Nintendo seems to be planning some big changes on how they deliver games with the discovery of a patent they had filed for a new console with no optical disc drive.
The filing of the patent was uncovered by NeoGAF forum user, Rosti, who uploaded a diagram of the rough schematics of the "Stationary Game Apparatus" filed on Feb 10, 2015 by Nintendo Co., Ltd with the United States patent office.
The abstract of the patent explains that new console will not be provided with an optical disk drive as a standard will with other gaming consoles in order to read games off optical disks like CD's and Blue-Ray discs. Instead, the language of the patent hints that the console will instead rely upon network services in order to access and/or stream games over the internet.
Verbatim, in the background and summary section of the patent, Nintendo specifically says to the effect that high-speed internet communication is exactly what will allow the new gaming console to deliver games to the end-user.
"For years, high-speed communication such as ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) or optical communication has widely been spread. Such high-speed communication is utilized to allow a server apparatus or the like to distribute a game program to a game apparatus. When a game program is obtained through communication, a user can enjoy playing a game using a game apparatus without purchasing a recording medium such as an optical disk."
With the discovery of this new gaming console patent filed by Nintendo, some are speculating that the company is looking towards an all-digital future.
However, even with the lack of a built-in optical hard drive, the new console will still retain a reader for SD cards.
Last June, Nintendo released a statement saying that it would not reveal any information regarding its next-generation hardware with the codename NX.
Could a discless future perhaps be part of NX and the future of gaming for Nintendo and others?
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