Nintendo NX: Nintendo Files Patent for New Games Console; Will Not Include Optical Disk Drive
Nintendo has filed a patent application for a “stationary” games console – thought to be the Nintendo NX – with the USPTO, it has recently been discovered.
The filing was originally made back in February, but was only published yesterday. According to the particulars of the patent, which refers to a prior application made in Japan back in February 2014, Nintendo’s claims apply to a “Stationary Game Apparatus, Game Apparatus, Game System, Recording Medium and Speed Control Method”, which includes a “controller with a display screen” as well as “Speed Control Processing”.
The abstract notes:
An example system includes an internal hard disk drive storing a program and/or data, a communication unit transmitting/receiving a program and/or data via a network, and a processor executing a program stored in the hard disk drive to perform game processing.
Interestingly, the synopsis goes on to state that “the example system is not provided with an optical disk drive for reading out a program and/or data from an optical disk,” while later in the document, a description reads: “[the internal hard drive] can store therein the game program and the game data”. Does this mean that the Nintendo NX could be the first major home console to go digital-only?
The fact that the filing also cites “high-speed communications” as being a method for distributing a game program from a server to the “game apparatus” certainly seems to suggests that this is the case.
Pictured below are two images attached to the application (click to enlarge). FIG. 1 shows “an example non-limiting block diagram illustrating a configuration of a game apparatus”, while FIG. 2 shows “an example non-limiting block diagram illustrating a configuration of a controller included in a game apparatus”.
Notably, the inclusion of a memory card slot is highlighted in FIG. 1, which Nintendo’s application suggests will be used, at least in part, to provide OS updates to those users without an internet connection.
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