A new rumor has surfaced this week saying that Nintendo NX will be a "disc-less" console. This was based on a patent application filed earlier this year by the company at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Gaming website NeoGAF has discovered that the company is currently working on a new product without a disc drive, a report from iDigitalTimes said.
"An example system includes an internal hard disk drive storing a program and/or data, a communication unit transmitting/receiving a program and/or data via a network, and a processor executing a program stored in the hard disk drive to perform game processing. The example system is not provided with an optical disk drive for reading out a program and/or data from an optical disk," reads an excerpt announcement of the patent application as quoted in the aforementioned report.
iDigitalTimes reports that the rumored Nintendo console will still be able to support physical game via a card slot despite the lack of an optical disc drive. "The card slot 19 of the game apparatus 1 may receive or discharge the memory card 7 such as an SD memory card," the patent application noted.
Gamebolt speculates that Nintendo NX will both be a handheld device and a console, saying, "Indications such as these make it clear that the NX refers to a console. However, it does not refer to only a console. As Nintendo has been letting on for at least two years now, the Wii U and 3DS's successor platform will be one, and that platform is the NX.The NX platform, therefore, refers to both, a handheld and a console."
However, it was emphasized that the console will not be a convertible system or a hybrid of the two devices.
It can be recalled that the company has announced its latest product, the Nintendo NX, in March. However, there's very limited information about it and the company has been tight-lipped about the product as well.
Industry experts speculate that one probable reason that the company has remained mum on its new product is it doesn't want its rivals to steal its idea. Nintendo's new console is expected to be available in 2016.
