2025-03-31
Nintendo Switch 2: Everything we know about pre-order plans, specs, pricing, games and more
The Nintendo Switch 2 will arrive in 2025, over eight years after its predecessor. Nintendo officially revealed the successor to its best-selling home console in a brief trailer on January 16. Now it's time for the other shoe to drop: A special Nintendo Direct streaming on YouTube at 9AM ET on April 2 is expected to reveal the price, release date and pre-order details — and maybe even show off some new games, too. Thanks to the January teaser trailer, we already know quite a lot about Nintendo's new console, however. The Switch 2 looks functionally very similar to the original system, albeit with a larger display, magnetic Joy-Cons and a sleeker design. The company also reaffirmed that the upcoming console will be backwards compatible with Switch games. As we continue counting down the hours until Nintendo's big Wednesday reveal, Switch 2 anticipation is appearing in unusual places. Take the Seattle Mariners' jerseys this year — Nintendo and the MLB team announced they'll have a Nintendo logo on the sleeve of the home jersey and a Switch 2 logo on the away jersey. Looking to catch up on everything we know — or think we know — about the Switch 2? Read on. The Nintendo Switch 2 was announced on January 16The rumor mill had heavily suggested that Nintendo would pull back the curtain on the Switch 2 on January 16, and that turned out to be the case. The company hasn't changed the core form factor. It's a portable console with detachable Joy-Cons. The Switch 2 can be placed in a dock for big-screen gaming. There are some significant differences from the original console, however.The most obvious one is that the next-gen Joy-Cons will no longer slide into place mechanically. Instead, they appear to attach to the main unit magnetically. There is a small connector that's likely used to charge the controllers. It's unclear at this point if Joy-Cons from the original system will be compatible with the Switch 2.One other big (and very welcome) change is the addition of a second USB-C port on the top of the device. That should make it much easier to plug in accessories while the Switch 2 is docked. FCC filings suggest that you'll be able to charge the console using either USB-C port, which is another nice quality-of-life change.It's great to see that Nintendo has kept the headphone jack as well. Let's just hope that Bluetooth headphone support is live from the jump this time and Nintendo doesn't leave everyone waiting four years for that feature.The kickstand is getting an upgrade. As with the Switch OLED, it spans the length of the console this time around. But, according to the reveal trailer, this one looks fully adjustable, so you can tweak the viewing angle to one that works for you. There are still a great many unknowns regarding the upcoming console. We don't really know the specs yet, or what type of display it uses. We also don't know anything about battery life, the UI or launch games. We'll surely learn a whole lot on April 2. When will the Nintendo Switch 2 come out?2025. That's all we know for sure at this point. It's highly unlikely that Nintendo will release the console before the dedicated Direct on April 2, and not only because that's at the start of Nintendo's next financial year. Accessory manufacturer Genki, which had been a major source of leaks before Nintendo's January reveal, claimed the console would be released in April. Other reports have pegged June as the release window, as have several analysts. In any case, we should learn the release date during the April 2 Direct. When can I pre-order the Nintendo Switch 2?As with the release date, we expect clarity on this during or after the April 2 presentation. A Best Buy Canada post spotted on Reddit (since deleted, but archived) states that pre-orders will open on that day, but that has yet to confirmed. When can I try the Nintendo Switch 2?Nintendo is planning a worldwide roadshow to let gamers go hands-on with the console. These events start in New York and Paris on April 4-6, with others taking place throughout the following two months. That lends credence to some suggestions that Nintendo will release the Switch 2 in June. Ticket registration for many of the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience events has closed, but waitlists are available. However, given that Nintendo is taking a first come, first served approach, your chances of attending the roadshow if you don't already have a ticket (or unless you signed up for the waitlist immediately) seem very small at this point.The full list of Nintendo Switch 2 Experience dates is as follows:North America:New York, April 4-6, 2025Los Angeles, April 11-13, 2025Dallas, April 25-27, 2025Toronto, April 25-27, 2025Europe:Paris, April 4-6, 2025London, April 11-13, 2025Milan, April 25-27, 2025Berlin, April 25-27, 2025Madrid, May 9-11, 2025Amsterdam, May 9-11, 2025Oceania:Melbourne, May 10-11, 2025Asia:Tokyo (Makuhari), April 26-27, 2025Seoul, May 31-June 1, 2025Hong Kong, To be announcedTaipei, To be announcedWill the Nintendo Switch 2 have some weirdness? Everything we've seen and so far about this console has been fairly, well, traditional. It looks like the original Switch, but better. That's awesome, but will there be any of that unpredictable Nintendo magic? Maybe! There are two puzzling additions that folks can't make hide nor hair of. Genki, the accessories manufacturer, just published a landing page for their Nintendo Switch 2 accessories. This landing page features a video that includes a very detailed look at a Switch 2 mockup. pic.twitter.com/Db7RSk4YlQ— Bob Wulff (@BobWulff) January 8, 2025 Keen eyes will have noticed a new button on the bottom of the right Joy-Con. Promotional images for a new app called Nintendo Today!, which the company says will provide users with daily news updates about things like games and the Switch 2, confirmed that it is a C button. However, it is not yet clear what this button does. Could it initiate voice chat during gameplay? Could it calibrate the controllers? Could it create a room-sized hologram of Bowser in your living room? We'll have to wait and see.Now onto the updated Joy-Cons. There appears to be a new sensor on the connecting side of each controller. It looks a whole lot like an optical sensor, which is what a computer mouse uses. This has led to speculation that players will be able to flip the Joy-Con over and use it like a mouse. Of note: the trailer shows the Joy-Cons moving along a flat surface, connector side down and looking suspiciously like a mouse.But why would anyone even want this? We can think of three words. New Mario Paint.Genki reveal isnt a mockup, its straight up just the Switch 2, optical sensor is literally flashing in this shot @Stealth40k #Switch2 pic.twitter.com/COeLsonqMd— Ash (@Ashinarii) January 8, 2025 Mouse control isn’t the only “too strange for any company but Nintendo” rumor floating around. A patent filed by the company suggests you can swap the Switch 2’s Joy-Cons, snapping them onto either side of the console. That would align with the magnetic Joy-Con attachment scheme.But much like the weird mouse rumors, it doesn’t necessarily align with, well, any logical reason for why you’d want to do that. The patent suggests it could allow for more user choice in where the headphone jack is. But since it’s Nintendo, the company that brought us Labo cardboard peripherals and the Game Boy Advance e-reader attachment, we have to wonder if there are... quirkier designs at hand.Is the Nintendo Switch 2 backwards compatible?The company confirmed in November 2024 that the Nintendo Switch 2 will be backwards compatible. It will also feature access to Nintendo Online, so users will be able to play all of those old retro titles. In the initial Nintendo Switch 2 press release, Nintendo reiterated that physical and digital Switch games will work on the new system. However, it noted that "certain Nintendo Switch games may not be supported on or fully compatible with Nintendo Switch 2." More details about which games those are will be revealed later.During a Nintendo Direct on March 27, the company revealed a new system for loaning digital Switch games out to friends and family members. Virtual Game Cards are designed to make it easier to start a game on one console and continue on another as well. Although Nintendo's approach to this is not as simple as it perhaps should be, Virtual Game Cards will also be available on the Switch 2.Will old games be enhanced in any way? The original Switch has, to put it mildly, struggled to run some of the late-generation software that's come down the pike. Could these games be enhanced to take advantage of the increased horsepower of the Switch 2? We have no idea. We also don't know if any of these releases will receive graphical upgrades, perhaps taking advantage of upscaling tech. What will the cartridges taste like?You may remember that the original Switch cartridges taste absolutely awful. This was on purpose, to discourage folks from putting the games in their mouth. Will the successor follow suit and continue to dip cartridges in a foul-tasting bitter coating? Only time will tell. What about specs?The rumors regarding specs are all over the place, so it’s tough to pin down. We know one thing for sure: It’ll be more powerful than the ancient Switch hardware, which was already antiquated back in 2017. One analyst allegedly got a hold of a spec sheet from the Korean United Daily News that said the Switch 2 would boast an eight-core Cortex-A78AE processor, 8GB of RAM and 64GB of internal eMMC storage. This tracks, as these specs are about as underpowered now as the original Switch was in 2017. However, some reports do indicate that the console will include 12GB of RAM. Another source suggests that the eight-core CPU will be packaged inside an NVIDIA-produced Tegra239 SoC (system on a chip). Given the current Switch runs on an NVIDIA chip, that makes a lot of sense. The CPU will be more powerful, but it's the Switch 2's new GPU that will be a major differentiator. It's all-but-confirmed that the Switch 2 will support DLSS, NVIDIA's "deep learning supersampling" upscaling tech, which would allow the console to render games at a low resolution internally while outputting a high-resolution image. (Fun fact: We actually wrote about how perfect DLSS was for the Nintendo Switch 2 when the technology was announced alongside the RTX 20 series back in 2018.)There are still questions about the Switch 2 and DLSS: Will the system support newer DLSS features like frame generation? Will existing games be automatically tidied up by NVIDIA's algorithm? Regardless of the exact implementation, DLSS upscaling will be a huge leap over the rudimentary techniques available to Nintendo Switch developers.As for the display, there are many conflicting rumors. Early reports from solid sources suggested the Switch 2 would have an 8-inch LCD screen. The Switch 2's display certainly looks larger than that of the original Switch in a side-by-side comparison in the reveal trailer. Some folks have worried that the Switch follow-up may actually be too big, especially for kids. Certain analysts have suggested this would be an OLED screen, while others have said it would be a Mini-LED display. A Mini-LED display is basically an LCD display that has a backlight made of (surprise!) mini-LEDs rather than edge lighting. This allows for local dimming, making the blacks more black. We're hedging our bets here. We think it’ll be a standard LCD, to cut costs, with an OLED or Mini-LED model coming later down the line. However, Mini-LED screens are slightly cheaper than OLED displays, so that’s certainly a possibility at launch.As for resolution, recent reporting suggests that the console will output 1080p in handheld and 4K when docked. That's much better than the OG Switch. More tenuous “leaks” have intimated that the Switch 2 could also support a faster microSD card standard known as microSD Express. This allows for significantly faster transfer rates than the common UHS-I cards supported by the Switch today. It’s technically been around for several years, but we’ve only recently started to see microSD cards that take advantage of the spec hit the market.We actually tested one of them from SanDisk for our microSD card buying guide and found it could reach sequential read speeds up to around 900 MB/s. With the current Switch, microSD transfer speeds top out closer to 100 MB/s.So, in theory, all of this could bring a sizable boost in load times and general storage performance for the Switch 2 (though it’s still not likely to be on par with the SSDs in the PS5 or Xbox Series X/S). But again, these rumors are far from concrete. It’s also worth noting that microSD Express cards cost significantly more than what we usually see today — the SanDisk card we tested, for instance, starts at $45 for just 128GB of storage.Recently-unearthed FCC filings also indicate that the console will support Wi-Fi 6 and NFC. The latter indicates that the Switch 2 will continue Amiibo integration. How much will the Nintendo Switch 2 cost?We don't have too much information regarding price but we do have plenty of history to work with. The original Nintendo Switch launched at $300, which is pretty much the "magic number" when it comes to Nintendo console releases in recent years. The Wii U also came in at $300. However, there are plenty of rumors circulating that Nintendo could be upping the asking price for the Switch 2. Several analysts are expecting Nintendo to hike the price to at least $400 and possibly even as much as $500. Rising costs of components and development, as well as US tariffs, are likely to mean that the Switch 2 is more expensive than its predecessor. Dipping back into history, there is some precedence for a price uptick. The GameCube was $200 and the Wii was $250. The Wii U and Switch increased to $300 and, well, numbers like to go up. A $400 price tag would make the Switch 2 nearly as expensive as a PS5 and Xbox Series X. That would also put it at the same price as the 256GB LCD Steam Deck. Again, we should get confirmation of the price during the April 2 Nintendo Direct.How well will the Nintendo Switch 2 sell?Even with an expected price increase, Nintendo is likely to sell boatloads of Switch 2 consoles. The company seems to be positioning itself to shatter sales records. Reports suggest that Nintendo wants to have as many units ready to sell as possible on release day. One analyst told Bloomberg that they expected Nintendo to have an inventory of between 6 million and 8 million units at the outset.As Bloomberg notes, the company sold 2.7 million Switch units in that console's first month. Sony's PS4 and PS5 each sold 4.5 million units in their first quarter on the market, though it's worth noting the PS5's early momentum was hindered somewhat by shortages.Nintendo has sold more than 150 million Switch units. Given that many fans are more than ready for an upgrade (and to perhaps give their old Switch to a young relative or sell it on the cheap), the Switch 2 is very likely to go gangbusters right out of the gate.Do we know about any launch games?Not so much. The reveal trailer offered a peek at a new Mario Kart game. Nintendo released Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U over a decade ago and it's been milking that cash cow ever since, having sold more than 64 million copies of the game across that console and the Switch. It's definitely time for a new entry!It's certainly been a long time since we’ve gotten a proper 3D Mario adventure as well, so a new one could be a launch title. That would be one heck of a system seller. Other than that, your guess is as good as ours. Past as prologue, we can expect something from Ubisoft and an off-the-wall title like 1-2-Switch. One report suggested that PowerWash Simulator 2 is bound for the Switch 2, so that's something.If there’s a gimmick or hook involved with the console, we’ll also get a game that takes advantage of that. A dual release of Metroid Prime 4, just like Breath of the Wild and Twilight Princess before that, is also a possibility. It's all but nailed on that we'll learn much more about the Switch 2 launch lineup during the April 2 Nintendo Direct, which starts at 9AM ET. You'll definitely want to set your Alarmo for that one.That's everything we know about the Nintendo Switch 2 today. We'll update this article with rumors we trust and with information we gather directly from sources. Any changes made to the article after its initial publishing will be listed below.Update, January 24, 2025, 12:36 PM ET: This story has been updated to include speculation about price, potential game enhancements and the taste of cartridges. Update, February 5, 2025, 9:30AM ET: This story has been updated to note the time when the April 2 Nintendo Direct starts.Update, February 24, 2025, 12:30 PM ET: This story has been updated to include speculation about storage and information about the new microSD Express standard.Update, March 6, 2025, 2:30PM ET: This story has been updated to note recent FCC filings to indicate the presence of Wi-Fi 6 and NFC support. Update, March 14, 2025, 12:15PM ET: This story has been updated to include pricing and sales speculation from analysts.Update, March 20, 2025, 12:45PM ET: Updated to include a note about the Seattle Mariners new jersey patches featuring Nintendo and the Switch 2.Update, March 27, 2025, 3:50PM ET: Updated to add details about the C button, Nintendo Today! and Virtual Game Cards.Jeff Dunn contributed to this report.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-switch-2-everything-we-know-about-pre-order-plans-specs-pricing-games-and-more-195136485.html?src=rss
