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There have been suggestions that the Switch ‘Pro’ absolutely needs to have slightly improved specs to ensure it can run some games and improve existing ones, but is that all that’s needed? Maybe not, according to an industry veteran.
In a recent interview with Nintendo Everything, Engine Software co-founder and vice president Ruud van de Moosdijk (who has worked on a handful of Switch games, including recent ports of No more heroes 1 & 2) says as “cool” as it would be, a slightly improved model with a little extra power could potentially go to waste.
As long as it’s part of the Switch ecosystem, that means games should (or at least should) run on any systems already available, and for compatibility reasons performance is compared to the lowest specs. As a result, systems upgraded with extra horsepower are never really fully “used”.
“Truth be told, our opinion on this might be counter-intuitive to a lot of people, but we’re not big followers of the ‘Pro’ model. Of course, it would be nice to have more RAM or a faster GPU / CPU than before, but if it’s still viewed as the same platform, you need to make sure your game runs on all models. So, for compatibility reasons, your performance is compared to the lower specifications. We have seen with previous “ improved systems ” that the extra horsepower doesn’t really get used well for this reason. “
On the Nintendo front, an earlier “improved” system that was arguably underutilized was the New 3DS. One of the few games that took advantage of this was Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, but beyond that, the developers weren’t interested in the fear of abandoning the rest of the market. Similar situations have also occurred on rival platforms.
At best, it looks like a Switch Pro would feature a standard overhaul of slightly improved resolutions and frame rates (rumored to be), but “extra power” or extra growl is much less likely – especially when models current (Switch and Switch Lite) have now sold a combined total of over 68 million worldwide. It would be an important installation base to rule out after all.
You can find out more about the Switch Pro rumor in our full guide. If this device does exist, what are your own expectations? Do you think it has to offer much more than an improved frame rate and resolutions? Tell us below.
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