Nintendo is very careful with which companies they partner with, but it looks like they were the ones being turned down when they asked Cyanogen to help develop the Switch’s OS. According to a tweet from Cyanogen’s former CEO, Nintendo came to them and asked for help developing an Android based OS for their latest console. However, Cyanogen seems to have been quite hostile with the Japanese company, McMaster claiming he told them to “stick it”. Would you like to have seen Switch running on Android? Tell us below.
Former Cyanogen CEO Refused To Help Nintendo Develop An Android Based OS For The Switch
But why though?
Probably because they’re Nintendo or possibly the Ex-CEO was just Xenophobic towards Asians.
I think it’s because android os is all about freedom with no restrictions. Nintendo, while I love them, do not share this philosophy. They have way too many restrictions and regulations. But still, there was no reason for the CEO to be a dick about it. I believe the same guy had some nasty things to say about Google too.
Nintendo has a bad record of going after people making freeware games with their IPs ike Pokemon hacks and etc. Heck Nintendo even shut down this SUper Mario kart vid somebody made. It’s not surprising Cyanogen who stands for full freedom on your devices doesn’t wanna have a thing to do with a company so restrictive about anything.
Nintendo always asked for help for other companies.
I am xylophobic towards trees…
Cyanogen has brain damage.
Wonder why
Such insolence.
Not that we needed them, but what reason could there possibly be for such a decision?
||Xbots, it is always Xbots, they cannot fool me…||
The worst part is that he is saying this with some sense of pride. Doesn’t look like his company did so well anyway, Commander.
Last I heard they were a billion dollar company.
Company doesn’t exist anymore, went bankrupt.
Well, they did lost there pride but not yet.
Xbots run on Windows not Android. :D
Because Nintendo are psycho control freaks while this company is all about freedom & not trying to control every second of their users lives.
Least that’s what someone else said, anyway. xD But knowing Nintendo, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was true.
What a little shit.
Ah well, it’s not like the Switch is selling fas- oh no…
Well Nintendo and Nvidia are totally not making a profit- oh… well crap…
I guess we know why he got the sack now…
Now i see why they refused to help them.
What?
So not getting a profit was a good reason to refuse?
Sounds like a dumb business move.
It is.
Ave, true to Caesar
if i recall correctly he said something similar to one plus when the partnership between them ended. Then again we don’t know what the terms where or if he just trying to look cool for telling one of the big ones to “stick it”.
||Irrelevant, the only thing that matters is that at that time, that imbecile and his partners had to dismiss 1/5 of their workforce and now are masquerading their OS with the new name Lineage OS…||
||Misery befalls on imbeciles, always…||
Stick it?
You know, “Shove it up your ass.” “Put it where the sun don’t shine.” “Stick it!” :)
Ohh ok so that’s what they meant huh?. How rude. All Nintendo was trying to do is asked for some helped.
Actually if you think about it nintendo has gone after people who made things for free and cyanogen is all about the free stuff they want flexibility so I can kinda see where the ceo is coming from
Ah I see why.
Eventually Nintendo asked for the source code and the paternity of the system. ^^
Anyway it’s good as it is because it looks perfect to me (actual OS, even if Android based). ;P
Actually the Switch OS isn’t running on Android.
It’s running on a Linux Based OS called Ubuntu which is pretty good and explains why the OS is much smoother than the Wii U’s Custom Linux OS.
No one knows it, I don’t think it’s gone public. Many talks about BSD. Ubuntu would be just too generic as an option eventually.
Actually, someone found out the OS and it’s Ubuntu
Interesting! So the Switch is running Ubuntu! I had just assumed by the look of it that it was just some proprietary “fork” of Android.
Actually the menu system and eShop and news app etc are one of my biggest beefs with the system that I otherwise generally adore. Not that the menus are bad, or poorly functional/designed, or ugly. It’s just that they’re sooooooooo generic, so “non-Nintendo” (“nontendo”?) ;-)
I wish that big N had injected some of the same charm and magic into their system software suite this time like they had before with the WiiU, 3DS, DSi…..and especially…..the Wii! This is just a barebones, generic-looking Android clone (even though it’s actually Ubuntu). It’s fine. But it’s not “magic”…..
…..I mean, the least they could’ve done is add some music!
Now, as far as what Mr. Cyanogen said: yeah, he’s a tool, and yeah, history will paint him, rather than Nintendo as the stooge here. But in his defense, I don’t think he was just being a tool for the sake of tooldom everywhere, but rather, like someone else said earlier in the comments, because the business philosophies and world visions of Cyanogen and Nintendo are pretty antithetical. So even though I love Nintendo and am fairly meh about Cyanogen, I don’t necessarily fault him for declining their offer…..if only he could’ve had the decency, and adulthood to not send a picture of him flipping them off in his reply……not much for class, this one!
Cheers!
I can’t find any mention of it running Ubuntu. The only things I can find about Nintendo and Ubuntu are that someone got Ubuntu running on the NES classic and that someone saw a Wii U demo kiosk running Ubuntu.
||It runs Linux Free BSD Kernel…||
FreeBSD is Unix, not Linux. One of the things Linux stands for is Linux Is Not UniX.
||Yes my mistake, Unix it is…||
Actually, it seems there’s a whole section in the open source legal info on the Switch titled “FreeBSD kernel” so it pretty much has to be running FreeBSD.
Ubuntu is open source and can be customized to hell and back. Ubuntu doesn’t have to be bland, it depends what distribution you use and how good the developers were! :D
I used a distro of Ubuntu on my PC for years during the Windows Vista fiasco.
I know it, but 1. With BSD they can do whatever they without giving code back. 2. Android come already with nVidia Tegra drivers.
I think Ubuntu is the least probable.
Lol it honestly could have only ended in profits. They either couldn’t reach an agreement or he’s an idiot and tryna make it sound like he was the one that was so above it all
What an unprofessional thing to say, especially publicly. Sounds like an ass
Stick what? Who even says that?
When they announced what the switch was I told them to stick it too.
Oh, maybe you two should have a party, then.
lol why are you still here?
Funny, that tweet is not on his account anymore….but lots of praise for the Switch and Zelda is….hmmmm…
Nah it’s still there. So maybe there was a logical reason for rejecting Nintendo since he seems to like them.
Well it wouldent be running android it would run an OS created from android. Like Samsung has tizen which is made from android. Even android is made from linux.
That said I’m glad they dident go that way. A gaming OS should be GPU focused. With Xbox powered by windows they can get away with this because of direct X (which is wear Xbox gets its name)
Android on the other hand is not GPU focused so it would just be a mess to start with. Im glad it didn’t happen, but sounds like they were a bit dickish about the turn down.
Since it is a portable system, I think having android apps would be kind of cool, with some apps supporting controls, games like modern combat would be fun and could bridge the gap until the next big game comes out.
Samsung is made from Linux, just like Android.
Better example is Amazon and their forked version of Android.
*Samsung Tizen
Very unprofessional. His loss though. The Switch is selling well
That was disrespectful and unprofessional. The respectful and professional way would be to have said that they appreciate the offer, but they will have to decline the offer. Even if they hate Nintendo, and even if they didn’t appreciate it. It’s not wise to burn bridges.
They will have a Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Item Spy app even though it’s gone.
Sounds like he’s bitter.
Something must have happened between them. I wish he would give more context as to what happened. Otherwise, he comes off as a bit dickish.
I would love to see the Nintendo Switch run on Android. I would love to see that experience.
And now cyanogen is no more, what turn of events.
I said this on Facebook so I’ll say it here too but I have a Tablet that runs on the latest version of Android and it always freezes unlike IOS which I’ve never had any issues with so no loss here. I’m glad Switch doesn’t run on Android, I mean it’s a decent OS but it’s not great either.
Anecdotal evidence of bad hardware, not software.
My idevixes crash all the time yet my Android ones don’t. Go figure.
*iDevices
If I had a dollar or in my case a Euro as I live in Ireland for the amount of times I’ve heard people say “bad hardware” I’d be a millionaire now I swear.
It takes smart shopping to find good products, otherwise you just buy what the ads tell you to.
And then the 3DS dominated as all the allies fell into place.
The only stick thats involved in this story is the one up this guys ass. What a piece of work… He sounds like one of these new age young ceo’s that think they’re God’s gift to the world. I bet he plays Playstation in his spare time. Sounds like he hates on Nintendo for sport. As the commander would say “filthy xbot scum!”
What an idiot.
I had to google Cyanogen. The guy’s bio directly from the company site:
Kirt McMaster
Executive Chairman of the Board & Co-founder
Kirt is the Executive Chairman of the Board & Co-founder of Cyanogen. Kirt sets the company vision and strategic direction. A technology executive and entrepreneur with 20yrs experience working with the Fortune 500 around the world. Kirt was co-founder of Boost Mobile, now wholly owned by Sprint & spent time at Sony and Sega defining mobile strategy. He has been a senior executive at multiple startups; 3 were acquired and 3 IPO’d (Nasdaq, TSE, ASX).
“spent time at Sony and Sega defining mobile strategy.” yep. That makes sense now.
Wait… Maybe I’m missing something, but… How can the author of the article can imply the “portable” is the Switch?
Couldn’t it be the 3DS? Android OS has been around since 2008.
The timing of it. 3DS has been out for a while and the Switch coincides with it.
No wonder he’s now the FORMER CEO!
Apparently he deleted the tweet.
And then people began to say, that Nintendo sucks because they don’t look like to find new ways to embrace tech and find help abroad. The most stupid decision from Cyanogen.
From what i know, Cyanogen close it’s doors. Dumb people. They could embrace this new console helping Nintendo and at the same time inject money to the Co.