Could The Nintendo NX Be Optical Drive-less?

What’s missing, of course, is a disc drive, leading many to believe the next console is either going to be using some variation on the little digital Cheez-Its Nintendo’s been using for the DS, or we’re looking at something weirder entirely, possibly even an all-digital system. Companies file for patents all the time.

Nintendo has filed a patent for a console without a disc-drive. The example system is not provided with an optical disk drive for reading out a program and/or data from an optical disk.

Also included is the description of a controller with a display screen (not unlike the Wii U GamePad) as well as Speed Control Processing. Not everyone has a decent internet connection and games these days are pretty large in size. This may be a move to maintain backwards compatibility, it may be a brand new controller, or it may be a sign that Nintendo will finally combine handheld with console.

Nintendo teased the NX back in March, but didn’t reveal anything about it other than it’s a “dedicated game platform with a brand-new concept” and more details will be revealed next year. Regardless, things are beginning to get interesting with the NX. The diagram seen above indicates that barring an optical drive, data and games can be downloaded from a network and backed up to External HDD or a memory card.

We’ve reached out to Nintendo for comment on this one, but it seems unlikely that we’ll receive any confirmation one way or another this early.