There has been a lot of chatter around the possibility of Nintendo releasing a Pro variant of their hugely successful Nintendo Switch console, but Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa has thrown cold water all over those rumours.
This was during the company’s Corporate Management Policy Briefing which followed the release of their most recent financial results. The briefing reads, “Regarding Nintendo Switch, we believe that it is important to continue to communicate the appeal of both Nintendo Switch systems and expand the installed base. Please note that we have no plans to launch a new Nintendo Switch model during 2020.”
An interesting thing to note in this statement, though – he says that they have no plans to launch a new model during 2020. What he doesn’t say that is that they have no plans to release the Nintendo Switch Pro period. So you could argue that the hope for the Pro isn’t dead just yet, but of course we shall have to wait and see.
Personally I think that when a CEO or President says something like this, they choose their wording very carefully. That’s not to say that a Switch Pro is confirmed, but I do think we shouldn’t count it out completely.
I definitely feel that Nintendo are aware they need to do something in order to stay competitive as Sony and Microsoft approach the launch of their next generation consoles, as their financial results were less than rosy and shares dropped significantly as a result. Now obviously, I myself pointed out that the Switch operates in a different market than that of the Xbox Series X and PS5, but at the end of day, people only have so much money to spend and Nintendo is definitely going to have to do something to stay relevant.
What that will be, remains to be seen.
