It appears that an internal logo of the Nintendo Switch’s codename, “NX”, has been discovered and leaked.
The NX logo was found by building a prototype of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on October 18, 2016, two days before Nintendo officially announced the name for the Switch.
The logo itself features a circle with a blue dot that rotates counterclockwise and the letters “NX” appear right next to it. It also features a light blue color similar to the Wii U’s logo instead of the Switch’s red color.
Nintendo Switches Codename was NX This was an early animated logo that was used during the development of the console (found on the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Prototype) This is not seen outside of Nintendo pic.twitter.com/B1bS5zCKOu
– Paul Kelly (@PaulFelixKelly) November 20, 2022
While we can’t fully verify the legitimacy of the boot sequence, given that it’s from Nintendo, we likely won’t get official confirmation. But this is a rare glimpse of an early Nintendo prototype.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was a Switch port of the Wii U’s Mario Kart 8 but with the latest DLC included. The game also got more DLC courses this year, in the form of the Booster Course Pass. It became so successful that it overtook the Mario Kart Wii games, making it the best-selling game in the franchise, but also became the best-selling racing game in US history.
It seems that Nintendo is in no rush to make Mario Kart 9 because Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is doing a very good job. However, Khalifa is reportedly in active development with some sort of “new twist” on the series’ formula.
The Switch is approaching its sixth birthday, so a successor to the device will likely be coming soon. So far, there aren’t any details or code names, but Nintendo has said it’s working not to repeat the same mistakes it did with the transition from Wii to Wii U.
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications like Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.
When he’s not writing about video games, George plays video games. what a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey
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