In the early life of the Nintendo Switch, when it was still codenamed Nintendo NX, there were a lot of rumors floating around about the device. We saw a console with an oval shape and a screen that seemed built into the buttons and rumors that the new device would run Android as its operating system.
While the product we have today resembles nothing of those early prototypes, it looks like the Android rumor may not have been far off. Cyanogen’s Kirt McMaster tweeted early this morning to say that Nintendo had approached him about designing a custom Android-based operating system for their new console, but he had some choice words for the company.
Add this to the list of terrible business decisions by Cyanogen and its CEO.
Reminds me of the story of how Nintendo had approached Atari for distribution of the NES in North America.
Atari said no, because they had plans to release the 7800, which didn’t happen until 2 years after they had initially planned to.
Remember how Nintendo was eager to team up with another company to produce a CD-Rom add-on for the SNES? How they went to Sony and got as far as prototypes before calling the whole thing off and teaming up with Philips instead? And how that didn’t lead to anything good, either?
We have no idea what kind of terms Nintendo was interested in here. While McMaster generally hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt, there’s a chance he made the right choice.
Well, considering how Cyanogen turned out it probably wasn’t a smart decision but Nintendo is probably thanking their lucky star.
All I can say is “THANK DEITY!” that they didn’t. That’s all we need… one more shitty Android device…
Mind you I use Android on my phone, and I have an Android tablet. I have a strong dislike for both of them, it’s just that Google in many ways is ‘less evil’ than Apple. Would be awesome if we had a third choice… that wasn’t Microsoft.
“Would be awesome if we had a third choice… that wasn’t Microsoft.”
Right. Pity that Ubuntu Touch seems to be going nowhere much like Sailfish OS.
Edited 2017-03-22 09:57 UTC
Jolla is partnering now woth Sony to release Xperos X (and possibly other models) woth full supported SailfishOS(with AlienDalvik, etc). It’s official, but not much details are known.
i cannot say much about SailfishOS, because never used it(still happy user of Nokia n9 with MeeGo/Harmattan onboard)
Wow, Apple is less evil than Google? lol – what metric are you using? (Besides Good/Evil being a useless way to measure anything)
I heard else where that certain parts of Android did make into the final Switch OS, wonder what parts. But this article that is sourced seems to say that it is a FreeBSD Fork.
Company circling the drain avoids dead company, news at 11.
You know Nintendo has a 812.8 billion Yen (£6.7/$10.5 billion) cash reserve right?
They can literally make 0 income at their current operating costs and they would still be running until 2050.
Come on, a little research before spreading FUD goes a long way.
Edited 2017-03-24 11:05 UTC
LOL. That’s not how cash reserves work when it comes to publicly traded companies.
The switch is a disaster both technically and from a value proposition standpoint. The nostalgic 30-some yr old Zelda and Mario fans market has reached capacity.
Nintendo may figure how to monetize their SW IP properly at some point on 3rd party platforms. But the days of them being a HW company are certainly numbered.