Report: A new model of Nintendo Switch will arrive in 2019

Plans for a hardware revision of the Nintendo Switch, scheduled for launch in 2019, are underway, according to a report from the Wall Street newspaper.

This brief report, which aired early Thursday morning, indicates Nintendo's plans for a new version of Switch (supposedly compatible with all existing Switch software) in the "second half of 2019, possibly as early as the summer. ". All we know so far seems to be centered on one part of the system revision: the screen. the WSJ cites the "suppliers" as one of the sources of information disclosed, and the only suggestion made in the report about the modification of computer hardware relates to the replacement of the screen by a manufacturing process older for LCD screens. (WSJThe report does not explicitly indicate its "supplier" sources in the screen production sector.)

A glimpse of the missing WSJ According to the report, Japan Display Inc., Nintendo's leading LCD supplier, manufactured far fewer switch screens in 2017 than during the system's peak period in 2016. According to the report, a report from Nikkei, this change could be due to JDI's shifting as a company and increased focus on the production of OLED panels on LCDs over the past year. This report did not indicate that JDI would make such a change, anticipating that Nintendo would require better panels for future hardware.

the WSJ The report also does not specify what might change in the next switch, details regarding processing power, screen resolution, form factor and compatibility with existing Joy-Con controllers remaining unclear. "Nintendo always debates" what could happen in a new Switch, the WSJ says, and "cost" is a factor in the discussions.

While Nintendo Switch has achieved outstanding results in international retail since its launch in 2017, the company has at least one reason to want to speed up system review as quickly as possible: a major jailbreak leveraging the Nvidia Tegra main on-chip system located behind the portable hybrid console at home. Since the release of this jailbreak, Nintendo has deployed a hardware revision of the switch that would have included a fix in its boot ROM. Without this patch, every attempt by Nintendo to update older Switch system firmware can still be subject to the incredibly effective "Fuse Rocket" feat.

Nintendo has a rich history of hardware reissues with slight upgrades and aesthetic changes, although the game publisher's portable systems tend to receive revisions earlier, and often with slight improvements in the game. features or processing power, going back to the bump in Game Boy Color's specifications. of the original Game Boy. The Nintendo Switch has at least a clear path to a slight upgrade, as it is currently faster (and aims for a maximum resolution of 1080p) when it rests in an official Switch TV station. An increase in the current resolution of its 720p LCD screen and a more heat-efficient SoC could bring this 1080p target to be more reasonable in portable mode than an updated switch.

Nintendo representatives did not immediately answer our questions about the WSJ report.