With a confirmed release date of March 2017, Nintendo has revealed surprisingly little about its upcoming console, the NX. The device is a mystery, and outside of a few leaks and rumors, we know very little concrete information about the NX — but that hasn’t stopped the internet from speculation and theory, of course.
In the wake of Eurogamer’s Nintendo NX report, which detailed rumored specs for the upcoming console’s design and power, imaginative fans with a talent for design have been creating mock ups of what the finalized NX may look like when Nintendo finally unveils it, potentially sometime in September, according to Eurogamer’s report.
Eurogamer provided its own mock up in the article, which showed all the aspects of the device detailed in the report, including a portable screen, detachable controllers, and a docking station to hook the unit up to TV.
Based on the report and Eurogamer’s mock up, designers across the internet have come up with various theoretical designs of their own. For the most part, these stick to the basic form factor Eurogamer envisioned, but there are plenty of deviations, some downright unfeasible. These do a good job illustrating just how surprisingly complex the NX’s purported concept is — and show just how little we know about the design of the console, in spite of all the information in the leak.
It’s still fun to theorize what Nintendo’s next creation will look like, so we’ve combed through the various threads and posts around the internet to collect together the best NX fan mock ups.
Sony and Microsoft have been in an arms race to see whose gaming console can squeeze in the most graphical muscle; but for the past two console generations, Nintendo has taken a more creative approach to its hardware. Sadly, the Wii U struggled to sell. After the breakout success of the Wii, the Wii U fared poorly against the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, despite its early release. Even so, Nintendo’s announcement that it would reveal a brand new console came as a surprise to many.
Late Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata revealed the NX’s existence at a March 2015 press conference, alongside the announcement of its mobile game licensing deal with DeNA. Iwata described the project, code-named “NX,” as “a dedicated game platform with a brand-new concept.” Nintendo confirmed soon afterward that the NX will launch in March 2017.
If the company does ditch discs and return to cartridges, we couldn’t be more excited.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Imagine tapping a Zelda icon on your iPhone and jumping straight into Hyrule. A new open-source project called nxnative makes that possible by repackaging Switch games you’ve bought into apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with no emulator in the middle.
Why does this run so well on Apple devices?