A recent patent application from Nintendo details a new video game controller that is almost entirely dominated by a touchscreen display. The application was filed by Nintendo employees in June 2015, but the filing has only recently been made available for public viewing.
Unlike Nintendo’s current Wii U GamePad, this new controller appears to lack any physical buttons on its face; instead they are replaced with a front-facing touch screen. Unique to this design, it does, however, feature a pair of physical analog sticks that protrude from two holes on the screen. The only other physical controls on the device seem to be a pair of shoulder buttons on top of the controller.
The patent describes that onscreen buttons can be configured differently depending on game content, switching between right and left hand uses. Examples included labeling different functions to the buttons or sticks or using the screen to add visual effects to your inputs. The screen can be used to display TV content on the controller itself. Patent drawings also showed an Internet browser being displayed in the middle of the screen with various browser buttons to the side.
The patent also notes a built-in speaker, a card slot for storing and accessing game data, and the ability to rotate the controller and have the screen re-orient itself, much like a mobile phone switching between portrait and landscape modes.
A very striking characteristic of this new controller is that the screen is actually an elliptical display, shirking the standard rectangular shape for an oval. Nintendo reportedly invested in Sharp’s Free-Form display technology in 2014, which allows LCD panels to be cut into various shapes and forms, and this patent seems to be a result of that.
While patents for devices rarely indicate the products that will actually hit the marketplace, this particular patent supports the circulating rumors of Nintendo’s next video game system, codenamed “NX.” According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the NX is likely to be a console-handheld hybrid that can be used independently of a TV or console. This would differ from the Wii U in that the NX would be able to be played on-the-go while the Wii U can only be played within a limited wireless range of the system itself.
Whether or not this patent actually relates to the NX or any future-product remains to be seen, but it’s very Nintendo-like to always be thinking outside of the box when it comes to input devices and video games.
By Alfredo Dizon, eParisExtra