Despite publishing his prospective business plans for Nintendo in 2016, Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima has been very tight-lipped about the Nintendo NX, it’s launch, and what features it will have. We’ve seen the rumor mill churn out numerous theories, from a handheld hybrid console to the most recent, which may be a bit more credible given the source.
Macquarie Research Japan senior analyst David Gibson has been discussing the Nintendo NX, after his company raised Nintendo’s financial rating, causing the company’s stock to soar 9.07%. While that’s nice for Nintendo, a tweet about Gibson’s report is extremely interesting.
Very interesting report by @gibbogame: Nintendo's NX may work with smartphones, PCs and even rival consoles such as PlayStation4.
— Takashi Mochizuki (@mochi_wsj) January 20, 2016
Remember that Nintendo is working on a new account service called My Nintendo, which will hopefully work a lot more like Sony and Microsoft’s respective services that tie purchases to an online account, rather than a hardware console. Anyone who has had their Wii U or Nintendo 3DS fail or need to be sent in for repairs knows how time-consuming it is to be on the phone with Nintendo to get the transfers going.
It makes sense that Nintendo is developing a platform that can work in tandem with the mobile apps they’re developing, but the fact that it’s possible Nintendo’s latest console could also work with the PlayStation 4 in some manner means Microsoft should be especially worried.
The best indication we have of this is Square Enix’s willingness to port Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn to Nintendo’s console. Currently the game is PC and PS4 compatible and PC and PS4 players regularly play together on the same server. Adding Nintendo to the mix would mean Microsoft is the odd man out in such relationships going forward.
What do you think? Does this pique your interest in the NX any more than you were already?
