Rumors for a Switch Pro model have swirled for months, despite Nintendo basically telling gamers repeatedly not to expect such a console. Nintendo even held a recent Q&A session that doubled down when asked about this. The company pretty clearly said that a new Switch model is not coming anytime soon.
When asked about the prospect of a Switch Pro this year, Nintendo said they want to focus on strong software sales to build out the library for existing users. They pointed to both Monster Hunter and Mario as getting major releases this quarter. So that makes sense.
Nintendo US President Doug Bowser toed the line last month when he said that “right now, with the momentum that we have, our focus will be on the existing form factors,” he said.
President Shuntaro Furukawa announced the news during the recent earnings and sales announcements for the gaming giant. During that announcement, Nintendo pointed out that the incredibly popular basic Switch model, V2 and Switch Lite have sold nearly 80m units since release; those sales making it the best-selling Ninty console in that timeframe, even outpacing the Wii.
This comes after smash-hit games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons has managed to push an insane number of units. More than 31 million copies of that one game have been sold in nine months. That pushes out major sales records for any other Nintendo title, and some of the biggest names in gaming. Grand Theft Auto V solid 32.5m units in its first sales year in 2013. And that was across multiple consoles.
And that’s not all, Nintendo estimates that at least another 24m units of the basic and Lite console will be sold in 2021.
Despite all this, some outlets were quick to point out the weakness of the denial. This line of “we have no plans at this time” is fertile grounds for speculation on the internet. Gamers and nerds love to dig into the lightest amount of possible inference and dig their heels in. If there’s a chance for someone to assume that a company is secretly planning to do something else, it’s going to happen.
