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Wall Street Journal: Nintendo distributing SDK for its NX platform

Announced back in March during a press conference revealing a partnership with DeNA, NX is the codename of Nintendo’s next platform. We know next to nothing about it (except that it will be a gaming platform), but fans, analysts and journalists simply cannot stop to talk about it (which isn’t all that surprising: a new platform is not something that comes every year!).

NINTENDO_LOGOToday, it’s the Wall Street Journal’s turn to put their grain of salt regarding the NX. According to “people familiar with the matter”, Nintendo has already started sending SDK (Software Development Kit) to select developers, which would suggest that Nintendo is planning to “introduce” the NX platform as early as next year.

According to David Gibson (analyst at Macquarie Capital Securities), Nintendo might very well launch a new console/handheld next year, due to the “softness” of the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS:

“We are increasingly of the idea that Nintendo might launch the NX in 2016 because of the softness of 3DS and Wii U,” said David Gibson, an analyst at Macquarie Capital Securities.

We don’t know what the NX platforms will end up like, but according to “people familiar with the development plans”, there will be at least a home console and a “mobile unit” (most likely a handheld). Will it be hybrid as many are expecting? The answer is most likely no, if what Satoru Iwata said during a meeting with investors back in 2013 is to be believed.

The NX platform will have “industry-leading chips”, as opposed to what the Wii U (and Nintendo 3DS) are using: this is apparently in response to the lack of power of the Wii U compared to the platforms of the competitors.

Back in July, Square-Enix announced that they were working on a NX version of both Dragon Quest X and Dragon Quest XI: Sugiarashi Toki o Motomete (before back pedaling, and saying they were only “considering” it). It shows that Nintendo has already started talking to developers about its new platforms.

Talking of developers, Nintendo recently opened a new website for them (click here), replacing the aging WarioWorld (though this is obviously not related to the NX platform itself)!

Source: WSJ

Lite_Agent

Founder and main writer for Perfectly Nintendo. Tried really hard to find something funny and witty to put here, but had to admit defeat.

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