Nintendo Switch Pro Isn’t Launching In 2020, Company Confirms

The Nintendo Switch Pro will not be launching in 2020, despite recent rumors. Nintendo confirmed the Switch and the Switch Lite will be the only models out on the market until at least 2021, industry analyst Daniel Ahmad tweeted on Thursday.

The analyst reported Nintendo is looking at the Switch Lite as their way to grow their user base in 2020. According to Ahmad, the company is hoping that with the regular console and the Lite version, gamers will be looking to have two different versions of Nintendo’s hardware.

The Lite is geared to appeal to the more cost-conscious users. Ahmad believes Nintendo isn’t going to be sitting out the next generation of consoles for long. He believes a new, more powerful version, the model usually referred to as the Switch Pro will launch sometime in the first half of 2021.

The analyst added he believes the new model will be fully backward compatible. That would be something new from Nintendo, which had had problems allowing their older games to be played on their new consoles. That was even the case when the company went from the Wii to the Wii U.

While Ahmad is mostly speculating on just what the Switch Pro will have to offer, gamers now know there won’t be a new Nintendo console out this year to compete with the PS5 and the Xbox Series X. That’s actually in-line with the way the company has operated the last couple of generations of consoles. It’s clear Nintendo isn’t setting up to be a direct competitor with either Microsoft or Sony but is looking to find other ways to peel off users.

Ahmad also pointed out his original predictions for the Nintendo Switch Pro was more accurate than some other analysts who believed a new version might arrive alongside the other new consoles.

Earlier this month, GamesRadar+ talked to another analyst, Serkan Toto, and he believed a new Switch would be released “after the summer holidays.” Toto and Ahmad agree that when the new model does finally get released, it’s going to be more powerful. They also both believe it will offer the ability to play games in 4K. Toto believes the Switch Pro will come with beefed up cartridges and will cost about $400.

Ahmad was busy reporting video game news on Thursday evening. The analyst was among the first to report the popular team-based shooter Apex Legends is officially coming to mobile platforms later this year.