New Nintendo Switch Could Offer 4K Graphics Upgrade in 2021

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A new, more powerful Nintendo Switch may be on the way in 2021, according to a report from the Taiwanese outlet Economic Daily News (and expanded upon by Bloomberg).

Economic Daily News cited supply chain sources and reported that the new Switch will offer "better picture quality" and improved forms of interactivity. Bloomberg reported that Nintendo has yet to finalize the specs, but is looking into "more computing power and 4K high-definition graphics." That would be a major bump over the original Switch, which released in 2017 with an Nvidia Tegra X1 system on a chip.

Bloomberg also reported that a "slew" of both first and third-party games could launch alongside the system or within the release window. Nintendo has announced but has yet to release a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as well as Metroid Prime 4, while third-party titles like No More Heroes 3 are still awaiting release.

Nintendo released two variants on the Switch since its release: the Nintendo Switch Lite, which can only be played in handheld mode, as well as a quiet update with better battery life. But for 4K resolution graphics, we would need to see a major update in the internal technology. (It is also possible that games may run at higher resolutions when docked, which already occurs with the existing Switch).

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, both the Switch and Switch Lite have been hard to find, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons was hugely popular earlier this year. The game lineup has been a bit thin since then, so it's possible that Nintendo is banking big titles to launch with a more powerful version of the system.