A leaked report suggests that a new version of the Nintendo Switch could be arriving next year – is it the Nintendo Switch 2?
The Nintendo Switch 2 could be on the way in 2019, according to a leaked report from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The report claims that Nintendo is hoping to boost sales of the hybrid console, which have dropped off significantly since its highly successful launch.
Sadly, this doesn’t make it certain that the new product will be the Nintendo Switch 2. We would be more inclined to expect an update to the hardware and software – and a redesign – of the existing Switch model. Think of it like Microsoft updating the Xbox One to the Xbox One S or Xbox One X.
This is good news, though, because when it was released last year, the Nintendo Switch was one of the most exciting consoles we’d seen for a long time. We labelled it “an essential purchase for anyone who claims to enjoy gaming” that might only suffer from a lack of strong releases.
One year on, it has proved to stand the test of time. So, how could Nintendo possibly improve on a console that looks to be the finished article?
Well, it seems that Nintendo itself isn’t yet sure what the 2019 revamp will look like. The aforementioned WSJ report states that the legendary Japanese gaming company “is still debating what new hardware and software features to include in the upgrade.”
(Above: The original Nintendo Switch)
There could be an improvement to the Switch’s LCD display, according to “people with knowledge of the discussions”. The current Switch uses a low-end liquid-crystal display; technology that falls behind that found in most modern smartphones. A new display “would make the Switch brighter, thinner and more energy efficient”, and would certainly be a welcome addition.
As for software upgrades, however, we’re pretty much in the dark. We can be almost certain that the updated Switch will share many features with the previous version and be backwards compatible with existing games. Two years would be a remarkably short amount of time for a complete overhaul to take place.
The WSJ report claims that Nintendo is looking to release the new Switch in the latter half of 2019, perhaps as soon as the summer. The Kyoto, Japan company aims to shift 20 million units in the year ending March 2019, and sees the updated console as a way to boost sales in the period immediately after this.
Normally, the biggest manufacturers release a new console every five or six years, so we’d expect to have to wait until 2022/23 to see a Nintendo Switch 2 proper.
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Stay tuned to this page for the latest updates as and when we get them.