Summary
The tech experts at Digital Foundry have discussed whether all of the rumours about a “Switch Pro” were actually just some of the the first details regarding theSwitch 2and that the two projects could have been one and the same.
Considering how painfully drawn-out the wait for the Nintendo Switch 2has been over the past few years,it’s wild to think that we’re only a few weeks away from the console finally launching. It’s even wilder to think about how many rumours there were before Nintendo pulled back the curtain,including a very popular one about a mid-gen upgrade.
That mid-gen upgrade never ended up happening, but for a while there we all believed that aSwitch Pro was in the works at Nintendo and would release before a successor to the console. Now that we know the Switch 2 is coming first and that the Pro seemingly never existed, some experts think that they’ve cracked the case.
It Seems Likely That The Switch Pro Rumours Were Actually About The Switch 2
The Answer Lies With The Switch 2’s Processor
As pointed out by My Nintendo Newsandreported by Digital Foundry’s Richard Leadbetter on Eurogamer, the situation surrounding the Switch Pro now seems a bit more explainable with the Switch 2 nearly released. Leadbetter notes that the Switch Pro rumours started in earnest in 2020 and said it’d have “more computing power” and “4K high definition graphics”, which is basically what we’re getting with the Switch 2.
The main bit of evidence that Leadbetter points out is thatforensic analysis of a leaked Switch 2 processing chip from Geekerwan and Kurnal, which suggests that the console’s hardware was finalised in 2021 and could have even launched in 2022. The technical details are covered far bewtter by Leadbetter’s excellent analysis, but it does point to Nintendo having decided on the Switch 2’s specs long ago.
This fact, combined with when the rumours about the Switch Pro and its increased specs started leaking, suggests that all of the rumours that we heard about the Switch Pro were actually just details for the Switch 2 which were then assumed to be a mid-gen upgrade. This also ties to the rumours about an OLED screen, which ended up being for the Switch OLED that released in 2021.
At the beginning of the project, one might imagine that Nintendo would still not understand just how long-lived the original Switch would be and the extent to which the Covid pandemic would elevate its sales. - Richard Leadbetter
Considering the reputation that Nintendo has for sitting on finished projectsand releasing them when it’s right, as well as the continued success of the Switch following the pandemic in 2020, it does seem to suggest that it’s possible the Switch Pro rumours were indeed an “amalgamation” of details from various Nintendo projects.
