New patent suggests Game Boy emulation could come to smartphones directly from Nintendo

As most of us know, there are countless game system emulators on the Play Store. All different types can be found from Playstation, to Xbox, to Nintendo. Though these aren’t the easiest ways to play big console games, they’re quite fun for just passing the time. As it turns out, we may eventually see an emulator come from Nintendo themselves, as a new patent was filed by the company that seemingly confirms that thought.

Published by the USPTO, the new patent details that Nintendo has the ability to emulate its mobile gaming consoles (3DS, Gameboy, etc.) in seat-back displays in planes and airplanes, and on mobile devices. For a bit of clarification, this isn’t a completely new idea. Nintendo has filed for patents like this in the past, and this is basically them updating their older patent. It is interesting that the company is still exploring the idea of emulation in-flight and on smartphones.

If Nintendo were to come to the Play Store and offer official store-fronts with all of the classics (running through an official emulator) – Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, Yoshi’s Story – they would potentially be able to reach a new audience of users that have turned away from Nintendo’s traditional gaming systems. This does raise a few questions, though. Does Nintendo need to get into the smartphone gaming industry? If so, would they be doing it for the money, or rather to solely expand to more users in order to drive more interest back to their consoles? Only time will tell what will happen to Nintendo and their future of smartphone gaming.

How do you feel about Nintendo potentially breaching the smartphone world? Would you purchase Nintendo games from a Virtual Console-like emulator if given the chance?