Nintendo wanted Cyanogen to create an OS for the Switch
Back before the Nintendo Switch was known as the Switch, it was being called the Nintendo “NX.” We covered the NX for a while because it was rumored to be based on Android. Nintendo eventually denied the rumors, but now it looks like there may have been some truth behind them.
@romainguy @dnaltews @rebelleader In the early days of cyanogen Nintendo wanted us to create an os for a certain portable. I told them to stick it.
— Kirt McMaster (@kynprime) March 21, 2017
According to tweets from Kirt McMaster, CEO of Cyanogen, Nintendo was originally interested in having Cyanogen create an OS for the device. The OS would have been based on Android, but it would have been super custom and locked down. Similar to Amazon’s Android OS on Fire devices. The OS would have been unrecognizable as Android, which is not what Cyanogen was about. Kirt told them to “stick it.”
Kirt went on to tweet that he would be interested in a version 2 that could work as a true mobile device with a data connection. It’s unlikely we’ll ever see that from Nintendo, but maybe they’ll be more open to the idea in the future. Do you have a Nintendo Switch? Would you have bought one if it was based on Android?