A patent that leads to Nintendo's new game machine "NX", or information disclosure of "curved touch controller"

We found that a patent of a unique game terminal equipped with a touch display on the controller was filed in the US by Nintendo employees. Although the company name of "Nintendo" is not written in the published document, Nintendo's next-generation game machine "NXIt is said that it may be related to.

GAME APPARATUS AND INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS - Kuwahara, Masato
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2015/0355768.html

Nintendo Files Patent for Unique, Free-Form Touch Controller - GameSpot
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-files-patent-for-unique-free-form-touch-c/1100-6433023/

According to the description of the document, the content of the patent being applied is a controller of a play style closer to the smartphone game as follows. You can see that the play screen is projected on the egg type touch display and that one physical stick is mounted on the part hitting the left and right thumb.



It is a controller of a shape like PlayStation or Xbox, and the portion corresponding to the index finger is also equipped with buttons corresponding to "L" and "R" buttons.



The structure looking from the side of the physical stick is as follows and it is possible to operate it like a button by pushing it in addition to manipulating it by tilting back and forth and to the left and right.


The image screen of gameplay looks like this, a virtual button that can select various items etc is displayed next to the physical stick.


Sometime it is like a FPS to hold a gun and stand up to monsters ... ...


A flame effect is displayed around the physical stick, and a sample screen that gives an attack to the monster, too. It seems to be able to prompt intuitive operation.


In "Help mode", you can display how to operate the character, for example, "Left" when you tilt the left stick, "Jump" when pressing the right stick, "crouch" by pressing the L button.


Tilting the left stick to aim and push the right stick to throw the item is also possible. In addition, the explanation of the patent suggests that some button arrangement can be changed, it seems that it can also be optimized for left-handed and right-handed users.


Hybrid display that selects the alphabet displayed around the physical stick by tilting the stick for character input. It looks like a flick input on a smartphone, and the alphabet entered is displayed in the center.


Since the screen such as "Main Menu" and "Sub Menu" is also displayed on the controller, it seems that there is a high possibility of a terminal that operates the controller alone without a TV connection.


On the screen called "Browser Screen", the display area is close to the conventional screen display, and the screen ratio can be changed according to the situation.



It is also assumed to use one hand by vertical holding. It also suggests that the display also supports the same stereoscopic (3D) display as 3DS.


This patent application was filed around June 2015, but the content of the patent was reported as it was published on-line in December. It is unknown whether or not it relates to "NX" which is said to be the next generation game machine of Nintendo, but it has been found out that five people who have names as patent "inventor" are employees of Nintendo. Nintendo is talking about this subject "There is no comment."

In addition, it seems to be used in this controller "Curved surface type FFD (free form display)About December 2014Sharp is undertaking development as a client of Nintendo, There is a report that the idea of ​​a new type portable game machine of a patent is expected to be realizable contents.

On December 3, 2015 Nintendo's President Tatsuo Kimishima is interviewed by TIME, but in addition to revealing that "NX" is under development, "Wii U and Wii are the same line It will be a next-generation platform that draws a picture of "Nintendo 3DS", so it seems likely that it will be at least a new type of portable game machine following "Nintendo 3DS". Also, Nintendo is a DigitimesWe plan to ship 12 million "NX" in 2016, And it seems likely that details will be announced in the near future.

Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima on the Future
http://time.com/4131306/nintendo-kimishima-interview/