Nintendo has had a very busy morning. As a coda to the announcement that they’ve partnered with DeNA to produce mobile games based on Nintendo characters, the company also confirmed it is not leaving consoles and handhelds in the past by announcing the “NX,” their next “dedicated game system.”
Details about the NX are currently pretty sparse. At this point, we don’t even know if it’ll be a handheld system, a home console, or some hybrid of the two. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata confirmed the NX’s existence during a press conference this morning (which is archived on Nintendo’s Investor Relations page) and said that Nintendo will talk more about the system, which uses a “brand-new concept,” next year:
As proof that Nintendo maintains strong enthusiasm for the dedicated game system business, let me confirm that Nintendo is currently developing a dedicated game platform with a brand-new concept under the development codename “NX.” It is too early to elaborate on the details of this project, but we hope to share more information with you next year.
The NX will also be built to take advantage of the new online membership service that DeNA will produce for Nintendo:
Nintendo, together with DeNA, will jointly develop a new membership service which encompasses the existing Nintendo 3DS and Wii U systems, the new hardware system with a brand-new concept, NX, and smart devices and PCs, and Nintendo will be the primary party to operate this new membership service. Unlike the Club Nintendo membership service that Nintendo has been operating, the new membership service will include multiple devices and create a connection between Nintendo and each individual consumer regardless of the device the consumer uses. This membership will form one of the core elements of the new Nintendo platform that I just mentioned.
If you ignore the Virtual Boy (and everybody does), the NX would be Nintendo’s tenth platform, making its codename rather appropriate. Personally, I hope they keep it, it has a nice ring to it.
