We never would've thought Nintendo was looking to the mobile phone industry with any kind of plans for branching out, but according to the linked patent, which was filed in November 2001 and issued in June 2006, they were (and could still be). The patent, which reads as "Electronic apparatus having game and telephone functions," doesn't really paint a picture. Luckily though, we yanked some screens from Engadget, so check them out after the post break.
[Via Endgadget]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-07-2007 @ 11:46AM
Revd. Jaymo said...
I seem to remember reading somewhere that they were looking at phone-like designs for the wiimote when early development was taking place, before deciding on the design many of us have at home today. Maybe this is a remnant of that effort?
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2-07-2007 @ 12:19PM
Brian said...
Hopefully for Nintendo they massively revamp the design before they even consider this. Additionally, hopefully for Nintendo they totally don't ever do this...
As much as I love Nintendo, I don't think this is something the world is looking for.
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2-07-2007 @ 12:24PM
Author X said...
Mmmmmkay. I saw this some months ago, when I was looking around the patent site for Nintendo stuff. I was actually far more interested in the system they patented to use a camera on a portable gaming device (in the mockup, a GBA) connected to a console gaming device (gamecube), and use two profile pictures + morphing technology to put your face onto a gaming avatar.
Of course, here we are now with miis. Shows how far watching the patent office gets you :P
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2-07-2007 @ 12:55PM
Zan said...
No thank you, I also doubt they'd do this. It'd only make VC even more useless.
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2-07-2007 @ 1:26PM
Mike said...
Ohhhh damn.... a Japanese electronics manufacturer interested in producing a cell phone? Stop the presses!!
Seriously though, that particular design sucks out loud, but if done properly a gaming cell phone could be a good idea, especially if it came with a new mario game.
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2-07-2007 @ 4:02PM
Mr Khan said...
Did anyone else notice that they spelled it "Metoroid?"
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2-08-2007 @ 7:28AM
Budda said...
VoIP capability via the WiFi service maybe?
I recall Nintendo were demoing a VoIP service using Mario on the NDS a couple of years back.
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2-08-2007 @ 3:30PM
Ravage said...
does no one else remember the initial rumblings of the DS having cellphone capabilities? I'm sure that's all these initial patents were designed for... to protect that idea if they decided to run with it.
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2-09-2007 @ 7:33AM
Barry said...
This picture of a prototype looks a lot cleaner than those sketches above
http://www.slipperybrick.com/2007/02/wii-phone/
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2-09-2007 @ 7:57PM
Shiro said...
Remember, in 2001 Nintendo wasn' exactly at the pinnacle of hardware design. Remember the N64? Obviously they'd redesign it IF they ever made one.
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