Ever since Nintendo revealed their next 'dedicated game system' would be the NX in early 2015, fans and the gaming community in general have been watching the company, hoping for some kind of information on what the NX was.
It appears as though, with convenient enough timing for the suggested September reveal, a leak has offered new details for the next Nintendo called the NX – and oddly enough – it falls in line with some of Nintendo's patents.
Back in December 2015, Nintendo filed a patent for a game console with an additional detachable device, something that sounds pretty familiar with the leak. According to reports across multiple articles on Eurogamer, the NX will be a "portable, handheld console with detachable controllers."
On its own, the NX will be a "high-powered handheld device with its own display" which features two controllers that can be attached or detached as you see fit. This mobile device will then plug into a docking station, or "home console" that will display your game on your TV.
Basically, you'll have a handheld device and a home device which can connect and show your portable games on the big screen.
As how "high-powered" the NX will be, it won't be as powerful as the PS4 or Xbox One. However, that doesn't mean that the NX games will be running at a low resolution – according to the report the NX will be built off of Nvidia hardware. While it hasn't been confirmed, it has been suggested that the NX will use something like the Tegra X1 chip found in the Shield Android TV console, which displays at 1080p, 30 fps.
Earlier this year, the company that supplies Nintendo with ROM chips for 3DS games inadvertently suggested that the patent for a disk-less stationary console was true and that the NX would be using games cartriges with chips with a new memory limit of 32GB.
The new report suggests that the NX will indeed be using game cartridges. With game cartridges being added to the mix, you'd think the NX would be compatible with existing 3DS games. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
As per the report:
"Due to the radical change in hardware design […], we've been told by one source that there are no plans for backwards compatibility"
It's unclear whether the portable portion of the NX is linked with the rumored "MH" handheld console, whether it will feature a camera that detects objects (which is likely consider the Wii U gamepad and 3DS do) or if it will truly get "casual players back in the industry.” We will have to wait around two months before we officially find out.
NX is set to be revealed in September and to release in March 2017.
