There are some suggestions that the rumors that Switch ‘Pro’ will definitely need slightly improved specs to make sure certain games can run and improve existing ones, but is that all it takes? Perhaps not, according to an industry veteran.
In a recent interview with Nintendo Everything, Ruud van de Moosdijk, Co-Founder and Vice President of Engine Software (who has worked on a handful of Switch games, including recent ports of No more heroes 1 & 2) said as “nice” as it was, a slightly upgraded model with some extra power might be lost.
As long as it’s part of the Switch ecosystem, it means games should still run (or at least should) on any system already available, and for compatibility reasons, performance is compared to the lowest specs. As a result, upgraded systems with extra power are never really “exploited” to the full.
“To be honest, our opinion on this may be counterintuitive to a lot of people, but we’re not big subscribers to the” Pro “model. Of course it would be nice to have more RAM or faster GPU / CPU compared to before, but if it’s still considered the same platform, make sure your game is running on every model. So for compatibility reasons, your performance is compared to the lowest specs. We’ve seen on previous ‘upgraded systems’ that the extra power was never used this reason really well. “
At the front of Nintendo was a previously “upgraded” system that was arguably underused, the new 3DS. One of the few games that used it was Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, but otherwise developers showed no interest in fear of leaving the rest of the market. Similar situations have also occurred on competing platforms.
At best, it looks like a Switch Pro would have a standard revision of slightly improved resolutions and frame rates (like rumors), but ‘extra power’ or extra grunt is much less likely – especially when the current models (Switch and Switch Lite) now sold a total of more than 68 million worldwide. That would be a hefty installation base to rule out.
You can read more about the rumored Switch Pro in our in-depth guide. If this device does exist, what are your own expectations? Do you think it should offer much more than an improved frame rate and resolutions? Tell us below.