Reverse engineering can kick us all in the butt. Vague references and calls that have been temporarily muted in packages could easily be scrapped in future editions with neither hide nor hair of the possible technology ever appearing. They could also give us the early scoop on incoming technology that big names aren’t necessarily ready to push out. So let’s dive into this with the foreword of caution and hope; until Nintendo officially comes out and offers a new technology to accompany the Nintendo Switch, this is simply interesting.
That being said, it’s pretty interesting: the newest Nintendo Switch update seems to have data within it that is referencing a new piece of hardware operating as a secondary display for the Nintendo Switch. Much akin to the 3DS, that had a top and bottom monitor, so to does it seem that the Nintendo Switch itself may be following suit.
Firmware 10.0.0 adds preliminary support for a new hardware model: "nx-abcd".
3 of the 5 new DRAM profiles are for this new hardware type and there's evidence of a secondary display of sorts being added exclusively on this model.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)— Mike Heskin (@hexkyz) April 14, 2020
This could mean just about anything, however, in terms of what a second screen may be implying. Many are theorizing that the new Nintendo Switch Lite will have an ability to cast itself to the nearest television appropriately equipped with the technology necessary; a sort of dongle that could be connected via USB that would operate on par with a Chrome Cast, for example.
Furthering this idea is the general lack of accessory ports on the Nintendo Switch itself; something simply connecting to it as the Nintendo Circle Pad Pro clipped onto the 3DS (which made the entire thing cumbersome as well as unwieldy to use) doesn’t seem readily plausible.
The Nintendo Switch Lite similarly is lacking in ports, which leads us to discern precisely what piece of technology could be incoming.
The answer is more than likely a form of screencasting for the Nintendo Switch Lite, that will allow the more mobile-friendly version of the Nintendo Switch to be charging on the table while you’re continuing to play from the comfort of your couch. It’s also plausible that you can use the Nintendo Switch itself to cast games to other devices, such as another Nintendo Switch in the immediate vicinity, or even mobile phones, allowing users to play party games without everyone holding their heads an inch from each other while intently staring at a small screen precariously perched in the huddle.
Currently, Nintendo has made no statements on precisely what has been found in the system update, as is their standard. We’ll likely need to wait a bit longer before they unveil whatever they’re working on behind closed doors.
