Prominent Pokemon leakers have claimed the Nintendo Switch Pro listings will go live on June 4th, while a screenshot from a French retailer has shown its European price.
Centro Leaks- who previously discovered subdomains for the then-unannounced Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl– claimed they had discovered the date the listing for the Nintendo Switch Pro will go live.
“We have received and verified a screenshot from a big retailer’s internal system that shows a new Switch hardware-related listing will go live on June 4 (around midnight),” Centro Leaks tweeted. “That’s all we have for now, there’s no other data / attributes in the listing right now.” They also claim it is a non-US listing from a US retailer. “That should give you a hint what retailer it is lol”.
In addition; French Nintendo news Twitter account Nintend’Alerts tweeted an alleged screenshot from Boulanger’s database (a french electronics retailer). The listing for Nintendo Switch Pro is shown at €399.00 EUR (Estimated $488 USD). This would also place it roughly €100 EUR over the price of the current Nintendo Switch.
Amazon Mexico also recently listed “New Nintendo Switch Pro” on its website, before quietly removing the listing.
We previously reported on rumors (including from Bloomberg) of a more powerful Nintendo Switch being in production, a so-called “Nintendo Switch Pro” model. This new model will allegedly support 4K graphics (via a new NVidia graphics chip and 7″ screen), and would allegedly launch early 2021. A patent for a rail-less Joy-Con further fueled speculation.
Bloomberg and Eurogamer sources recently claimed the console may launch September or October 2021, with an announcement prior to E3 2021. This would enable third-parties to show off their games freely, as Nintendo’s own digital showcase would be later during the E3 2021 week.
Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa denied the initial claims, amid Nintendo’s best financial quarter since 2018. Nintendo’s recent successes have no doubt been thanks to the Nintendo Switch.
It sold over 85 million units as of May 2021; fueled by the increased interest in gaming thanks to the coronavirus pandemic quarantine lockdowns, along with the cheaper price and greater availability compared to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
While selling a new version of something that is already selling well would seem illogical (especially when a scarcity of parts has caused issues for PlayStation and Microsoft), Ace Research Institute analyst Hideki Yasuda claims that new hardware would be key for Nintendo in 2021. For example, new hardware could tempt those who had not yet bought a Nintendo Switch.
He cited the success of the Game Boy, PlayStation 2, and Nintendo DS; while the Wii and PlayStation 4 had no or practically no variations, and experienced a sharp drops in sales in the latter half of their respective launch years. Yasuda also claimed Nintendo has an “oligopoly” in Japan, while PlayStation game sales have been practically “eradicated.“
