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Nintendo has denied rumours that its next console, currently known as NX, will be based on Google's Android operating system.

The rumour, which emerged on Monday, suggested that the console would run Android make it easier for developers to build games. Based on a report from Nikkei, the rumour said that whatever the console is -- it's not a Wii U or 3DS replacement, according to Nintendo -- it would be "loaded with Android" to "speed up getting all game developers on board".


The Kyoto-based company initially told WIRED it would not comment on rumour, but the company has now issued a definitive denial to the Wall Street Journal. "There is no truth to the report saying that we are planning to adopt Android for NX," a spokesperson is quoted as saying.

So that would appear to be that. Indeed, a switch to Android had seemed like a radical new direction for Nintendo, implying a larger project of encouraging developers to move to the system (and perhaps its own games to other devices).

Even so, in the context of Nintendo's partnership with mobile giant DeNAto make smartphone games, it made a strange sort of sense.

Well now we're left as baffled as before. All we know about NX is that it's a "new concept", will be unveiled more fully in 2016, and will probably run some sort of Mario Kart game, eventually.