4K Nintendo Switch May Be Real After All, Devs Are Making Games

An image of a Nintendo Switch with two red Joy-Con and a screen that shows a yellow question block.

Graphic: Nintendo / Kotaku

For many years, reports have alleged that Nintendo is functioning on a more impressive Swap, and for many years, it has nevertheless to appear genuine. As a substitute of releasing a Switch Professional with 4K graphics this year as was rumored, Nintendo introduced in July it would simply just take the latest model and slap an OLED display on it. So what took place to the long rumored 4K variation? In accordance to Bloomberg, growth kits for it however exist, and activity corporations have them.

“By the time Nintendo confirmed off the new console in July, the firm had previously handed out the 4K kits to outdoors builders and questioned them to style and design computer software to help the bigger resolution,” Bloomberg reported now. “The Nintendo Change kit has additional memory to accommodate debugging software program and more ports to aid a link to a computer but in any other case has equivalent capabilities to the hardware that shoppers would have at household.”

This new info is based mostly on accounts from employees at 11 unique recreation companies, in accordance to Bloomberg. Just one of these sources incorporates Zynga, who is currently creating Star Wars: Hunters, a match that has been delayed right until 2024.

Nintendo, even so, disputes Bloomberg’s report, calling it “inaccurate,” though declining to elaborate further more on specially was incorrect. The firm did not instantly reply to a ask for for comment by Kotaku.

Update, 9/29/21, 8:21 p.m. ET: Nintendo has also issued a statement to traders denying Bloomberg’s report, indicating it has not supplied “applications to drive sport improvement for a Nintendo Change with 4K aid.”

The relaxation of the first tale follows.

Bloomberg, and reporter Takashi Mochizuki in unique, the author of today’s short article (and beforehand with the Wall Avenue Journal), has been behind a variety of early experiences on Nintendo’s Switch designs going again to shortly just after the console’s launch. This bundled early rumblings all-around the eventual Swap Lite, and then a report that Nintendo was operating on an upgraded model as perfectly. The initially time 4K was mentioned was in August 2024.

“The specifications of the new device have nevertheless to be finalized, however the Kyoto-centered corporation has looked into which include much more computing electrical power and 4K superior-definition graphics,” he wrote at the time.

Matters solidified additional in March of this year, when Mochizuki noted, according to his resources, that, “The hottest product will also come with 4K ultra-superior definition graphics when paired with TVs.” The most important concentration of the post was a new OLED display screen upgraded Switches would be working with, but the assure of 4K is what most in the gaming community were being hoping for and therefore latched on to.

So when 4K was missing from Nintendo’s new hardware announcement around the summer months, persons had been not only crestfallen, they ended up perplexed. Some even felt bamboozled by the seemingly bogus reports.

Item alterations, even final minute kinds, are not unheard of in tech. That’s particularly legitimate in a 12 months as tumultuous and entire of provide chain disruptions as the past one particular. In today’s report, which is co-bylined by technology author Olga Kharif and incorporates contributions from two added reporters, a source advised Bloomberg the world wide part shortage may possibly have delayed Nintendo’s eventual 4K options. Or it might not be in cards at all. But it unquestionably sounds like it was in the cards at some level.

“Developers declined to speculate on Nintendo’s plans for an additional console but claimed they assume to launch their 4K Switch game titles during or soon after the next 50 percent of up coming calendar year,” Bloomberg mentioned in today’s report.

Of class, by 2024 the Swap will be 5 decades old, and the Nvidia Tegra chip architecture it was initially created on will be even older. Whether or not it finishes up acquiring 4K or not, we’ll possible get a real successor to the Change eventually—and whether it’s a continuation of the currently successful hardware or a thing new completely continues to be to be seen.