Skip to main content

Nintendo denies report it's planning to use Android for next game console

Nintendo denies report it's planning to use Android for next game console

Share this story

Yesterday, major Japanese business newspaper Nikkei reported that Nintendo is looking into using Android to power its next console, codenamed NX. Not so, says Nintendo.

"There is no truth to the report saying that we are planning to adopt Android for NX." That's the statement from a Nintendo spokesman given to The Wall Street Journal. A few important notes:

  1. Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata announced last March that the company was working on "a dedicated game platform with a brand new concept" with the internal codename of "NX." That's all we know so far; Iwata said more details will be announced next year.
  2. Though Nikkei Shimbun is Japan's most respected business newspaper, its report on an Android-powered console was formatted more like a column, rather than a typical news article, and only attributed to a single anonymous source.
  3. Nintendo spent years dismissing the idea of making mobile games — right up until the point where Nintendo announced it would be making smartphone titles in partnership with DeNA.

All of which is to say... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . The sourcing for the story wasn't exactly solid, but even if it's true, Nintendo could easily change its mind before publicly releasing details in 2016.

Then again, maybe the Nintendo spokesman is being very careful with his words. Maybe Android is being adopted / considered / thought about / written on a whiteboard of potential ideas for a project not named NX. What about project MX? NY? R.O.B. 2? Who knows.

In the meantime, here's a GIF of Pikachus invading a building:

pikachu-everywhere.0.gif