This year has seen some of the highest-profile “leaks” of purported information on Nintendo’s successor to the Switch console, with some particularly big allegations coming post-Gamescom 2023 that claimed the gaming giant had its new hardware behind well-guarded doors to show to developers and publishers in the area.
Despite the fact that those rumours were seemingly being corroborated by multiple outlets and sources at the time with some fairly detailed remarks on what was being shown – no less than an upscaled Breath of the Wild and a look at the famous The Matrix Awakens tech demo running on the device – Nintendo has now come out to deny that it was engaging in the world’s most exclusive Show and Tell at the expo in Germany.
Japanese outlet Mainichi has published a story that says that Shuntaro Furukawa, Nintendo President, had addressed this rumour in particular at its recent investor meeting, saying “Rumours are circulating mainly on the Internet as if they were public information, but they are inaccurate,” and claiming that reports of Nintendo showing off its Switch successor at Gamescom 2023 “untrue.”
Of course, as VGC points out, Nintendo has set itself a precedent for denying its activities based on leaked information and then proving themselves liars almost immediately, like the time it said there weren’t plans to reveal a redesigned DS console the day before it revealed a redesigned DS console:
That one time Nintendo denied having any plans for a hardware revision and then announced a hardware revision the next day ? https://t.co/T8i7WzV3Z5 pic.twitter.com/f1AX6jZqYL
— Nintendeal (@Nintendeal) September 30, 2021
Nintendo also took the opportunity in the call to shut down talk of a DS-like console where one screen can be physically removed, an idea that popped up in a recent patent, reminding folks that patented ideas don’t necessarily guarantee a future product.
Whatever the truth is, there’s no denying that fans and onlookers everywhere are fully anticipating Nintendo to have something to reveal in the coming months with a rising expectation that we’ll see whatever the next iteration of dedicated Nintendo hardware is launch at some point next year, if not very soon after.
