Pokémon Company CEO Says Pokémon Is Coming to NX, Fueling Handheld Rumors

With Nintendo going completely silent about the NX, we’ve had to subsist on every rumor about it that we can. Thanks to an interview by the Wall Street Journal with Pokémon Company president Tsunekazu Ishihara, we have the closest thing yet to a confirmation that the NX will be both a portable and home console.

In the interview Ishihara said, “The NX is trying to change the concept of what it means to be a home console device or a handheld device. We will make games for the NX.”

That’s about as vague a statement as one can make, but with a bit of speculation and interpretation, there’s still some juicy rumor meat to chew on there.

Firstly, Nintendo has said basically nothing when it comes to what the NX is, besides that it’s a next-generation console with a “brand-new concept.” So while Ishihara used some careful phrasing to avoid exactly confirming the rumors, it’s hard not to read the first sentence as saying that the NX is both a handheld and home console.

As if that wasn’t enough, there’s the second statement, which basically points in the same direction all the other NX rumors have: Pokémon is coming to the NX.

Except for a few spinoffs and offshoots, the main series of Pokémon games, starting all the way back in 1996 with Red and Blue, have been handheld exclusives. So there are three options: the Pokémon NX game will be a spinoff, it will be the first main series game on a traditional home console, or, if you’re looking to confirm some rumors, the NX will be a handheld, thus preserving Pokémon’s handheld lineage.