A more powerful Nintendo Switch revision may not bring the benefits most would expect, as the additional power of the console may end up not being fully utilized.
Speaking with Nintendo Everything, Engine Software co-founder and vice president Ruud van de Moosdijk commented on the rumored new Switch revision, saying that more power would definitely be nice, but it would end up being not utilized to the fullest, as games would have to run on every model.
Truth be told, our opinion on this might be counter-intuitive for a lot of people, but we are not large subscribers of the “Pro” model. Sure, it would be nice to have more RAM or faster GPU/CPU compared to before, but if it is still considered the same platform you must make sure your game runs on every model. So, for compatibility reasons your performance gets benchmarked on the lowest specifications. We have seen with prior ‘upgraded systems’ that the additional power never really got utilized well for this reason.
The new Nintendo Switch hardware revision has yet to be confirmed officially. According to data mined information, this new model will be using a Mariko SoC, an upgraded display and support both docked and handheld modes like the base Nintendo Switch.
Nintendo actually is working on a new model with upgraded display stuff and has been for ~1.5-2 years. I personally believe it's 4K given the signs I'm seeing in the firmware, but that's not confirmed yet and could be wrong.
The new hardware is codenamed Aula, it's using a Mariko SoC. There's a bunch of references to it in code (atmosphere supports the new display already in theory).
Aula explicitly supports handheld mode. It is not docked only; that's calcio, which seems like it's for internal only/never releasing since Calcio has no gamecard slot and no battery.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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