OnePlus’s “game-changing” announcement isn’t a games console — it’s a drone, apparently

OnePlus really threw us for a loop. They’ve been teasing a “game-changing” announcement for a couple of weeks now. “Start a new game.” “For the fun of it.” “You’re in control.” They even used a photo of a pair of hands seemingly holding an invisible gaming controller for that last one.

Surely this can be nothing other than a gaming console, right? Wrong — well, wrong according to OnePlus’s Carl Pei, anyway. The company nonchalantly confirmed in an Ask Me Anything session on reddit that they’d be revealing a gaming drone dubbed the DR-1. Carl Pei even posted a convincing branding image for the thing:

But even though this information is coming from the horse’s mouth, we’re going to take this one with a grain of salt for a few different reasons.

1. We’re dangerously close to April Fools day.


2. We’ve never seen a company tease an announcement and then “leak” their own information.


3. It’s OnePlus.


4. It’s OnePlus.

Those last couple of points weren’t duplicated in err — this company’s marketing tactics have been questionable since their conception, and we wouldn’t put anything past them. We’re electing to wait until that April-scheduled announcement before we put all our eggs into the “drone” basket, but this is the story they’re dishing out in the interim. You guys believe them?

Report: Nintendo NX gaming console will be based on Android

Nintendo is finally embracing mobile after years of dodging the platform in all regards. They’ve already committed to mobile apps surrounding their games, and they even have plans to bring a healthy amount of games over the course of the next couple of years.

Their next move could help them tap into the mobile market even more. Nikkei, a reputable Japanese firm, is reporting that the Nintendo NX — their next home gaming console — will use Android for the software platform.

We imagine the Nintendo NX won’t have your typical Android TV experience, but rather a custom fork that Nintendo can build on top of, not unlike what Amazon does in the realm of phones, tablets and the Amazon Fire TV.

So where do the mobile implications come in? Building a platform based on Android could allow Nintendo to create a development environment that thousands of developers are already familiar with. It won’t be as simple as copying and pasting code, obviously, but porting a game to or from the Nintendo NX could be light work. Such a platform would benefit both independent developers and Nintendo themselves, so it’s a win-win situation.

Of course, any good move to get more developers on board will be good because Nintendo has had a tremendous struggle with the Wii U. The console hasn’t been selling nearly as well as the original Wii, largely thanks in part to its lack of third party titles (which in turn is due to the fact that the Nintendo Wii U is simply not powerful enough for game developers to build the types of games they want to these days). Nintendo’s network infrastructure can also accept partial blame as developers find it a lot less pleasing to work with than that of the Xbox One’s and PS4’s.

Nintendo is sure to go all in with the Nintendo NX, and if it’s running Android by the time it’s out you can be sure we’ll be paying attention.

[via Wii U Daily]

Nintendo denies its gaming console will use Android

Welp, that was fast. A report out of a trusted Japanese publication yesterday told of possible plans for Nintendo to use Android on their upcoming game console, the NX. Naturally Nintendo was asked if the report was true, and they didn’t outright refuse to comment.

In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal Nintendo suggests the rumor is not accurate in any way, and that they have no plans to use Android as the console’s software platform. So did someone give Nikkei some false information? Here are a few common scenarios:

• Translation errors often lead to misinformation. Perhaps Nintendo was speaking about Android in a separate context.


• A source could have deliberately tried to throw Nikkei off the path.


• The rumor is actually true, but Nintendo is lying through their teeth.

That last one is not all that far-fetched. Nintendo has denied rumors before, only for those rumors to turn out to be 100% true (see: the Nintendo 3DS XL). We’ve also seen this same pattern with a number of gaming companies, but that only typically happens when a company is trying to lower expectations so their official announcement has a bigger impact. We wouldn’t say revealing which software platform the Nintendo NX will use charts high on the list of things Nintendo wants to keep under wraps.

So all of that is to say that this rumor may or may not be true. Officially it’s not true, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to keep our eye on the Nintendo NX for the off chance that it is.

[via Wii U Daily]