New evidence suggests Nintendo is planning to launch a new model of the Switch 2 and it could arrive this year.
The Nintendo Switch 2 might be the fastest-selling console ever, but some people are no doubt holding out for improved, or cheaper, hardware revisions.
Console manufacturers always make multiple models during a console’s lifetime, whether it’s cheaper variants, with some limitations, like the Switch Lite, or more expensive high-end devices like the PS5 Pro. Some hardware revisions also replace the existing default, like the PS5 Slim – because they’re cheaper to manufacture.
Based on Nintendo’s history with the original Switch, which also received a more expensive OLED model, new iterations of the Switch 2 are inevitable. However, a recently discovered product code seems to point to a new version being released sooner rather than later.
As discovered by Bluesky user dootsky, a new, seemingly unused, model code has been found on a Nintendo portal which generates console icons based on a system’s product code. For example, an image of the original Switch pops up when you use ‘HAC’ in the URL.
There are different codes for each console variation, so ‘HEG’ brings up a Switch OLED, ‘HDH’ shows the Switch Lite, while ‘BEE’ has a distinctive image for the Switch 2.
Typing in random letters brings up an error message so these have been specifically placed, which makes the existence of a new product code, OSM, seem quite peculiar.
It’s unclear what this code relates to, but OSM brings up the same image of the Switch 2. A ResetEra thread has highlighted that it isn’t a known devkit for the console, as those all use variations on the ‘BEE’ product code.
With no clear answer, some have assumed it relates to some kind of hardware revision for the Switch 2. It could be a minor internal upgrade to replace the original system, something akin to the PS5 Slim, or it could be the first sign of a Switch 2 Lite.
Nintendo launched a Lite model of the Switch in September 2019, over two years after the original console. The existence of this product code doesn’t point to any specific release date, but if it does relate to a Lite model, it does suggest it’s at least relatively imminent.
There is, however, reason to believe it’s something else entirely. All the prior Switch iterations began with the same letter at the beginning of each product code (HAC, HEG, HDH), so the use of ‘OSM’ versus the Switch 2’s ‘BEE’ doesn’t exactly line up if they’re following the same precedent.
Either way, some have speculated a new model for the Switch 2 could launch later this year with the strongly rumoured next mainline Pokémon titles. While that feels somewhat premature, being just over a year after the Switch 2 launched, the high price of the Switch 2, coupled with a jittery investors, might push Nintendo to release a cheaper Lite version early.
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For those holding out for the OLED model, that upgrade has likely been put on the backburner, given current world economics and Nintendo’s previous rollout with the Switch. The Switch OLED model launched in October 2021, four years after the main console.
What Nintendo needs now is a cheaper Switch 2, not a more expensive one, and that seems the best guess for what the code relates to.
For now, we’ll have to see what Nintendo has in store for its next Direct presentation, which is expected to air in either February or March. But don’t expect a hardware annoucement then, as it’s almost certainly not that imminent.
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