One of the biggest announcements from a Nintendo Direct earlier this year is that Nintendo is focusing on a “Quality of Life” platform in addition to its video game business. There are very few hints about what this platform will be, despite the company filing trademarks for the new platform in both Japan and Europe. The United States joins that list, as yesterday Nintendo filed three patents related to its new QoL platform.
Each of these trademarks is intentionally vague in what information is given, but they all three revolve around different aspects of the platform. Here’s the basic description for all three:
Patent 1
Programs for consumer video game apparatus; Electronic circuits, optical discs, ROM cards, ROM cartridges, CD-ROMs, and memory cards storing programs for consumer video game apparatus; Storage media storing programs for consumer video game apparatus; Memory cards for consumer video game apparatus; Programs for handheld game apparatus with liquid crystal displays; Electronic circuits, optical discs, ROM cards, ROM cartridges, CD-ROMs, and memory cards storing programs for handheld game apparatus with liquid crystal displays; Storage media storing programs for handheld game apparatus with liquid crystal displays; Memory cards for handheld game apparatus with liquid crystal displays; Downloadable or installable programs and additional data for consumer video game apparatus; Downloadable or installable programs and additional data for handheld game apparatus with liquid crystal displays.
Patent 2
Consumer video game apparatus; Controllers and joysticks for consumer video game apparatus; Parts and accessories for consumer video game apparatus; Handheld game apparatus with liquid crystal displays; Controllers and joysticks for handheld game apparatus with liquid crystal displays; Parts and accessories for handheld game apparatus with liquid crystal displays.
Patent 3
Providing games via communication by handheld game apparatus with liquid crystal displays; Providing games via communication by consumer video game apparatus; Providing games for consumer video game apparatus; Providing games for handheld game apparatus with liquid crystal displays.
These three patents cover a broad area of Nintendo’s general interests, but as highlighted by Iwata this new platform is intended to be a non-wearable focus on health and wellness.
Today I would like to limit my presentation to the general direction of our new business, but I plan to announce more details within 2014. I then plan to talk about its specific features and a clearer vision of what we really mean by the term “non-wearable.”
This new business will be launched during the fiscal year ending March 2016, which begins in April 2015. As this is a completely new field of business, our plan is to make it contribute to our overall business and position it for growth from following fiscal year.
We’ve seen patents from Nintendo for parts that are interchangeable in a handheld device, could it be that Nintendo is planning on releasing something like a Nintendo 3DS with interchangeable parts that can be used in fitness activities? Any speculation we have now is just that, but it’s interesting to see Nintendo moving forward with this plan even while the Wii U begins to recover from the slump of 2013.
