For more than a year, the internet has been begging for any scraps of information they can get about the Nintendo NX, the next console from the venerable video game company behind Mario and Zelda.
Nintendo first said they were making another console more than a year ago, but offered no information on it aside from assuring us we would know more before the end of 2016. We don't even know its name yet, as NX is just a codename.
However, the head of the company behind Pokémon may have just tipped off the nature of the upcoming gaming device.
"The NX is trying to change the concept of what it means to be a home console device or a hand-held device," Pokémon Company head Tsunekazu Ishihara told Wall Street Journal. "We will make games for the NX."
The Pokemon Company "Pokémon Sun & Moon" is coming to Nintendo 3DS this November.
It's not surprising that Pokémon is coming to NX, given that Nintendo is more or less in charge of marketing and distributing Pokémon products. What is surprising is the first part of that quote, where Ishihara talks about the nature of the NX.
It's been rumored for quite some time that the NX will be a combination home console and handheld device. The rumors picked up steam when anonymous sources told Eurogamer that's pretty much the case, with LetsPlayVideoGames getting the scoop that it will have detachable controllers with motion controls.
This could also fall in line with previous reports that Game Freak, the developer of the core handheld Pokémon role-playing games, would develop a game for the NX. Dozens of Pokémon games have been released for Nintendo home consoles, but they've always been spin-offs rather than the core handheld games that drive the franchise forward.
Of course, Ishihara's comments don't mention Game Freak at all, so this is just connecting the dots. If Nintendo's next home console and next handheld console are, indeed, the same device, it would make sense for future games in the main series to show up there.
Based on what Ishihara told the Wall Street Journal, it seems like the NX might be a hybrid home and handheld console after all. The NX will launch in March of 2017, with an official console reveal event supposedly happening at some point in September or October.