Nintendo Patents Dual-Screen Gaming Device That Can be Split in Half - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 November 2023 / 4,759 Views
Nintendo recently filed a new patent for a dual-screen gaming device, that can be split in half, according to Game Rant.
The clamshell design appears similar to the Nintendo 3DS, however, the top screen faces out even with the machine closed in one of the patent images. The top and bottom parts of the gaming device would be able to operate independently of each other.
This could potentially be the design for the Nintendo Switch successor, however, Nintendo has a history of filing patents for devices that never get released.
There have been several rumors of a Nintendo Switch 2 in recent months and it has even been confirmed Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick and other executives at the company met with Nintendo executives in December 2022 to discuss the next-generation Switch.
Another report claims Nintendo has targeted a release of September 24, 2024 for the Switch successor. There is also the possibility of an early November 2024 release for the console. It an internal name of NG, however, a final name isn't known. The report claims Nintendo will release two SKUs of the Nintendo Switch 2 with a digital model priced at $400 and a standard model priced at $449.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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If they are going to use this, the rumored $400 and $450 price points seem less crazy. But still, I don't see how adding a Game Card slot adds $50 to the price. I can't fathom the slot costing more than $15, so that's a great profit markup.
Right. Off the top of my head, I can only think of a few pieces of Nintendo hardware that were sold at a loss at first or at another period of time.
GameCube: When it was slashed to $99.99 in early 2003, it was now selling at a loss.
3DS: It was selling at a profit when it launched at $249.99, but the price slash in September to $169.99 meant it was selling at a loss for a time.
Wii U: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/08/nintendo-wii-u-still-being-sold-at-a-loss/ At launch and at least after this article (when the 32 GB became the only option and cut to $299.99) the Wii U was selling at a loss. Nintendo lost a lot of money these years.
I think a digital console would be the one of the few times Nintendo does sell a console for either a loss or for cost.
If you think about it, if the digital edition were to make profit from day one then the physical edition would be making just about $50 of profit, which is a hair more than what the Switch cost at launch. But between the rumors of the hardware capabilities and just the general economy worldwide, I'm not sure this would be as feasible.
But let's say they don't make that much. Let's say they make, oh, only $30 profit on the physical edition and they "lose" about $10 on the digital edition (since you have to factor in that it costs a bit less to produce as well). Well Nintendo doesn't have to share a percentage with a physical retailer (20%), so any full priced $60 game will instantly make up that loss. Which, who doesn't buy one game with a console outside of scalpers?
this is kind of a non-story for the NG switch. the nintendo patents we do see usually never actually become real products.
DS games confirmed for NSO Switch 2?
This is the only reason I would want them to do this. I have zero desire for them to do a dual screen system, but if they did then at least they could add DS and 3DS games to NSO. Of course in future gens if they didn't keep the dual screen going then those DS and 3DS games on NSO would be pointless except for people still playing the old dual screen Switch gen. So yeah I'd say I hope they stay away from dual screens and people just need to pick up the old systems to play those games.
Most likely this is a patent they'll never use.
Well I'm curious to see how it will turn out.
I'm all for 2 screens
The 3ds is my favourite gaming device and I loved having the second screen for inventory, maps ect
Dual screen is a smart move. It's a big counter to emulation (It's hard to emulate the Second screen well), creates opportunity for new gameplay features.
Nintendo added dual screen support in Switch firmware update 10.0 in 2020, but nothing happened to support it.
Like dual screen phones/tablets or DS/3DS before it can't wait.
Emulation wise hmm.
Maybe like Wii U the multi-window approach CEMU does as it's wireless for Wii U then 2 images, 1 screen of DS/3DS (even games like Sim Tower did that in the 90s for different views of the tower up close and far away, other 90s PC games have done such a thing I think). While DS/3DS emulation was just both screens in the 1 window so for this thing I wonder how of the two or another method.
Switch DS
