A never-before-seen boot animation for the Nintendo Switch has surfaced online, revealing an old logo for the console from back when it was still in development under a codename. The asset was datamined from a Mario Kart 8 Deluxe prototype which was recently pulled from a Nintendo Switch devkit. This is a different version of the game from the one that already leaked back in March and allowed dataminers to uncover two years' worth of planned content for the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass DLC.
The Switch had been the subject of countless industry rumors for years before Nintendo finally announced its hybrid console in 2016. Prior to that, the seminal device was internally code-named "NX," which is a moniker that the company publicly acknowledged a year later, when its late CEO, Satoru Iwata, made the ambitious claim that what eventually became the Switch was going to "change each person's video gaming life."
And while the astronomic success of the Nintendo Switch continues, so do the leaks from its long-completed development. Cue this short boot animation that was just pulled from a developer build of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, revealing a placeholder logo that displays the old NX codename on a light blue background. By the time the product made it to the market, this bit of visual flair was replaced with a static Nintendo logo that briefly appears on a black background while the console is booting. Though the original design was somewhat more playful, the final version of the "animation" is definitely more in line with the black-and-white UI that the Switch ended up with.
Coincidentally, this is not the first leak that originated from a developer build of MK8D. Earlier this year, dataminers discovered the entire content roadmap for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's Booster Course Pass almost immediately after the DLC itself was announced. The jury is still out on the full veracity of that leak, but the first three waves of MK8D DLC courses released to date have corresponded with the datamined track list, whereas the rest of the courses are scheduled to debut in three more waves over the course of the following year.
Meanwhile, while Nintendo is undoubtedly working on next-generation hardware, its core R&D team historically runs a much tighter ship, so insider reports about the Switch 2 remain few and far between. On top of that, it's still unclear whether the company will be upgrading its hit console with the long-rumored Switch Pro revision before committing to an entirely new system.