Nintendo's NX platform will apparently include a 'mobile unit'

Nintendo has started to hand out software kits for its upcoming NX platform to developers.

These kits allow developers to begin work on ports of existing games for the NX or to create entirely new ones.

That Nintendo is handing them out suggests that the NX could come out as early as next year.

This news coms from The Wall Street Journal, who also has new reports from people familiar with the NX's development plans.

They have apparently said that the NX will "likely include both a console and at least one mobile unit that could either be used in conjunction with the console or taken on the road for separate use."

This falls in line with what speculators have previously said the NX platform would function as - a crossover between console and mobile device.

Eurogamer points out that a separate mobile unit fits in line with a recent patent Nintendo made for a touchscreen-based controller with shoulder scroll wheels.

The Wall Street Journal's sources also said that the NX will use "industry-leading chips" to bring it up to modern technological standards. Something that the Wii U lacked.

More details on the NX aren't expected from Nintendo until 2016. And do bear in mind that all this is rumour for now.