I’ve read about this patent from a few sources, and I’d like to begin with a quote from Sam Byrford, who began his coverage of the patent for The Verge with the following statement:
“Patent filings are a shaky indicator of future product plans, and you shouldn’t ever bank on the ideas making their way to market. That said, this application submitted by five Nintendo employees is worth sharing for two reasons: not only is it completely bizarre and uniquely Nintendo, but there’s circumstantial evidence that the company might actually want to make this thing.”
My point is, just because everyone is talking about it doesn’t mean it’ll come to fruition. So what is “it,” anyway?
Well, it looks like some kind of controller / screen / smartglass hybrid. Imagine holding a controller, the entire face of which is a touch-sensitive display, with two analogue sticks poking out of it and shoulder buttons on top. It sounds rather minimalistic as far as buttons go, which would be a problem for many people like me who like solid, tactile buttons to push; I don’t want to play a fighting game on my home console by poking a screen. We’ve heard that the NX will likely come coupled with a mobile unit of some kind, so a controller with a screen seems inevitable. The patent also mentions the possibility of glasses-free 3D technology; will the “NX” be Nintendo’s Wii U replacement as well as its 3DS replacement?