Bits & Bytes is a weekly column where Editor-in-Chief Robert shares his thoughts about video games and the industry on a lazy Sunday. Light reading for a day of rest, Bits & Bytes is short, to the point, and something to read with a nice drink.
Look, let’s get this out of the way right off the bat:
Nintendo is working on a successor to Switch.
Gasp! Does Robert have insider info? Did he just break the story of the week—and on a Sunday, no less?
No, I didn’t. All I did was state the obvious.
Do you know what every single hardware manufacturer starts to do not long after launching a new console? They start to work on the next new console. It’s an endless cycle and part of a totally open “secret” that video game journalists sort of push to the side for the sake of putting something to press. Of course, for video game console makers it’s a bit different then the way things work for, say, consumer cellphone manufacturers. Apple and Samsung are working on the next year’s phone model before the shrink-wrap has finished clinging to the boxes of the current new model and no one even pretends it’s a secret. When Nintendo or Sony goes to work on their next consoles, it’s years before fans get to see them, and then everyone has to wait even longer after that to actually buy them. But we know. We always know there’s another one coming down the pike.
Unless a company is on the verge of financial ruin, that a new game console is being worked on is always in the cards. A 4K Nintendo console is in the works, because eventually 4K will become the new standard for visual fidelity. For many gamers it’s a standard that’s practically already here. I’ve seen so many of these rumors since Switch launched that my patience has worn out pretending to be surprised by it all (or to even care). I mean… am I supposed to pretend to be a sweaty mess just because the twelfth “Next Switch” has had a rumor written about it? No thanks.
I mention 4K specifically because Nintendo put out a statement that a recent Bloomsberg report claiming some studios had received 4K Switch developer kits was inaccurate. My instinct is to push back on Nintendo’s counter—of course the company denied it, that’s what every company does until it’s ready to make an official announcement, whether the rumor is true or not—but I simultaneously can’t muster the energy to argue about it because it’s so obvious another Switch is on the way. What it’s called, when it drops, what it does, what its screen resolution is, I have no idea, but I know it’s coming.
With the OLED Model of Nintendo Switch launching this Friday, we’re not far from this stopgap upgrade hitting the market. From there, I’d assume that in the next year or so we might get something more concrete about Switch 2 or Switch Pro, or whatever, but I’m cool with just kicking back and waiting for the official reveal. Until then, all these articles are starting to sound like broken records and there are a lot more interesting things to read and write about.
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