A patent filing from last year seemed to suggest that the upcoming Nintendo NX won’t have an optical drive. However if you thought that this meant that the console would digital-only, think again. Instead we have been hearing rumors that the Nintendo NX could actually be going back to the good old days of cartridges.
Now it seems that there is more evidence that this could be the case. According to a recent trademark filing for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it reads, “Downloadable electronic game programs; downloadable electronic video game software; electronic game programs; electronic game software; video game cartridges; video game discs; video game memory cards; video game programs; video game software”.
Note that it says “video game cartridges” in the filing alongside video game discs and memory cards. Now it is entirely possible that Nintendo is simply covering their bases when it comes to the distribution of their games. With the Wii U accepting discs, we guess the “game discs” portion is probably for the Wii U.
However what’s interesting is the mention of cartridges and memory cards which hints at potential ways NX games could be distributed. In any case perhaps we shouldn’t get too excited yet since nothing about the NX has been confirmed yet, but with details expected this coming fall, we won’t have to wait too long to find out.
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