Head of Nintendo of America, Doug Bowser, spoke to The Washington Post about the Nintendo Switch and the inevitable follow up to make it clear that a Switch Pro will be announced simply when they’re ready.
In the weeks leading up to E3, murmurings about a Switch Pro reveal began to pick up, and were subsequently plummeted through the atmosphere by a report from Bloomberg which suggested that the Switch Pro could be revealed imminently. E3 has come and gone, with no such reveal ever coming to fruition. Though many fans were hoping for news on what’s next for Nintendo’s hybrid platform, Doug Bowser unfortunately doesn’t have any specific answers right now. He does however re-emphasizes Nintendo’s approach to future hardware.
“We are always looking at technology and how technology can enhance gameplay experiences. It’s not technology for technology’s sake,” said Bowser. “It’s how specifically can technology enhance a gameplay experience. And then where do you apply that technology? Do you want to apply it on current existing hardware or platforms, or do you want to wait for the next platform? And then what’s the right gameplay experience with that? There’s a host of factors that goes into it, and it’s something we’re always looking at.”
Nintendo has historically never been the go-to platform for everything latest and greatest in hardware and tech, but they are the platform which routinely experiments with new ways to play and experience games. It’s not at all a surprise that their methodology towards a Switch Pro would be any different, so it’s likely the final product might not be the big powerhouse console that many are hoping for. Nintendo has never been concerned with ‘catching up’ to the hardware specs the likes of PlayStation or Xbox, so it is doubtful they would start now, especially with the Switch still holding the number one spot for console sales across the board.
At least for now we can all go back to presuming the Switch Pro announcement isn’t going to be happening anytime soon, and we just need to wait for Nintendo to be ready. Especially since by the time we get that announcement, it could be possible that the device would release just months later, like they did with the original Switch in 2017.
