New Nintendo switch
Nintendo has announced new Nintendo Switch‘s version, due out on 8 October this year with a larger 7-inch 720p OLED display. While rumors had suggested this new Switch would ship with a new Nvidia chip inside, this new OLED model is mostly a screen upgrade. Nintendo lists this Switch OLED model as only supporting 1080p via TV mode, and rumors had suggested 4K support, thanks to a rumored Nvidia chip upgrade. The Switch OLED model will go on sale for $350.
Other than the new screen, this revised model includes an adjustable stand for tabletop play, 64GB of built-in storage (up from 32GB), a new dock with a wired ethernet port built in, and improved audio for handheld or tabletop play. Nintendo only mentions “up to 1080p via HDMI in TV mode” for the TV dock, so the rumored 4K mode isn’t part of this OLED Switch.
An upgraded model of Nintendo’s successful console has been rumored for the past year, and was at one point expected to be announced during E3 last June. It will be available on the same day as Metroid Dread, the most anticipated game in Nintendo’s 2021 lineup.
Nintendo has confirmed to The Verge that there are no major internal changes to the CPU or memory. “Nintendo Switch (OLED model) does not have a new CPU, or more RAM, from previous Nintendo Switch models,” says a Nintendo spokesperson.
Original Joy-Cons will all work with this new Switch, and all existing games will run on this new OLED model. Nintendo is also offering both black and white units when the Switch OLED model ships later this year. The new dock will also work with both the Nintendo Switch and this new OLED model.
This updated Switch has been rumored heavily in recent months, and Nintendo has chosen to reveal it well after the company’s E3 show that focused exclusively on new Switch games. Reports had suggested this new Switch would appear before E3 began last month.
More than 85m Switch consoles have been sold since its launch in 2017, and it has been selling out regularly during the pandemic, with demand boosted by the enormous success of 2020’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a game that sold more than 30m copies and has become emblematic of the creative ways that people socialised through video games in the Covid era. Nintendo recorded a profit of $4.4bn in its most recent fiscal year.
Image: Nintendo
Original Joy-Cons will all work with this new Switch, and all existing games will run on this new OLED model. Nintendo is also offering both black and white units when the Switch OLED model ships later this year. The new dock will also work with both the Nintendo Switch and this new OLED model.
The new Switch arrives nearly two years after Nintendo’s Switch Lite, a smaller and cheaper version of the Switch that you can’t hook up to a TV. The Switch Lite debuted at $199 in September 2019.
Nintendo’s Switch has sold incredibly well, with the console dominating US sales charts for nearly two years straight. Switch lifetime sales are at 84.59 million units shipped since its launch in 2017, a figure that is getting closer to the Wii console’s 101.63 million lifetime sales mark. This updated Switch model is bound to only help push sales even closer to the Wii.
