Long a myth or a mystery, the Switch Pro, a more powerful and 4K version of the current successful console, would have been considered before Nintendo finally gave up.
It was a bit of Nintendo’s Arlesian. It will most likely never see the light of day. The Switch Pro console could soon enter the pantheon of ambitious aborted projects.
According to Digital Foundry, the very serious media specializing in high-tech hardware, the Japanese company would have designed the more powerful heir to its successful Nintendo Switch. Promising a 4K display, an Oled screen like the latest version of the hybrid console, but also a much better looking ray-traced display, with power under the chassis to support more demanding games.
The Nintendo Switch Pro is far from just a rumor. Several developer studios had indeed received dev kits (technically working console prototypes to start designing future games). But it is in particular the data leak at Nvidia which then revealed information on the partnership between the two companies for a new Switch.
Very real, but already forgotten
Launched in March 2017, the Switch is therefore resisting. Last year, Shuntaro Furukawa, Nintendo’s president, indicated that the portable and home console was halfway through its life cycle when the Switch Oled had just been released with its larger screen (7 inches) and its better quality panel, as well as the addition of some connectors. Better, but far from the upheaval hoped for by fans of Big N, the nickname of the Asian entertainment giant.
Responding to a question from an Internet user, John Lineman of DigitalFoundry indicated in a YouTube video that a more powerful console had indeed been considered. “From what I understand from talking to developers, a mid-gen Switch update was well planned. But that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore,” he explains, adding that Nintendo will waived.
That doesn’t mean, however, that a more powerful console won’t come later. For Digital Foundry, it will be a new generation, possibly under another name, but not for 2023. gone well,” he recalls.
From the difficulty of the post-success
Succeeding the Nintendo 64, the Gamecube had been a flop, just like the Wii U which had taken over from the Wii. The success of the Switch leaves fear for the worst even to President Furukawa who mentioned at the beginning of the year “a major concern” about the transition to the post-Switch generation and to a new gaming platform, Nintendo being very rarely a follower of the media compatibility.
In its 7th year of existence, the Nintendo Switch underwent an update shortly afterwards to bring it a little more power and autonomy, before seeing the Switch Lite arrive, then the Switch Oled and bring the total sales now over 114 million cumulative units last November. It is approaching the podium of the best-selling consoles in history, still far from the PS2 (155 million) and the Nintendo DS (154 M), but within reach of the PS4 (117 M) and the Game Boy house (118M).
