There's plenty of buzz around Nintendo at the moment, with rumours of a Direct around the corner and now fresh speculation that an upgraded Switch console is in the works.
According to reports in Bloomberg and Taiwan's Economic Daily News this new model, which will be the first-ever direct hardware upgrade for the handheld console, is slated to come out in the first half of 2021.
The Switch was first released in 2017 and, while there have been newer models which improved the battery life, there hasn't been a direct upgrade to the console like there was with the New Nintendo 3DS, for example.
In the same way Sony improved the PS4 with the announcement of the PS4 Pro, these console upgrades usually increase the system performances, allowing for better graphics, displays and sometimes increased framerates.
According to Bloomberg, Nintendo “has looked into including more computing power and 4K high-definition graphics". While the upgraded battery life on newer Switch models is a welcome change, it didn't do anything about the console's performance.
This speculative release date of early 2021 was cited in the Economic Daily News, citing the supply chain as a source.
It also seems to be the case that this new model of the Switch would be launching with a lineup of new games, which might be specifically made for the new system.
We can absolutely expect to see some title announcements from Nintendo sometime soon and with all the hype building around the PS5 and Xbox Series X in the run-up to Christmas, it would be absurd if Nintendo stayed quiet.
Typically Nintendo has a stellar Autumn/Winter release schedule and, with the Direct rumours swirling more violently than ever, we remain hopeful for new announcements soon.
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While Nintendo might not have announced much this year for fans' liking, the company has released plenty of things to be excited about.
It started the year off to extreme success with the launch of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which not only fuelled console purchases this year but became the second best-selling Switch game of all time.
Further to that, we've had plenty of updates about upcoming partner games and the announcement of Pikmin 3 Deluxe.
A sequel to the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is currently in development as well, which was first announced last year at E3.
All we can do in the meantime is wait and see what Nintendo has planned, but we think there's going to be a lot to look forward to in the coming months.