Published , by Kevin Tucker
Published , by Kevin Tucker
The Switch rumor mill has been grinding away for months, especially with regard to talk of a new Switch console landing around the time of E3 2019. In particular, fans expected Nintendo to announce a beefed-up Switch Pro console with better graphics and more power. Instead, the show came and went with no hardware reveal, and Nintendo's Switch Lite was announced just this week.
Is Nintendo still working on a new Switch console? Is the Switch Pro still in development? Here's what we know.
At the time of writing, Nintendo still has not formally announced a new Switch Pro console. Most of the information we have about the more powerful Switch, sometimes referred to as the Switch 2, comes through a report from the Wall Street Journal last March, which stated the company was working on two new Switch models: One designed around portability, and one with more power "targeted at avid videogamers."
We know now that the portable-only Switch Lite is real, but with the Switch Pro, many details are still up in the air. When and if it does release, the more powerful version of the Switch will reportedly come with a storage upgrade to 128GB, a more capable processor, a 1080p display, and support for 4K output. Again, none of these specifications or features have been directly confirmed by Nintendo, and there's a lot of disagreement online whether or not this system is a Switch upgrade or a new console altogether.
With all this said, it's possible that Nintendo is indeed working on the Switch Pro. In fact, details from a CNET interview with Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser posted just this morning seem to imply that another Switch release is incoming, albeit after the holiday season:
"The Lite isn't a sequel to the Switch. It's more of a lower-cost spin-off. It'll also be the only new Nintendo Switch hardware this holiday, as Bowser says the larger Switch won't get an upgrade right now," Scott Stein wrote in his report.
Will the Switch Pro still be released? Maybe. Evidence suggests that Nintendo is cooking up a more powerful Switch console, but as it stands now, the company hasn't yet made a formal announcement. Fortunately, portable fans can still pick up the Switch Lite if they so choose, and they can coordinate the rest of the year's gaming efforts by glancing over Shacknews' 2019 video game release date schedule.