Nintendo issues denial on new 4K Nintendo Switch report
No resolution.
Nintendo has issued a denial on a new 4K Nintendo Switch report.
Last night, Bloomberg (paywall) reported at least 11 companies, including Zynga, have "tools" from Nintendo to make 4K Switch games.
The report goes on to say these companies have a 4K development kit for the Switch, and that this so far unannounced 4K Switch won't come out until late next year at the earliest.
It wasn't long after the report went live that Nintendo issued a statement denying it. Here's the statement in full:
"A news report on Sept. 30, 2021(JST) falsely claims that Nintendo is supplying tools to drive game development for a Nintendo Switch with 4K support. To ensure correct understanding among our investors and customers, we want to clarify that this report is not true.
"We also want to restate that, as we announced in July, we have no plans for any new model other than Nintendo Switch - OLED Model, which will launch on October 8, 2021."
Nintendo is of course preparing to launch the OLED Nintendo Switch on 8th October, and is no doubt keen to train attention on that. For more, check out Martin's hands-on impressions of the Nintendo Switch OLED.
Bloomberg also carries a statement from Zynga denying it has a 4K Nintendo Switch dev kit.
"To clarify, Zynga does not have a 4K developer kit from Nintendo," Zynga said.
So, what's going on? Bloomberg said the OLED Nintendo Switch was meant to contain a faster chip from Nvidia that would have enabled 4K, but "the 4K capability didn't come to pass". Bloomberg doesn't know when the design changed, it said, but a source indicated the reason for the change was "component shortages" sparked by the pandemic. Bloomberg said Nintendo had already sent 4K Switch dev kits out by July.
Have Nintendo's plans for a 4K Switch changed? If so, its statement issued this morning holds true. Indeed, Bloomberg says "Nintendo could still decide to not release a 4K Switch". This one sounds very much up in the air.
For now, it's worth checking out Digital Foundry's In Theory: is 4K DLSS really viable for a next-gen Switch Pro? article to get an idea what this mythical console may be capable of.