From the looks of it, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), has made mention of an unknown new Nintendo platform in one of its recent documents.
As part of the ongoing in-depth investigation into the Microsoft-Activision-Blizzard merger, the CMA has published supplementary material. The appendices include data used to calculate market shares used in the regulator’s provisional findings, including shares of supply in cloud gaming services. Unless you’re interested in many estimated shares, nothing too special so far. There’s an interesting tidbit, however, in the CMA’s explanation of how it constructed these market shares, possibly referring to the unannounced Nintendo Switch Pro. We included the paragraph from the CMA’s appendices below:
“Nintendo Switch Online has been excluded from our shares as Nintendo’s cloud gaming service is very limited. Nintendo’s cloud gaming service is only available on the Nintendo Switch device and [redacted]. Nintendo Switch Online gives gamers access to online play and cloud saving amongst
other features. We therefore see Nintendo Switch Online as predominately an online multiplayer service rather than a cloud gaming service.”
We already knew that Nintendo intends to make NSO available on a Switch successor, but we wanted to share this interesting piece of information nonetheless. Of course, it’s also possible that the UK regulator incorrectly included an older platform in the document, but a new platform seems more likely.
There have long been rumors about a Nintendo Switch Pro model packing 4K capabilities using DLSS. Recent reports, however, have claimed that Nintendo canceled its Pro model, and back in August of 2022, a report from Japanese newspaper Nikkei stated that there won’t be new Nintendo hardware before March 2023. Earlier this year, the same outlet reported that fans can expect a new Nintendo model in 2024 with Nintendo said to be in negotiation with various suppliers to kick off the production of a Switch successor.
Nintendo launched the Switch in early 2017 and platform sales recently surpassed those of the PlayStation 4. It will be interesting to see which route Nintendo will take with new hardware – will the company evolve the Switch into a Switch 2 or will they go a different route and release an entirely new platform? What’s your take on this matter? Hit the comments down below.
We’ll update you as soon as more information about new Nintendo hardware comes in. For now, stay tuned.
