Nintendo NX News: 5 Of The Craziest Rumors About Specs, Features And Games For 2017 Console

Nintendo NX rumors will soon be debunked en masse once its maker reveals the official details. Knowing that day will come soon, we thought it’d be fun to recap five of the most insane things we’ve heard about the system’s specs, features and games. Some of this may be true, but we’re not holding our breath.

1) The Nintendo Focus: Like all dubious rumors, talk of the Nintendo Focus first emerged on a now-deleted 4Chan post. Luckily our friends at International Business Times recapped the story. The source suggested not just the Focus namesake but also touched on its games lineup. The major names include Super Smash Bros For Focus, Super Smash Bros. Melee HD, F-Zero^2 and The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild. The updated Smash will allegedly include all Wii U content plus additional character DLC like Wolf And Shovel Knight.

The name itself isn’t half bad, but it’s that list of games that seems especially close to a fanboy’s dream. Why would you launch two Super Smash Bros. games at once? How many F-Zero rumors have been debunked over the years? The fact that the source thread is impossible to find today is almost all you need to know.

2) Adding Virtual Reality: Two months after Nintendo announced the NX will launch in March 2017, Digitimes published a lead from unverified sources that the console’s arrival had been delayed to enhance its hybrid console features and add VR functionality.

We, however, just don’t see this one happening. Virtual Reality isn’t a feature that can be added in a couple of months. A device has to be created and tested in a large scale way. No known public faces have used the NX, so how would Nintendo be collecting hands-on data? Similar products like the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR had full years of convention appearances to work with. Let’s also not forget that Nintendo has scoffed at VR in the past. It’s not impossible, but we’d say it’s unlikely.

3) That Oval Remote: This NX rumor will endure the test of time simply because so many outlets believed it. Back in March, high-quality images surfaced of what appeared to be an NX controller. The supposed design had an oblong oval shape and featured no face buttons. Supported by two analog nubs, it was assumed everything else would be touch-based.

Considering how strange it looked, the Internet didn’t react too kindly to the idea. We all breathed a sigh of relief when the mockup was confirmed to be a 3D-printed fake just days later. For a very short while, the NX had a controller that was almost as terrible as the PS3’s scrapped boomerang remote.

4) The Nintendo MH: A few months after the controller leak debacle, a Morgan Stanley analyst briefly alluded to a “next-generation handheld device” called the Nintendo MH. Major publications picked up the lead once again, and the Internet hype train ran off the tracks. Could Nintendo really release a 3DS successor in the modern age? Are the console-hybrid NX rumors false?

As it turns out, the analyst was just speaking in hypothetical terms rather than anything tied to fact. That being said, the concept of a standalone handheld just doesn’t make sense for 2016 and beyond. Especially now that Nintendo is jumping headfirst into the smartphone market, there just isn’t room for a device like that. Add in the fact that 3DS support is expected to last until 2018, and the idea of two related NX devices just sounds silly. The NX will likely be one device that serves multiple gaming styles.

5) The Power Of 50 Wii U’s: No rumor recap is without a good spec comparison, so we’ll end with one. In March, Dual Pixels suggested that the NX would be a handheld with specs as powerful as 50 Wii U’s and 100 PlayStation Vitas.

While the source of this one is a pretty reliable leaker. That’s just not fathomable. Most hardware power comparisons are a bit apples and oranges, but does it really make sense that Nintendo would be able to make a mobile device with those kinds of numbers? Even the best iPhone games look reasonably close to PS3, and the spec of 50 Wii U’s is well beyond that threshold and possibly beyond PS4. If it existed, that version of the NX would be pretty costly with a very low battery life.

The Nintendo NX is expected to release in March 2017.

What do you think of these rumors? Could any of these specs or features make sense? Tell us in the comments section!