It looks like the Nintendo Switch may potentially be expanding to virtual-reality sometime this year.
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According to a new report from Nintendo World Report, Nintendo may leap into the VR market with a VR-related announcement sometime “early this year.”
The outlet cites multiple sources, and the report specifically comes way of reporter Emily Rogers, who has an established history of accurately leaking Nintendo information, especially pertaining to the Switch.
Rogers also purports that a select number of traditional first-party games from Nintendo may receive VR support in the “not-so-distant future.”
As you may know, the Switch’s VR capabilities have been known since last year when data miners unearthed a VR mode hidden deep within the system’s firmware. However, since this leak, there’s been no information on the Switch expanding to support VR, and certainly no hints from Nintendo itself.
That said, prior to the leak, there was some rumblings that Nintendo was looking into VR support for the Switch. Back in 2016, word was that Nintendo had delayed the Switch’s launch in order to make sure it could support VR. Further, in the same year, a patent for a head-mounted display that you could put the Switch’s tablet screen into surfaced.
Still, officially, Nintendo has expressed little interest in VR beyond noting that it was exploring the technology. In fact, in the past, Nintendo noted it didn’t believe VR was ready for mainstream consumption, which was a warranted trepidation, because VR gaming has yet to break out of the niche mold thanks to a variety of factors, including, chiefly, price.
Of course, this should be taken with a grain of salt. While the aforementioned Rogers has a history of reliable reporting around Nintendo, it’s still a report. And until official confirmation comes way of Nintendo itself, I wouldn’t bet at the bookies too much on this happening.
That said, if Rogers is correct, we should be hearing about Nintendo’s VR plans soon. And who knows, maybe Nintendo will finally be the ones to help push the technology to a wider gaming audience, though given the hardware limitations of the Switch, I wouldn’t count on it.
