Those hoping for a little green in their Nintendo world will be disappointed to know that the big N has denied planning any future ties with Android.
Citing anonymous sources, a report from the respected Japanese business newspaper, Nikkei, suggested Nintendo may have been planning to use Android as the operating system for its next gaming console, currently codenamed NX.
But Nintendo's since dismissed that claim, telling The Wall Street Journal "There is no truth to the report saying that we are planning to adopt Android for NX."
The statement comes as somewhat of a surprise seeing as how partnering with Android could only help the Japanese company in sales. (Video via Nintendo)
For one thing, the Mario developer has already announced a partnership with DeNA to make games for mobile devices. If Nintendo bases its next console on Android, that would only lead to more cohesion between its products.
Nikkei speculatd the lack of third parties making games for the Wii U would have been a big motivator for the supposed switch. The console is just too different from its rivals to make developing games cost effective.
Regardless of their future with Android, the fact that Nintendo has to worry about this now shows how much the industry has changed. Nintendo used to be able to relay solely on the strength of its first party properties like Donkey Kong.
But many of the best-selling games of 2014, such as "Grand Theft Auto V" and "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare," never made it to Nintendo's system, and the company has to know their limited library of games is hurting their hardware's sales.
Using Android could have opened the console up to a wider array of software developers, but Nintendo would have needed a hardware update, too. The processing core of the Wii U is only half as powerful as the Xbox One and PS4.
Implementing Android instead of making something entirely new could have helped offset the costs of that hardware update.
With Nintendo denying any partnership with Android, whatever they have planned for the NX is back up in the air. Whatever it is, hopefully it'll help the company grab more third-party developers.
This video contains images from Getty Images.
