A new patent posted with the United States Patent and Trademark Office may be showing or hinting at what Nintendo has in store for people with future devices, namely in the handheld department. The new Nintendo patent may show off a new handheld device of some sort, of course it needs to be kept in mind that patents are filed by hardware manufactures all the time and doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
Nevertheless the fact that a new (filed June 30th 2016) Nintendo patent exists is always interesting to at the very least speculate on, especially since new, still unannounced and relatively unknown hardware is coming within 8-9 months. A quick glance at the patent page shows a rectangular, dare I say phone like, handheld device with what appears to be a large surface area touchscreen. If you look at the tilted image on the thin side of the device (labeled 12a) there appears to be built in speakers included on the device along with the touchscreen flat part of the device. Figure 4 on the patent shows the hands placed on the device in what looks precariously like both hands placed on the touchscreen utilizing some sort of virtual buttons in place of real buttons, much like current smartphones utilize for games.
Other images (Figure 8) show what looks like a Nintendo 3DS and Wii U Gamepad morphed into one unit with one analog stick and d-pad on the left side and Nintendo’s traditional face button layout on the right side. The buttoned handheld device also looks to be a similar size with the same speaker configuration to the touchscreen looking device shown in earlier figures on the patent. It should also be noted that Figure 6 and 7 look very similar using similar placement art as the Nintendo patent for a touchscreen oval shaped controller device back in December of last year.
Could this be for a brand new handheld system or some type of Nintendo phone device, or is linked to the NX system due out next March? Who knows, but for now it’s continued fun with Nintendo patents in the post Wii U pre NX world.
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