Think you waste too much time on your smart phone now? Don’t worry! Nintendo’s about to make it a whole lot worse.
TechCrunch reports the much-loved gaming behemoth has patented a new piece of intellectual property that will pave the way for game emulation on airplane seat consoles and mobile devices. Specifically, this new patent focuses on Nintendo’s Game Boy line in its entirety. My inner five-year-old just sh*t his pants:
Already, Nintendo emulates some of its past console titles on newer systems, providing access to SNES, NES and Game Boy classics on the Wii, Wii U and 3DS. This patent would see it expand those offerings to a range of devices, including potentially smartphones. Many have called for the company to consider making its signature titles available on smartphone devices as a way to shore up struggling hardware sales, but thus far the company has seemed reluctant to the idea. Lately, it has been offering spin-off games from the Pokémon series on iPhone and iPad, but it has yet to provide full ports, as Square-Enix has with the Final Fantasy series, for instance.
Emulators on iOS generally get shut down as soon as the Apple review team is made aware of their function, so a legitimate offering from Nintendo on the platform would likely be met with huge consumer interest. Again, though, Nintendo has laid down patents around this general concept in the past, so its interest in protecting IP on the matter doesn’t necessarily indicate any desire to explore product offerings in the area.
It’s still a long shot, but just think: official, approved-from-the-top emulators from Nintendo for your smart phone. The airplane console idea is nice, but this is so much cooler. Besides, regularly flying just to play old school Game Boy titles costs way too much money. Excuse me while I go clean myself.
(Source: TechCrunch)