Nintendo will be releasing a new Nintendo Switch development model with more onboard memory.
Earlier this week, Nintendo announced its Nintendo Switch OLED model. Unfortunately, the new model doesn’t come with the long-rumored hardware improvements, including an improved CPU and extra memory. As covered yesterday, the announcement of the Switch OLED doesn’t totally rule out the existence of the rumored ‘Pro’ model, and the model might just be an interim model as a reaction to the ongoing component shortages and development of Breath of the Wild 2.
Interestingly, Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry has performed a specification analysis of the new Switch OLED and reports that Nintendo will be releasing an upgraded development model with increased memory.
On top of that, games running on Switch OLED have no idea they are running on anything other than a standard unit - Nintendo's developer documents reveal that there is no way for their games to query the system, to figure out whether they are running on Switch OLED or not. With that said, the firm does recognize the need for developers to test their games on the new screen. With that in mind, a new ADEV development model is being made available to co-exist alongside the existing SDEV and EDEV versions. For reasons undisclosed by the Nintendo, this machine ships with 8GB of onboard memory compared to the 6GB in the other development models and the 4GB of all retail units.
As expected, with Nintendo releasing an upgraded dev model, this has many believing that the rumored Switch Pro model is still on the table.
What are your thoughts about this? Will Nintendo eventually release a Nintendo Switch Pro or will fans just have to wait for a next-gen Switch model? Hit the comments down below.
The new Nintendo Switch OLED launches on October 8th for $349.99.
