2022 marked five years since the launch of the Nintendo Switch. Two other versions of the console, the Switch Lite and the OLED model, have launched since then, and now many are hopeful another, more powerful model will be arriving imminently. You might want to dial back those hopes a little, as a new report claims the still unconfirmed Switch Pro won't be here before the end of the current fiscal year.That's according to Bloomberg's Takashi Mochizuki (via Nintendo Life). The actual report comes from Nikkei, but as you can see from Mochizuki's tweet, it's currently unclear what the exact source of the new info is. Whether the news that a more powerful Switch isn't on the horizon came from Nikkei's own reporting, or if it was a quote from Nintendo president, Shuntaro Furukawa.That means no Switch Pro in time for the holidays, and also no new hardware to align with the original console's sixth anniversary which falls in March, right before the current fiscal year comes to an end. Although Nintendo is known for revealing information right before something is about to launch, it does seem unlikely that a Switch Pro would be arriving before the end of 2022.
For starters, Nintendo continues to be affected by the same supply issues as its fellow console creators. The company revealed its latest financial figures this week, and despite the Switch having now sold more than 111 million units, sales were lower than expected thanks to the ongoing semiconductor shortage. It has also been less than a year since the OLED model's launch, and there has typically been 18 months to a year between the launch of each Switch type so far.
The rumors that Nintendo is working on a more powerful version of the Switch date all the way back to the start of 2020. Some of those rumors turned out to be connected to the OLED model, but others, like the belief a new Switch will support 4K, seem destined to be connected to whatever comes next. Whatever it is, and whenever it arrives, it seems likely to be more of a replacement for the current Switch than a slightly altered version like the OLED and Switch Lite.