Nintendo has something in store for the holiday as a report by Bloomberg claims that the company has plans to make a new Nintendo Switch model. One with a larger display screen than the original, dock-able design.
According to the report, the Japanese console maker is partnering up with Samsung for its 7-inch, 720p OLED displays. It belittles the existing blueprint by 0.8 inches, given its 6.2-inch display. Apparently, for the purpose of driving up consumer interest, despite the console’s steady and staggering demand. One that saw it out of stock from many official sources last year due to the implications of the pandemic.
As for the deal itself, it appears that mass production of the said component will kickstart as early as June. That is, targeting close to a million units in the first month. Following production, the hardware is said to get into shipment towards assemblers a month later.
Could it be?
Speculations about a bigger version of the Switch have been going around since the early days of the platform itself. The notion draws comparison from Nintendo’s previous efforts with its handheld platforms that see multiple iterations, particularly in the size department.
The belief fails to show fruition years after the Japan-made console’s successful launch. Instead, consumers are shown iterations that made the same platform slightly better only in specifications. One even going so far as to do the opposite of the expectation with a smaller dimension. The unmet hope is also not helped by the fact that Nintendo itself blatantly denying the possibility of an “XL” Switch version.
Nintendo, however, is not without its history of playing coy. With it having demonstrated efforts to conceal, sometimes denying, business approach, only to be proven otherwise.
Nearing the end of a life cycle
It is worth noting that the Switch is already reaching its fifth-year in the market. That future milestone will signal its demise, which presupposes the introduction of a follow-up. Sony and Microsoft recently proved this idea true after releasing PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Essentially, as successors to the PS4 and Xbox One/S/X, respectively.
If that insinuates anything, it is that it’s already high time that Nintendo launches the larger Nintendo Switch. The hybrid and handheld-only console models are amazing enough as they are. But they show limitations that many imagine could be better with a slightly better hardware. Its past handheld line-ups had shown that to be the case, much that the DS and the 3DS have the superior-than-original XL/LL versions.
Image used courtesy of IGN/YouTube Screenshot