I think the Switch OLED was the planned Switch Pro, but they changed the plan to include the 2019-chipset from the Switch-Revision and not a new chipset. All other features would have been great for marketing of a pro-console.

The positive things a Switch Pro would have had:
- Games would be already optimized to use dynamic resolutions up to 4K when Switch Two launches

Bad things about Switch Pro:
- Would have made the Switch lifecycle even longer. Six years will be completed soon and the Switch Pro really could have made the ten-year-lifecycle-dream they said they believed in a reality
- Developers would have had at least one more tier to optimize for and most likely wouldn't make ports which would only run on the pro-console.
- It would be hard to advance from a Switch Pro before…lets say 2025. The mobile form-factor makes it much more difficult to achieve a generational jump without making the device to big or heavy in a time almost all chip-companies increase their power-usage.

I think a new hardware is the better way. Make the Switch-Hardware better with a longer development-cycle than the WiiU-Crisis-Cycle we had last time. Do cross-generation for two years until you have a Lite-Version of SwitchTwo to make easier update-paths for people with less budget. Give attention to more small titles in the Nintendo Directs which also run on the old Switch. This could be a smooth transition if done right.

So basically some time in the last 2-3 years with Switch selling like gangbusters Nintendo went like: Why release a Switch Pro??

"So we can bring gamers at the very least 1080p gaming, maybe 4k, hdr, ray tracing."

Nah, let's not do it. Goes back to swimming in their pool of money.

DS was selling like crazy too, but I think they still made the DSi for a few reasons.

-To sell DSiWare games

-To hook people in with the camera as a novelty

DS likely still would've continued to sell like crazy without the DSi or DSi XL, but might've sold 10-15 million less total. 

Indeed they do, yet... Many games are held back because of the hardware.

I think it's been established over the years, most notably with the Wii, that performance and graphics aren't important for a device to sell well.

But by that same extension... Just because a device sells well, doesn't mean it's perfect by an means.

Case in point... Pokemon Scarlet/Violet is certainly held back by the hardware, an overclocked Switch resolves most of the performance issues.


And because of such, a higher performing Switch would offer a far better experience to a Switch owner than the current hardware models... It may/may not increase sales of hardware, but that is irrelevant... It's about maintaining a degree of quality and playability in games.

It needs better hardware, there are those who don't care if a game looks crap or runs at 15fps...
For someone like myself, I do care... And I want Nintendo to do better and offer us more to keep driving innovation and competition.

The game Library is definitely a strong point of the Switch, even if a chunk of it's best selling titles are ports from an older console, many newer games I am passing over or returning (Pokemon) because they are unplayable. - But there are millions who still rushed out and played the title to death despite it's technical shortcomings and issues.

There are always going to be a subset of consumers who expect a degree of quality out of their games, I'm one of them.

I mean, "1080p, 4k, hdr, ray tracing"...that's just higher rez and graphical effects. It's not like that would make the Switch games any better, just a little prettier. Most people wouldn't care about graphics looking a little sharper. Doesn't really warrant a whole new model just for that.

Seems like they moved from a higher spec'd Switch to a premium version of the same specs because there was simply no reason to put out a higher spec'd Switch. 2020 and 2021 for Switch were two of the best sales years in history, only DS beats those. Nintendo couldn't even match the insane demand for the Switch with the models it was producing. A higher spec'd Switch just for the sake of higher resolution or a few more effects in games just simply didn't make business sense. Consumers were very happy with the Switch as is, nobody was clamoring for a more powerful Switch. But a better designed Switch (better bigger screen, more disk space, more battery) for only $50 more is something consumers can easily be like okay I'll pay a little bit more for the premium Switch. A Switch Pro would have been like $400+and probably would have ended up like the Lite, initially filled a niche and then sales trailed off.

Pokemon feels to me like more an example of horrible optimization given that other open world titles on Switch like Xenoblade 3, Dying Light, and Breath of the Wild look and run vastly better, even despite the last being made for weaker hardware.

It should never have been allowed to release in the state that it's in, but I think even if the Switch was much more powerful it would still be a technical mess as it just seems like an incredibly rushed product. Gamefreak have been churning out so many Pokemon games they just seem to thrust them out the door before they're finished in order to stick to their unworkable release schedule.

@Pemalite Pokémon Scarlet/Violet is just poorly optimized. The hardware is fully capable of running a game like that at a way smoother and higher framerate.

You can not seriously tell me you believe that a game that looks like S/V is to demanding for the Switch. Way more graphically demanding games run better on the Switch. You know that.

Between the chip shortage during the peak of the pandemic and the already decent sales of the NX, it was probably a very late decision considering we had multiple sources saying devs have a dev kits for a more powerful Switch in late 2020 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-29/nintendo-switch-4k-developers-make-games-for-nonexistent-console?leadSource=uverify%20wall

Whats interesting is that Nintendo were concerned with the immenent release of the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles. But that came at the time of crazy chip shortages it made more sense to cancel that and release an iteration with improvements instead and we got the OLED NS where manufacturing isn't affected so much. I wonder if Nintendo also worked with Nvidia to get a better deal for a new chip, instead of what we were going to get with the Pro. 4K was the target for Nintendo, which is quite a high bar for a handheld console.

Also other red flags that a new console is imminent is that we're still waiting for some flagship titles from Nintendo (Next big Mario release, Mario Kart 9 and Metroid Prime 4) some still MIA and LOZ ToTK delayed to 2023.

Mario Kart 9 definitely won't happen on Switch. Nintendo is still releasing the DLC courses for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Next big Mario release, maybe there's still some time, but it also wouldn't make much sense.

Metroid Prime 4... Well, who knows what happened to this game. It was announced for Switch a looooong time ago.

Maybe, wouldn't be too sure. There is a lot of NS(1) users there and they want to sell as much as they can. They'll probably release on both as a cross-gen title with different versions respectively. As I don't see the new one being backwards compatible with the current one.

I just find it a little stange that there hasn't been a new MK for nearly 7 years when the game came out last generation. And there hasn't been a proper mainline Mario game release outside of rereleases+DLC repack for the NS and that was Odyssey, back in 2017. Which makes me think they are readying up for the next generation of titles spread through the next several years. And there is no unnessesary overlap in releases.

Like with new subscription models, re-releases and Pokemon along side third party releases are doing very well so far so it wouldn't surprise me if Nintendo are holding back development of certain titles for use on a new console to spur more interest in said new machine. Also with better hardware devs are getting their visions more realised than still working on Tegra X1 which is (at this point) fairly underpowered compared to modern mobile SoC's.

That is unless Covid hit their dev teams hard, which wouldn't be a surprise.