Following the news that Nintendo is to cease production of the Wii U later this year – suggesting that its next console, the NX, is to be revealed imminently – possible pictures of the system’s new controller have been revealed on reddit. Now, this wouldn’t be the first Nintendo-related hoax (Nintendo Cross, anyone?), but these photos do match the patent that Nintendo filed last year for a potential new gamepad. Whether that makes these pictures more or less suspicious is for you to decide:
According to perkele37, who posted the two photos of the supposed controller (as part of the NX dev kit) to reddit:
- Only the upper ‘nubs’ of the two analogue sticks move. The stick itself remains static, with perkele37 saying that “the bottom part is static, kind of like the circle pad, but it moves along the bottom ‘sphere’.”;
- In the place of shoulder buttons are two rollers, which “feel and look pretty much identical to a mouse scroll-wheel.” Perkele37 adds that the feature may not make it to the final design;
- The device features haptic feedback – “like Apple’s ‘Taptic’ engine,” rather than a rumble – which is said to replace conventional buttons;
- On the bottom of the controller is a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Compare the pictures to the patent filed last year (FIG. 9 (A) especially), and the design is a close fit. Is this genuine? Surely we won’t have to wait very long to find out.
