If you don’t have a Switch yet, then it might be in your best interest to wait — a new report indicates that Nintendo is planning to release a new one in 2019.
The report comes courtesy of the Wall Street Journal off the words of “suppliers and others with direct knowledge of the plan.”
With talks like this, the first question that comes to mind is what exactly this new Switch model would improve upon.
For now, the answer to that seems to be an upgrade to the console’s display:
“One option is improving the display, they said. The current Switch uses a lower-end liquid-crystal display without some technologies that are standard in more recent smartphone LCDs. Updating the display with these technologies would make it brighter, thinner and more energy-efficient. The updated Switch isn’t expected to adopt the organic light-emitting diode or OLED panels used in Apple Inc.’siPhone X series.”
Second, one can’t help but wonder what purpose the alleged new Switch hardware would serve.
As you might recall, Nintendo executives have stated in the past that not only do they want every household to own a Switch, but for every person in said household to own a Switch for themselves.
“The biggest attraction of Nintendo Switch is that the console can be carried around and used easily for competitive gameplay via local wireless connection. If consumers come to take it for granted that everybody has a Nintendo Switch, then we can create new and very Nintendo genres of play, and Nintendo Switch can have a life apart from smart devices and other video game systems. Expanding the Nintendo Switch world this way is a means of eliminating risk.”
Perhaps releasing a new model would be an effective way to reach that end. If nothing else, it coming out in the later half of 2019 means that it would be primed for the holiday season, allowing the Switch to maintain the momentum it has kept since its release in 2017.
