Virtual reality coming to Nintendo's new console? Here's a hint.
When the new Nintendo Switch comes out in March we'll finally know if it will support virtual reality. But until then, impatient gamers are searching for clues.
Evidence has emerged that supports speculation that VR will be part of the system. In an online gaming forum on Wednesday, someone posted details from a Nintendo U.S. patent filing from June, the website UploadVR reported.
From the patent, it looks like a head-mounted display (HMD) accessory will let users slip in a smartphone for what would presumably be a VR experience. Contained in the 147 pages of images, there's one that shows what this headset might look like.
The patent description says the headset is "an example accessory to which the main unit can be attached."
Nowhere in the filing does it specifically mention VR (or augmented reality), but the way it's explained seems awfully similar to Samsung's Gear VR or even Google Cardboard.
Mashable reached out to Nintendo, but the company didn't initially comment about any VR capabilities or other details about the Switch console. It later replied Friday with, “We have no comment regarding this patent matter.”
For now, we'll have to be content with these crude diagrams and limited details about its design.
What we do know: The Switch will have a gamepad-looking screen with controllers that break off, and the screen can be slipped into a dock to make it a home console.
Topics Nintendo Switch Virtual Reality
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
