Nintendo Switch: the partnership with Cyanogen Inc. that never came to be

A few days ago, it was found out that the Nintendo Switch OS was based on FreeBSD. But before that, there had been more or less persistent rumours that the console was running on Android (or at least, was partially based on the popular mobile OS. That’s certainly what the Nikkei claimed a while ago.

And today, thanks a tweet from Kirt McMaster, from Cynaogen Inc., we found out that there was a little bit of truth in those rumours. Indeed, the man claims that at the early stages of the project, Nintendo actually went and see Cyanogen Inc., in order to ask them to create the OS for their new console.

Since the Nintendo Switch runs on FreeBSD, it’s clear there was no deal between Cyanogen Inc. and Nintendo in the end. But according to Kirt McMaster, Nintendo did end up using some “bits of Android” for their console.

For those who don’t know, Cyanogen Inc. is the company that was founded in order to commercialise CyanogenMod, by far the most popular alternative OS for smartphones running Android (which was discontinued in December last year). Said OS was actually developed by a full-fledged army of volunteers from all around the world.

This lead us to wonder how the Nintendo Switch OS would have been developed if Nintendo had signed a deal with Cyanogen Inc.. There’s absolutely no way the OS would have been opensource. One thing’s for sure, the company certainly gave up on what would most likely have been a pretty juicy deal.

Source: Android Central
Via: Nintendo Life