Nintendo Files Patent For Console With No Optical Drive

News has emerged that Nintendo could be planning to make its next console, codenamed the NX – billed by the company as a “dedicated game platform with a brand-new concept” – sans disc drive. Thanks to a post on NeoGaf, we know that Nintendo has filed a patent with the US Patent Office for a game console that has no optical drive. Instead, the device has an internal hard drive for storing downloaded games, plus an SD card slot, which will be good news for prospective crackers and homebrewers.

“The example system is not provided with an optical disc drive for reading out a program and/or data from an optical disc,” the patent reads. “An example system includes an internal hard disc 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 disc drive to perform game processing.”

The console will also include a separate display unit, presumably similar to the Wii U Gamepad. Are we getting our first glimpse of the Nintendo NX? Nintendo has previously stated that it is intentionally keeping quiet about the NX’s new features for fear that its competitors might rip off its ideas.

Thank you Eurogamer for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of Forbes.