphones, the launch of Super Mario Maker, and the unveiling of Pokémon GO drew a lot of attention, but there's something more… Nintendo NX
NX: Rumors and a New Patent
Nintendo has repeated ad nauseam that it won't say another word about NX until next year... however, back in October, details emerged about the distribution of the first SDKs for game development, and then there was talk of a possible hybrid design between a handheld console and a smartphone, as it wouldn't follow the line of the Wii or Wii U. The most recent thing the web detected is a new patent, under number 2015/0355768, which presents a "device for games and information processing". As always, the sketches that appear in patents should be taken with a pinch of salt (maybe it will never leave paper), but if we go by that information, Nintendo imagines a device with a touchscreen that covers the entire front of the gamepad, four buttons (at least two of them physical), and a general appearance that for some reason reminds me of the old Game & Watch.
What's Next?
With less than two weeks left in the year, something tells me Nintendo won't make its move, at least not until the next E3. It would be a real surprise if it decided to share more information at CES, and a nice change from its usual "radio silence".
