Nintendo Switch: New, premium version of games console planned with 4K graphics and more computing power, report claims

Nintendo of America, A guest enjoys playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the groundbreaking new Nintendo Switch at a special preview event in New York on Jan. 13, 2017 (Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Nintendo of America)

Nintendo could be planning a new, premium version of the Switch with 4K graphics and better performance, according to new reports.

The company is planning to release a version of the portable console with better specifications next year, according to a new Bloomberg report, which follows other similar leaks from the supply chain.

The original Switch was released in 2017. While Nintendo has released other versions since – including upgrading its battery life as well as releasing a Lite version that did away with the option to plug into a television – the console has gone largely unchanged since that first release.

The addition of 4K graphics and other upgraded features would come as rival console makers release new products with vastly upgraded hardware. Both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 are due at the end of this year, and both are leaning heavily on improved speed and performance.

Nintendo has not traditionally chased the same high-end market as its rivals. But the Bloomberg report noted that an upgrade would allow it to fight for gamers' attention amid those other releases.

The report gave little information on what those extra specifications could include, reporting only that Nintendo has "looked into" more computing power and 4K graphics. It did not explicitly indicate whether those improved graphics would be on the portable version of the console or only appear when it is plugged into a television.

Updating the console would also allow the Switch to become the company's most long-lasting console, the report noted. Nintendo has released updated versions of other consoles in the past, upgrading them halfway through their life to keep them competitive, such as the Nintendo DS.

New versions of the Nintendo Switch have been rumoured since last year, when reports suggested that the company was planning both a premium version and a slimmed-down one. The latter arrived in the form of the Nintendo Switch Lite, and alterations were made to the normal version of the Switch that increased its battery life, but a more expensive or significantly upgraded version of the Switch is yet to appear.

Nintendo said at the beginning of this year that it was not planning to release new Switch models in 2020. Instead, it would focus on promoting the existing ones – both the normal Switch and the Lite version.