At Nintendo’s most recent shareholder’s meeting, minor details were revealed about the NX specifically in regards to region locking. While many of Nintendo’s home consoles are restricted to playing games that are made for its specific region (for instance, the European 3DS won’t play a North American copy of Super Mario Land), Nintendo has hinted in the past that their position in that regard may change as “the advantages of region locking have proved weak at best and don’t bring benefit to customers.”
Iwata, after being asked for the significance of the name “NX”, states that the NX was revealed to quell concerns that the company would be moving solely to smartphone development after announcing a partnership with DeNa, and would stop developing for and creating their own consoles. Iwata wanted to confirm through the announcement of the NX that they “are developing a new dedicated video platform…and that we have bright prospects for them.”
Iwata also emphasized that any information relating to the NX and future smartphone development would be relegated to 2016. He did say that the major goal of the NX would be to “create a new platform that will be accepted by as many people around the world as possible” similarly to their past consoles. They would also seek to offer a “dedicated video game console with a brand new concept” and would consider “playing environments that differ by country.”
Nintendo, based on Iwata’s answers regarding their partnership with DeNa, also seems to be moving toward a more integrated system that ties together with smartphone technology as opposed to their fragmented approach that resembles a “patchwork.”
While the answers given during this session were vague and no details were revealed regarding Nintendo’s unnamed console, it is interesting to see Nintendo as a whole beginning to embrace a more integrated user experience for their audience. We’ll all just have to wait until 2016 to see anything more concrete.
