The Nintendo NX rumour mill whirred once again earlier this week, with a report penned by Macquarie Capital Securities analyst David Gibson suggesting that the “dedicated game platform” could work with PC, consoles and smartphones.
The full report has now surfaced online, which allows us to uncover more context behind Gibson’s comments: “We think recent patent filing (shared processing and portable controller) have negatively impacted the share price as investors assume the NX is more favoured over smartphone games. The shared processing patent implied (if used for the NX) the device could work with rival consoles/smartphones. Hence we believe smartphone games (some of the 5 by Mar 2017) will work with the NX and actually help to drive sales of both. It’s possible the NX works with PS4 or PC’s which would be a major change for Nintendo and be a positive.”
The document also sees the company share their expectation that Nintendo NX will launch in November 2016. However, this will be a portable with a console to follow in 2017 – the two being partner devices, rather than the singular hybrid that most have speculated.
“Given press reports of development kits being issued and others implying a 10-12m unit production run we have brought forward the NX launch from Nov 2017 to Nov 2016. However, we now assume a portable NX launch at a lower price (from $300 to $200) in 2016 and console partner device launches in 2017. We think NX is a platform of two devices and may include AR as well. A recent patent filing we think implies a lower price point for portable NX rather than the US$250 3DS error.”
But, it’s just that. A prediction. Nintendo has promised to share more this year, but it’s unclear as to precisely when that will happen.
