Since the beginning of the year, we’ve been hearing rumblings of a Switch hardware revision being in the works at Nintendo, either in vein of the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One, or Nintendo’s own DS and 3DS, or something else entirely. These rumours popped up recently once again, and many grew even more convinced that there certainly was something to them when Nintendo put out a seemingly innocent tutorial video teaching consumers how to trade in their Switch for another Switch (why would they do that, Nintendo?).
According to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, however, for now, Nintendo remains focused on the one and only Switch model out there. He mentioned while speaking with Forbes that a hardware revision is something that companies, including Nintendo themselves, have introduced later on in a system’s life cycle, which, given the Switch’s current momentum in the market, isn’t something that Nintendo feels is needed right now.
“Right now, as we go into our second holiday, my focus is making sure the current grey and neon Switch continue to have momentum in the market place,” said Fils-Aime. “You saw systems, whether it’s our own or competitive home console systems, utilize that tactic a bit later in the life cycle. So right now, the current execution of Nintendo Switch with the Joy-Con and all of the capabilities, that’s our focus right now.”
To me that sounds like a non-committal answer- of course Nintendo are going to remain focused on the current Switch model during the Holiday season, but by the time mid- to late-2019 rolls around, it’s not hard to see them introducing a newer SKU to reignite interest in the system, or to tap up new sections of the market. That said, given the killer lineup of software they have in store for the year as it is, they may not feel the need to invest in a hardware revision at all.
