Nintendo patents a Game Boy emulator for smartphones

Could it be true? Could Nintendo be officially bringing old Game Boy games to other handheld devices such as smartphones? Well… probably not, but the Japanese video game giant has filed for a patent that would allow Game Boy games to be played on mobile devices, according to Tech Crunch, just in case.

“A number of GAME BOY.RTM. emulators have been written for a variety of different platforms ranging from personal digital assistants to personal computers,” the filing elaborates, as quoted by IGN. “However, further improvements are possible and desirable.”

Unfortunately for the hopefuls out there, this is more than likely just a measure that Nintendo is taking to ensure that someone else can’t file for a similar patent that Nintendo would then have to pay into. Geek also suggests that Nintendo is doing this to grant itself more leverage when going after people who create unofficial emulators for Nintendo consoles.

Polygon notes that the company has been under a significant amount of pressure from analysts and customers to expand their games, if only the older ones, onto other platforms. The Nintendo brand name is infinitely more massive than its current install base, and expanding into more territory would undoubtedly be a massive financial boon for the company.

Sadly, Nintendo seems to be more concerned about the potential damage that releasing an official emulator could to brand recognition in the long term, not to mention how much mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are already eating into 3DS sales. According to Game Spot, Nintendo has made it abundantly clear that handheld gaming devices are here to stay.