Pokemon Company CEO confirms Nintendo NX is a home-handheld console hybrid

The Pokémon Company chief executive Tsunekazu Ishihara has confirmed that Nintendo's next gaming console, codenamed NX, will be both a home console and a handheld. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal he also confirmed that The Pokémon Company will be making games for the system.

"The NX is trying to change the concept of what it means to be a home console device or a hand-held device," said Ishihara. "We will make games for the NX."

Nintendo has yet to reveal exactly what the NX is, despite a litany of reports disclosing what the device is likely to be surfacing since Nintendo first announced the NX's existence in March 2015. Back in July, Eurogamer lifted the lid on what NX will be.

Their report stated that the device would be a handheld with detachable controllers that can be used together when the handheld device is slotted into a docking station for use with a television. They also confirmed the console would utilise cartridges; a necessity of it being a handheld.

The Nintendo NX will be launched in March 2017, with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild its first and only confirmed first-party game. It is not known for sure whether the new Zelda adventure will be a launch title for the system.

In August a report emerged claiming that a new Mario and Game Freak-developed Pokémon game would be released for the console during its first six months on shop shelves. Said report also claimed that third party deals have been signed with Activision, Ubisoft, Sega, Square Enix and Warner Bros.

Ishihara also discussed the enormous success of iOS and Android game Pokémon Go over the summer. "I feel like the reaction we saw was 10 times or even 100 times bigger than we expected," he said.

He reaffirmed developer Niantic Inc's intention to introduce trainer battles and trading, but added that such features will be introduced slowly to avoid putting new players off.

"Battling is a category that we do best at Pokémon, after all," Ishihara said, adding that "it's important to really carefully consider any feature that may increase the difficulty and raise the barrier to entry for more casual users."

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