It has been uncovered that Nintendo of Japan filed a patent application in the United States for a games console that includes an internal hard disk drive but, curiously, without an optical disk drive.

“The unannounced machine may or may not be related to the company’s upcoming games system, which is codenamed NX”.

Look, ladies and gentlemen, there’s no disc drive anywhere…

Check out the two images that was attached by Nintendo with the patent application.

Instead, the patent shows games stored on a hard drive, and further cites “high-speed communication such as ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) or optical communication”, such as high-speed fiber internet, as a delivery method for game data.

Much though the Nintendo Wii U is the butt of countless jokes for its commercial failure, oafish controller and meagre games library, Nintendo deserves credit for continuing to push boundaries in ways that other console makers wouldn’t dare. The diagram seen above indicates that barring an optical drive, data and games can be downloaded from a network and backed up to External HDD or a memory card.

If it is for NX then there’s still always a chance things will change before launch.

In addition, GoNintendo user Daft Ada discovered a recent series of Nintendo patents, pertaining chiefly to OS and Wii U ideas. In the meantime, try to take this with a grain of salt.