Nintendo has updated a patent it filed last year, hinting at a change in the makeup of how we view games. Could this be an indication of the 'Revolution'?

Speculation concerning Nintendo's next home console has been building up ahead of its proposed E3 unveiling, and IGN have reported another interesting possibility. In July last year, Nintendo filed a patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office concerning game technology, and they have now updated it with new technologies concerning the fixation point in games.

The fixation point in games is basically where the developer wants the gamer to fix his/her view, and it is constructed so as to give players a good view of the environment and objects around them. In sports games the fixation point will be where the ball is, and in FPS' it will where your guns are pointing. Because of the general lack of staticness in games, the fixation point will always be changing. What this patent update proposes is that such change hampers the game experience, and these new technologies are geared towards preventing this change.

They would give players a display that wouldn't shift and change, continuously giving them a sound view of the game environment. This would, presumably, apply to multiplayer gaming too, eliminating the need for a split-screen display, dramatically changing the way we play games with other people.

At this point though, it's hard to draw any precise conclusions from this patent, except that it does point towards a fundamental overhaul of the display system in games. It mightn't even apply to the Revolution, but giving the console's tentative title Nintendo definitely have something surprising planned for their next console. Maybe this new speculation is linked to the rumoured application of a gyroscope-based peripheral with the console - it's hard to sure at the moment.

Still, more fuel to the fire and all that. (Note: Head over to IGN to see the patent's diagrams, which I can't make head nor tail of)