There is growing evidence that Nintendo is working on VR in their patent applications.
Last month, we reported on a Nintendo patent application for their own head-mounted display filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, that can be used for virtual reality and mixed reality. That was discovered by YouTuber Mike Odyssey, and today, he has a great follow-up.
In his latest video, Mike describes a new patent that came up on the USPTO’s website just yesterday, for a new feature that he explains is related to virtual reality.
The patent describes a system that measures how close or far an object in the game is to the player/viewer. The system then chooses to allocate more resources to display that object when it is getting closer, and then less resources as it goes farther away and recedes into the distance.
Mike sums this up by explaining that this system will allow the HMD to be more efficient and use less processing power in use. To understand why this patent is so relevant, we do need to review the earlier patent.
We reused the image in the first patent that literally illustrates what looks like a VR headset, or perhaps, the makeshift Labo VR cardboard headset. That patent described a newer headset that is completely mobile, with its own CPU and GPU. So, this headset will be more Apple Vision Pro than PSVR 2.
The patent also reveals that this headset will have motion tracking technology, the same kind that is standard in VR and mixed reality devices used for video games today.
If we are interpreting what is publicly available about these patents so far, Nintendo is putting in extra work to make their headsets more energy efficient, the kind of effort that competitors don’t bother with for their own products.
That may mean that this headset, if it comes to market, may not be particularly powerful compared to the Apple Vision Pro, PSVR 2, Meta Quest 3, etc. But that could also mean it’s cheaper to make, and Nintendo may have narrowed down what specific technology they intend to use to make their own VR/mixed reality experience to bring to market.
This potential Nintendo VR headset will be cheaper to buy as well, and Nintendo will definitely add support to at least a few of their best games on it. We don’t know if a Mario platformer (even 3d) makes sense for it, but we could see something like Metroid Prime 4: Beyond be ideal for the role. They could also make entirely new games, or original games based on existing franchises, that are specifically designed for VR.
We can imagine that a Nintendo VR headset would be the industry’s best chance at making VR mainstream. As we reported last month, the developers themselves believe that VR is either in decline or stagnating. We can imagine Nintendo putting effort in to make it easier to get into VR, and to at least try to make it as safe for children and families as possible. But we know patents don’t always lead to products being made, so we’ll have to wait and see if this eventually turns into something.
