If you've been eagerly awaiting a powered-up Nintendo Switch Pro, it may be time to temper your expectations. One industry analyst supports Nintendo's decision to forgo the Switch Pro and focus on a suitable successor to the popular handheld/home console hybrid.

Piers Harding-Rolls of Ampere Analysis recently made this prediction via gamesindustry.biz. He said, "We don't expect a Switch Pro in 2022. Our prediction is for the next generation of Nintendo consoles in late 2024, so I don't think we'll see a "Pro" model at all."

This prediction is bound to disappoint avid Nintendo fans hoping for a more powerful version of the Switch console. Recent releases such as "Hitman 3" and "Guardians of the Galaxy" can only be played on the console in the form of streamed cloud verizons, rather than natively from the console, due to power limitations.

This blow is somewhat tempered by the fact that Harding-Rolls expects Nintendo's next-generation console, possibly called the Nintendo Switch 2, to arrive in 2024. That would give the Nintendo Switch a lifespan of seven years, which is somewhat on the long side, but not unreasonably so.

For comparison, there were only six years between the launch of the Wii and the Wii U, and four years between the Wii U and the original Nintendo Switch, thanks in part to poor sales of the former.

Note that while these are strictly predictions, they are likely to be informed forecasts, not just wild speculation. The idea that Nintendo will completely forgo a Switch Pro model is contrary to a Bloomberg article from last year. The report claimed that Nintendo had supplied developers with new Switch development kits and asked studios to begin work on 4K-capable Switch games. However, this claim was later denied by Nintendo.

Rumors of a Nintendo Switch Pro have been circulating for years at this point, but to this day Nintendo itself continues to deny its existence. The company released an OLED model of the Nintendo Switch last October, but the refresh did not include any major internal improvements and is considered an iterative update rather than a major reworking of the console.

Despite Nintendo's repeated denials on the matter, rumors of a Nintendo Switch Pro persist, and it is unlikely that the rumors will die down in 2022, as the console's release is expected to be a major step in the right direction. In the coming months, more rumors are expected to whisper online about a more powerful Switch.