Nintendo NX release date, design, and features: Console arriving mid-2016?

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Ever since Nintendo's upcoming console, dubbed as Nintendo NX, was confirmed to be in development, rumors about its release date have circulated online.

The most recent report on the release date of the console is from Digitimes, which mentioned that the NX is expected to arrive in the middle of 2016 with 12 million units to be released.

Several reports also agreed that the Nintendo NX will indeed be released sometime in 2016, but ChinaTopix specified that the console will be available for pre-orders by February.

Nintendo has not revealed any details on when the Nintendo NX will be released, but the company's new president, Tatsumi Kimishima, confirmed exclusively in his interview with TIME that the device "is in development" and more details should be released next year.

The New Year is almost coming and Nintendo fanatics will just have to wait for those announcements.

Meanwhile, Kimishima also gave hints on what the NX will or will not be.

He only assured that the NX will be "unique and different." "It's something where we have to move away from those platforms in order to make it something that will appeal to our consumer base," Kimishima said.

At the same time, he highlighted that the NX will not be the "next version of Wii or Wii U."

What form the NX takes remains to be seen, but Design & Trend put together a list of possible designs that the console will adopt based on rumors and patents filed.

The news outlet gathered that the Nintendo NX could be a free-form display controller, which features a combination of the touchscreen found in smartphones and traditional game controllers.

The NX could also arrive as a console that comes with a portable component; an improved Wii U gamepad design; or a device that offers a virtual reality component.

All of these designs are exciting, but until official announcements from Nintendo are released, the NX still remains in the rumor category.