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Rumour: Nintendo’s next console to run Android?

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Nintendroid

Ever since Nintendo’s announced its new console by way of the NX alongside its partnership with mobile gaming company DeNA, there’s been a great deal of speculation, conjecture and making stuff up that suggests that Nintendo’s next system would essentially be a mobile platform wrapped us as a console. We even surmised that the NX could be a hybrid mobile system that ties the company’s home console and handhelds together. A new report from Japan’s Nikkei says the Nintendo NX will run on Android. Ugh.

According to Nikkei’s insider sources, Nintendo’s NX will run Android, and that sends shivers all through my spine. Android, as an operating system, has pretty much proven how ineffective it is for gaming consoles – with Android Micro-consoles like the Ouya and its ilk popping up and disappearing before anybody even cares.

“They have an insider source who claims that the OS for the platform will be Android based, and that it is a paradigm shift for Nintendo business-wise,” Says a neoGaf user who’s translated the Japanese text that Google’s translate turns in to an indecipherable tome. “The source goes on to say that when third parties abandoned Nintendo’s WiiU one by one, it caused turning point in the company.

So while they have had a philosophy of developing their own software and hardware concepts internally for all these years, they are now prepared to embrace a more open platform with Android, to allow developers more flexibility in making content that can also be on smartphones and tablets.”

Of course, just the fact that it runs on Android (or like, an Android derivative) doesn’t mean that it’ll be like those other thousand Android Microconsoles. It could end up packing a new-gen Tegra chip, and be a decidedly powerful next-gen system – though the Android focus very nearly convinces me that Nintendo’s new system will indeed be a hybrid one; a natural evolution of the Wii U – a sort of tablet that you can plug in to your TV for one-the-go and dedicated gaming experiences. It could be amazing. It could be a disaster.

Last Updated: June 1, 2015

16 Comments

  1. Blood Emperor Trevor

    June 1, 2015 at 09:34

    Its’a me, Mario-bot!

    Reply

  2. HairyEwok

    June 1, 2015 at 09:38

    Nintendo… Now with play store. Get your candy crush and Clan wars right on your nintendo.

    Reply

  3. Hammersteyn

    June 1, 2015 at 09:38

    The princess is in another castle. Pay $5 and I’ll tell you which one

    Reply

  4. Uberutang

    June 1, 2015 at 09:50

    Nice! Forward the mobile revolution.

    Reply

  5. Splooshypooh

    June 1, 2015 at 09:51

    This is NINTENDO were talking about guys. You’re either a fan or your not, but one thing is certain, they will keep churning out quality and fun games no matter what.

    Reply

    • konfab

      June 1, 2015 at 12:15

      Hence why them continuing to push out antiquated hardware is illogical.

      Reply

      • Splooshypooh

        June 1, 2015 at 12:32

        Lol, you said hence.

        Reply

  6. WitWolfy

    June 1, 2015 at 09:53

    Does that mean I can trade my crappy Wii U in for this new console seeing I never really used it to begin with?

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief's Adventure

      June 1, 2015 at 11:01

      Wanna sell it? I gief ten dorrar!

      Reply

      • WitWolfy

        June 1, 2015 at 13:06

        DAMMIT!! only 10 dorrar?!? Why everyone only wanna give me 10 dorrar for this device?!

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief's Adventure

          June 1, 2015 at 13:48

          Ok, I’ll GIEF TWENTY!

          Reply

  7. Admiral Chief's Adventure

    June 1, 2015 at 11:00

    Could of, would of, should of

    Reply

    • Gardos

      June 1, 2015 at 11:54

      *have, *have, *have.

      XD.

      Reply

  8. Gardos

    June 1, 2015 at 11:56

    Nintendo has such an abusive relationship with its customers. So much love and hate all at the same time… (I’ve personally given up on them)

    Reply

  9. Wesley Fick

    June 1, 2015 at 13:11

    Mmmm, nah, not feeling this one. Their mobile stuff is all ARM-based, sure, but the home console has either been MIPS or Power-derived. Moving to x86 makes more sense for them financially, and they can ask AMD to make them a custom x86 chip that chops out any core logic that they won’t ever need.

    Moving to Android might be difficult for them as well in the areas of creating toolsets and SDKs, as well as managing the code base. So much of Android’s code is closed-source, something Nintendo has always avoided because they have taken Linux OSes and forked them under a different license so that they have total control of the system.

    I can instead see them moving to semi-custom APUs from AMD with 4GB GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit memory bus with a fork of BSD to run everything. I can also see them dropping the virtual console functionality until they have a method of hardware-accelerating it. Dolphin Emulator already requires a dual-core Pentium G3258 clocked to around 4.5GHz to run butter smooth on a desktop PC, so they will probably drop it to optimise it further and put it back up much later.

    Reply

  10. Thats_how_I_Troll

    June 2, 2015 at 11:47

    So Nitendroid U-Honeycomb ?

    Reply

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