Wait, Nintendo has teamed up with Google in order to make a VR headset? History shows they would.

Image source: Midjourney prompted by MIXED

Not many realize this, but Nintendo and Apple have quite a lot in common. Hear me out! It’s not just about the clean branding or the pursuit of hardware innovation — with varying levels of success, but still — it’s about product attitude.

A lot of people are talking about the Apple tax, but did you know that there has been a Nintendo tax for a while? Those among us old enough to remember the joys of having an NES will probably instantly remember the old “Nintendo Seal of Approval”. Which, by the way, was required and not just some sort of award.

But is there a world where Nintendo would think to compete with Apple and the Vision Pro? Maybe. Because according to an X (because that’s how we’re calling them now, right?) Nintendo and Google may have teamed up to create a VR headset.


I hear the hardcore Nintendo fans among you! Yes. This wouldn’t technically be Nintendo’s first headset: the Virtual Boy existed, in all of its red glory. It was a headset and it was the first console, capable of stereoscopic 3D. Kind-of. Anyway, it was a product failure that caused massive eye strain too.

But the point here is that Nintendo does have a tendency for odd forms of innovation and a history related to a pursuit of virtual reality.

Given that the Switch — Nintendo’s current-gen transformer of a gaming console — is approaching the end of its lifecycle and that a Switch 2 is obviously in the works… It isn’t really that far-fetched to imagine a world where Nintendo and Google collaborate on a VR headset.

That being said, I don’t think that it would be a standalone system. More so, some sort of attachment for Nintendo’s next console, maybe even made of cardboard if Labo returns. After all, Google Cardboard — a literal VR headset made out of cardbord — also exists, right?