Late last week, Nintendo admitted that the Wii U is a flop. Unless the company can turn it around, it looks like the company will have another Gamecube on its hands for the next few years. While the company is actively investigating methods to turn things around, one rumor out today says that the company may already be working on a successor to the Wii U and 3DS.

Nintendo News reports that one of its “very reputable sources” has the inside scoop on what Nintendo is cooking up at its Kyoto HQ. The rumor states that the next hardware cycle out of Nintendo will be a home console/handheld combo going by the codename “Fusion.” The name implies that the two will work together with the handheld acting as a controller for the home console.

What makes this rumor less believable is that the source has provided preliminary specs for what is called the Fusion DS and the Fusion Terminal. As you can probably guess, the Fusion DS is the handheld while the Fusion Terminal is the home console unit. What’s interesting is that both consoles are backwards compatible with 3DS games while the Fusion Terminal is backwards compatible with Wii U games. The Fusion Terminal would also support up to four Wii U gamepads.

So, what is the likelihood that these rumors are true? Not very likely. While it’s safe to assume that Nintendo is already exploring new hardware, it’s hard to believe that the company would already have an outline of what hardware it wanted to use down to the CPU and GPU.

The only possible evidence that this may more than just wishful thinking is that Nintendo updated its Nintendofusion.com domain registration last year. While the original Nintendofusion.com was used to promote Nintendo of America’s Fusion Tour, the concert tour has not run since 2006. Why would Nintendo hold onto the domain then? The most likely scenario is that Nintendo refreshes its domains every year like any other company would. It’s unlikely that Nintendo is already prepping a decade-old domain for the launch of new hardware five years from now.

While the above rumors are likely false, it’s still interesting to think about. Fans, analysts and others are already speculating on what the future holds for Nintendo. The Fusion concept is just one of many ideas that are being tossed around in the wake of Nintendo’s misfortunes.

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