Rumors about Nintendo’s next console are running wild once again, thanks to news about Sharp working on new video game hardware.
Sharp has announced in their latest earnings call that they are making liquid crystal display screens for a new console. As reported by Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance, Sharp Chief Executive Officer Robert Wu had this to say:
“I can’t comment on any details regarding specific customers. But as to a new gaming console, we’ve been involved in its R&D stage.”
In spite of the announcement, Sharp was uncharacteristically quiet about the identity of their client, who commissioned the LCD screens. After their presentation, Sharp was careful to delete slides showing their new LCD screens online.
The immediate speculation is that these screens are for the console Nintendo is making after the Switch. While this seems to be baseless speculation just based on the timing of the rumor, it’s actually quite well founded.
Sharp and Nintendo have a relationship that goes back decades. They famously made Nintendo hardware in the 1980s and 1990s, such as the Sharp Twin Famicom, as well as TVs that had a built in Famicom or Super Famicom.
Sharp also supplied the CPUs used in the Game Boy line, all the way to the Game Boy Advance.
In fact, Game Boy’s predecessor, the Game & Watch, came about partly because its creator, Gunpei Yokoi, happened to have had a chance to talk to his boss Hiroshi Yamauchi, right as when he was about to meet then president of Sharp Akira Saeki. You can read all about that story here.
But Sharp today is not quite the same company it was in Saeki’s time. The 100 + year old company rivals Sony as a pioneer in consumer technology, including portable TVs, PCs, home appliances, solar cells, mobile phones, and more. However, since 2016, it has been majority owned by Foxconn, following years of consecutive losses in the market.
So this announcement isn’t as big a deal as it could be for Nintendo as it is for Sharp. The Switch’s screens themselves are not made by Sharp.
It should also be noted here that Sharp could be making these screens for another company, for another seeming portable gaming device, and that could be any of several things.
While Sony is rumored to be making a Q Lite cloud gaming handheld, we already know that Valve and ASUS have the Steam Deck and ROG Ally, respectively. There are also Android based dedicated gaming devices, like the Razer Edge 5G. Lastly, while it seems very unlikely, there are a large number of smaller scale gaming handheld manufacturers, ranging from Anbernic to Ayaneo, who could use high quality LCD screens.
So it isn’t guaranteed that Sharp is making screens for Nintendo’s next console. It remains the most likely given the companies’ close relationship. The fact that Sharp is partly keeping things under wraps also seems like a huge hint that it’s for the notoriously secretive Nintendo.
Keep following GameRanx for updates on Nintendo’s next console after the Switch.
