Nintendo NX's games will come on cartridges, no disc drive supported

A new patent filing has unloaded a bevy of new information on Nintendo's mysterious NX console, giving a new perspective on what Nintendo is cooking up for the future. The patent, which was filed in February and just released, describes Nintendo's filing as a "Stationary Game Apparatus, Game Apparatus, Game System, Recording Medium and Speed Control Method".

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What we know so far is that the NX won't have a disc drive, that it sports two NAND flash memory banks as well as a primary hard-disk for storage, a processor, and its very own Wii U-like wireless display controller. Rather than relying on Blu-ray discs the console will instead rely on SD memory cards, which herald a nostalgic transition back to the cartridge medium which most of us grew up on. Only instead of the 128MB SNES cards of our youth, the NX will need at least 32-64GB SD cards to keep up with today's demanding games. It's likely that the system will also be buffered by digital games and apps via Nintendo's eShop.

According to the filing, the NX includes "a processor, a first memory, a second memory, an internal HDD (Hard Disk Drive), an image output unit , a communication unit, a wireless communication unit, a power supply unit, an HDD connection unit, a card slot, and a wireless display controller".

No hard specs were delivered about the Nintendo NX's processor, but it's believed that AMD will design the NX's customized APU that will power the system.

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FIGURE 1 - "The game apparatus is a so-called stationary game apparatus. The game apparatus includes a processor, a first memory, a second memory, an internal HDD (Hard Disk Drive), an image output unit, a communication unit, a wireless communication unit, a power supply unit, an HDD connection unit, a card slot, a controller and the like. The controller is provided exclusively for the game apparatus. The controller includes a processor, a wireless communication unit, an operation unit, a display unit, a battery, a connection unit and the like."

Nintendo NX basics:

"An example system includes an internal hard disk drive storing a program and/or data, a communication unit transmitting/receiving a program and/or data via a network, and a processor executing a program stored in the hard disk drive to perform game processing. The example system is not provided with an optical disk drive for reading out a program and/or data from an optical disk."

Claim 1: A stationary game apparatus, comprising: an internal hard disk drive storing a program and/or data; a communication unit transmitting/receiving a program and/or data via a network; and a processor executing a program stored in the hard disk drive to perform game processing, wherein the game apparatus is not provided with an optical disk drive.

Claim 2: The stationary game apparatus according to claim 1, comprising a first storage configured of a non-volatile memory, wherein the first storage stores a first program starting to be executed when the game apparatus is started, and the hard disk drive stores a second program starting to be executed after the first program starts to be executed.

Nintendo NX controller info:

Claim 25: A game apparatus, comprising: a wireless communication unit performing wireless communication with a wireless operation device having an operation unit, a display unit and a battery, and wirelessly transmitting/receiving information concerning an operation accepted by the operation unit and information concerning an image to be displayed on the display unit; and a power supply unit to which the wireless operation device is detachably connected via a power supply line and supplying power to the battery of the wireless operation device via the power supply line.

Be sure to check the parent directory for all the diagrams, claims and information detailed in the patent filing.

Bear in mind that things could change in the final version and the SD card port could simply be for expandable memory rather than game cartridges. Cart support makes a lot of sense for Nintendo as it would allow users to play 3DS and maybe even DS carts on the NX. The patent notes that the cited prototype version "is not provided with an optical disk drive for reading out a program and/or data from an optical disk," but this might change in the shipped consumer system.