Earlier this year reports of an upgraded, more powerful Nintendo Switch Pro console started to hit the internet. The rumours suggested the Big N was working on two new versions of the Switch, including a streamlined system aimed at a younger market, as well as a pro-grade one aimed at the hardcore gaming market.
The report was partially right. The Nintendo Switch Lite was launched and then, quietly, Nintendo pushed out a new revision of the original Switch that featured tweaked storage chips and a new processor. The system, while technically more advanced, is pretty much identical in terms of gaming performance to the original Nintendo Switch.
This news, naturally, was very disappointing to hardcore Switch gamers who had been eagerly anticipating a new system designed to stay competitive with the forthcoming Sony PS5 and Microsoft Xbox Scarlett.
With those systems delivering 120Hz, 8K, ray tracing graphical power – a new more powerful Switch seemed like an obvious riposte, and when nothing of substance arrived it seemed like the dream of a Switch Pro had died.
But all hope is not lost.
Eagle-eyed gamers have made a discovery that has led to a theory that the Nintendo Switch Pro is coming after all. The discovery was made after teardown photos of the Nintendo Switch Lite were exposed on the FCC's official website, which proceeded to show that the Lite's mainboard had the name VALI printed on it.
On its own that doesn't seem to mean anything at all. However, when you take apart the original Nintendo Switch you discover that it has ODIN printed on its mainboard.
And, what's more, if you take apart the recently released minor revision of the Switch, you find that its mainboard is printed with MODIN.
Starting to come together, right? Nintendo seems to be obsessed with Norse mythological figures, with the original system secretly named ODIN, the patriarch of the Norse gods, and the progeny of ODIN, the Nintendo Switch Lite, named VALI, who was the Norse god's son.
MODIN? That's obviously a contraction of "modified ODIN", which is exactly what that new system is — a slightly tweaked version of the original.
Check out the image below to see the names for yourself, which are encircled in red:
And, this is where gamers have got very, very excited. As Odin had another very famous son in Norse mythology, and one that would go on to be the most powerful of the Norse gods — Thor. Thor, the famous hammer-wielding god of thunder and lighting that is famed for his might and prowess.
The theory that the Big N has indeed been working on a super powerful version of the Nintendo Switch, and that thanks to its obsession with Norse mythology it will carry the mainboard name of Thor, was therefore born, with 2020 set as its arrival year just in time to take on (and no doubt) smote the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett.
Here at T3 while we're not sold on this gamer theory, we do think it is cool that each Switch console (meaningfully or not) carries these nomenclature ties to the Norse gods, and can definitely see another console being launched under the Nintendo Switch brand.
Whether or not that console will arrive next year, or it is will posses a power equal in might to Thor's hammer Mjölnir, remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, though — if Nintendo did launch a Nintendo Switch Pro then it would help complete a console line-up that would have a system for every gamer, no matter how casual or hard core they are.
Via: The Sun
Source: The Verge
