Nintendo Switch Pro 4K rumor officially shot down again
The Nintendo Switch remains one of the most loved game consoles in recent years, but it is far from perfect. In fact, it might also be getting too old to compete with the current generation of consoles, at least as far as playing on a big screen is concerned. That has made desires and rumors of a 4K-capable Nintendo Switch only stronger, but, once again, the company officially refuted that it was handing out dev kits for developers to work on 4K-compatible games for a new Switch model.
Rumors of a Nintendo Switch Pro have been going on for years, but the closest upgrade the console has ever had was the Nintendo Switch OLED model announced last July. It had nearly the same specs as the original, except for the OLED display and 64GB of built-in storage. It still can't even support 1440p or 2K resolutions when connected to such a TV or monitor.
There are still some hopes that a 4K Nintendo Switch would be coming soon, and Bloomberg's recent report tried to stoke those fires. Its sources, some from game developer Zynga, claimed that Nintendo had been handing out development kits for developers, pushing them to write software that supported 4K resolution. The kit was practically similar to the current Nintendo Switch but with additional memory for debugging and ports for connecting to a computer.
Nintendo, however, once again denied those reports in a tweet to investors. It says that the report is not true and that it doesn't have any plans on a new Switch model other than the OLED variant. That particular console is actually set to launch on October 8, so it's understandable that Nintendo doesn't want customers and investors to think their purchase would already be obsolete in just a few months.
A news report on Sept. 30, 2021(JST) falsely claims that Nintendo is supplying tools to drive game development for a Nintendo Switch with 4K support. To ensure correct understanding among our investors and customers, we want to clarify that this report is not true. (1/2)
— 任天堂株式会社（企業広報・IR） (@NintendoCoLtd) September 30, 2021
Nintendo's strategy, however, does put it in a rather precarious situation of the Switch being too long in the tooth by now. Even disregarding screen resolutions, the device's hardware is already starting to show its age. While the promise of being to play a game anywhere is still a huge seller, as demonstrated by interest in Valve's Steam Deck, it won't be long before gamers start demanding titles with higher graphics quality and performance than those available on the Switch, especially those simply ported to the handheld console.