Nintendo NX release date, news & update: Test production has begun; more details about upcoming console to be announced soon

Emmanuelle Espiritu Monday, September 26, 2016

A visitor tries to play Nintendo Co Ltd's 3DS portable game console at the company showroom in Tokyo, Japan July 14, 2016. | Reuters/Issei Kato

Months before its scheduled release, the next generation Nintendo console has presumably entered an important phase in its production: the test manufacturing stage.

The upcoming console, known by its codename Nintendo NX, is expected to launch in March 2017. Despite the company's efforts to keep details about the highly anticipated console, recently leaked information via Digitimes claimed that the Taiwanese electronics company, Foxconn, has begun trial production of the Nintendo NX.

The console was first teased at a 2015 press conference by the late Nintendo CEO and president Satoru Iwata. The NX was presumably being constructed based on an "entirely new concept." Current Nintendo president Tatsum Kimishima backed this up earlier this year by saying that the NX will feature an innovative design that has never been seen in other gaming systems before.

Just how different and revolutionary the Nintendo NX will be still remains a mystery. Rumor has it that the upcoming console will be handheld and equipped with detachable controllers. The controllers will be on either side of the screen and can be detached and attached back on as necessary.

It will also presumably feature an option to connect the system to a television via a dock station that will allow the gamer to play his games on a bigger screen when at home. It's rumored to be equipped with NVIDIA's Tegra mobile processor and may provide support for both cartridge-based and downloadable games.

Unfortunately, with the radical hardware changes featured in the Nintendo NX, the next generation game console may not provide support of backwards compatibility.

These are all just speculations based on leaked details from various sources. Nintendo has promised to reveal more information about the NX this year and Business Insider speculated that the company may be waiting for the Oct. 7 release of the Wii U's final game before making official announcements about their next console.

Since test production has presumably started, it may not be long before Nintendo finally comes clean about what the Nintendo NX is all about.