HiGame

Update: Nintendo has officially denied the Android rumor. However, we’ve seen Nintendo deny rumors before — only to turn around months later and confirm that they were true all along. As always, we should treat the original rumor and Nintendo’s denial with skepticism.

Nintendo has only mentioned its next hardware platform (codenamed “NX”) in passing, but the rumor mill is already ramping up quickly. The latest rumor focuses on the NX’s operating system, and one source is claiming that Nintendo actually plans to use Android as the foundation. If this is true, this could potentially have huge repercussions, but probably not in the way you’d assume.

Earlier this week, the Tokyo-based Nikkei news outlet reported that the NX will be running Android in some way, shape, or form. Assuming the Nikkei’s source is right, it could mean a number of things for the future of Nintendo. First and foremost, it would likely mean switching away from the PowerPC CPUs Nintendo has favored for its consoles since the GameCube. Android does support x86 and MIPS processors, but ARM is obviously the platform of choice here. This would lend credence to the oft-mentioned idea that Nintendo plans to unify its handhelds and home consoles under a single banner.



Of course, the mere mention of Android in the same breath as a gaming console conjures memories of the Ouya debacle. There’s no reason for doom and gloom here, though. If anything, I’ll bet that the NX will run a variant of Android in the same way that the PS4 runs a variant of FreeBSD. It’s a solid, open-source infrastructure in which they can build whatever they want. After all, why bother reinventing the networking stack if a free implementation is staring you in the face?

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