Nintendo NX announcement - What we 'know' so far

Nintendo is set to announce its next big console later today at 3PM BST / 7am PT / 10am ET. We at Pocket Gamer are extremely excited, and we think you should be too.

Why is a website that's predominantly concerned with portable gaming excited about a home console release, you might reasonably ask? For the answer to that question, and a general summary of what we think we know about the Nintendo NX ahead of its unveiling, read on.

Thanks to several well sourced leaks (including Nintendo patents and The Pokémon Company boss Tsunekazu Ishihara), we're pretty sure we know what form the Nintendo NX is going to take. It's a potential game-changer.

The Nintendo NX will be a portable console with its own single screen and physical controls sitting either side. Think the PS Vita, the bottom section of the Nintendo 3DS, or indeed the Wii U's controller - only completely self-sufficient.

But here's the kicker - it'll also be a home console. You'll be able to dock the console in order to hook it up to your TV. What's more, those button panels either side of the screen will detach to form two controllers.

There have been no solid hardware leaks, but plenty of mock-ups - such as this one:

Given the Nintendo NX's unique hybrid form factor, it's perhaps unsurprising to hear reports that it will return to some kind of cartridge format for games.

That's not so special for a handheld, of course, but in terms of home consoles it's a throwback to the '90s. Of course, the capacity of these cartridges will be much greater than the N64's, possibly to the tune of around 32GB. To place that in context, the largest 3DS game card holds 4GB of data, while a Wii U disc can hold up to 25GB.

The NX isn't going completely retro on us though - there'll be a system in place for downloadable games too.

Nintendo typically supports backwards compatibility better than either of its console rivals - often to the detriment of the raw performance of its machines. That could be set to change with the NX, though.

Reports suggest that straight up backwards compatibility is not on the cards. Obviously, the shift to a cartridge format would tell you that, but it goes beyond that. Nintendo is said to be shifting to a completely different hardware architecture to that of the Wii U, Wii, and Gamecube before it.

If you want to play your old Wii U games, you'll probably be out of luck.

Reports suggest that initial development kits for the Nintendo NX are powered by Nvidia Tegra technology. The Tegra name used to be big in early Android phones and tablets, but Qualcomm's Snapdragon series has taken a stranglehold on the mobile market in recent years.

Nvidia is still making mobile-ready hardware, though. The Nintendo NX will likely run on the Tegra X1, which currently powers Google's Pixel C tablet and the Nvidia Shield Android TV console (pictured below). However, the NX appears to be set to have meatier cooling than those Android devices, hinting at some kind of spicy tinkering for Nintendo's new console.

This means that the Nintendo NX almost certainly won't be as powerful as either the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One, but should be above the level of the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. It may even be similar to the Wii U, despite the difference in architecture.

Some see this as a bit of a downer, but considered from a portable gaming perspective it's anything but. The Nintendo NX will be considerably more powerful than the current top dedicated handheld, the PS Vita, and it should be as attractive to mobile game developers as it will be to console game developers.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be the last big game for the Wii U, but it will also be the biggest launch game for the Nintendo NX. It'll launch on both consoles, much like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess did in the changeover years between the GameCube and the Wii.

We also know that there will be proper Pokemon games for the NX, which will be a first for a Nintendo home console (which tend to only get spin-offs), probably within the first six months.

Nintendo has previously stated that it's aiming to launch the Nintendo NX in March 2017. That's less than six months on from today's announcement.