Nintendo announces the Switch 2 [video]

Huh. I guess updated ergonomics / QoL stuff and confirmation of backwards compatibility counts as enough of an update over the last hardware refresh. But zero info on anything that could actually make this worth a buy. Granted, this feels like Nintendo who will do anything to not get dragged into PS/XBOX flops discussions. But without any real upgrade or even games announcements, I suppose most people will keep holding off their purchase decisions for now.

on the other side, it could be a big plus for new comers into the Nintendo Switch platform

New Mario Kart

They supposedly had this console ready to ship a year or even two ago. Rumor is the reason they are releasing it this year is to have a decent catalogue of games lined up for launch and launch window.

I really wonder how big that market can be. I mean, for people who still haven't gotten a switch or steam deck or anything similar until now, how likely is this going to change their mind?

The original Switch was released 7 years ago. I don't think Nintendo needs to justify the upgraded model. It simply is the Nintendo Switch, and we now know they can make it last for a VERY long time. I think that's enough.

That makes it even weirder why they would only show a few short hints of one possible new Mario Kart game. The original switch reveal had glimpses of new Zelda, Mario and even the first portable version of Skyrim.

People who started to look when the Switch was already 3-4 years old, and passed because it's underpowered.

which makes complete sense, no?

The great thing about how Nintendo approaches games is that it is about game design, not triangles per second.

I think they revealed the current Switch this way. 1st a small tease then a Direct with plenty of details.

That is happening on April.

My kids are just getting to the age where they can use a gaming device like this. Obviously I'll get the Switch 2 rather than the Switch.

of course

This is a just first look trailer so yes I think most people have no choice but to hold off on a purchase decision

I saw a larger screen and exclusive titles for the switch 2. As with everything else in gaming I am expecting modest bumps in performance and since this is Nintendo it will sell very well and have Mario and Zelda releases that get 9/10 reviews on all the usual sites.

The gaming industry has been going through these cycles for decades. If you had a previous Nintendo system and still like to play video games, odds are good you’ll end up with one of these sooner or later too.

There’s always someone turning 12.

People who believe this thing will not be underpowered compared to current gen hardware have obviously not followed Nintendo over the past 25 years.

Great in theory, but only really works for first party games and does mean you occasionally end up with unfortunate situations like Tears of the Kingdom where it runs better on an emulator than the actual hardware.

It's only the first reveal. I'm sure they'll be raising the hype with game trailers until the release date.

It works for everyone, provided they have the skills.

I have stop buying most AAA games, because they are GB of useless gameplay, or remakes from remakes of remasters, that is better invested into sponsoring indies.

Coming from a modern console, the first hour of Tears of the Kingdom felt painfully sluggish.

> But zero info on anything that could actually make this worth a buy.

Obvious answer: no more game released on Switch 1 so you want a Switch 2 if you want to play new games.

That's work well enough for Playstation/Xbox.

The difference with the other consoles mentioned is that it's portable, and the time already made clear (with Switch 1 and Steam Deck) there is a massive need.

That is me right here... Plus I have some younger kids who have had fun playing with old Nintendo DSes for now. But their friends often have the Switch and I want the updated graphics plus group play (Mario Kart) so we'll buy at least one of these when it comes out. I've been holding off because the original hardware just seemed a bit wimpy when reading the experiences of people playing Breath of the Wild on it. I'm hoping the new model will have enough power to do full justice to BotW.

One complaint from a catalog of how many games?

This has always been such a weird take for me. I know PC gamers get caught up in hardware arms races but Nintendo handheld consoles have always been about having fun playing cartoony games. Animal crossing doesn’t need much horsepower to trap my kids into putting a thousand hours into their islands.

Nintendo has never needed to compete on frame rate or vRAM to be successful

I mean, it's almost certainly got updated hardware too right? The Tegra in the OG switch is getting pretty long in the tooth. This isn't just a hardware refresh, it's a whole new console

Obviously, new games are still being regularly released for PS4 4+ years after PS5's release. For this reason, I haven't bought a PS5.

Practically, yes, this is the main differentiator. But still it would be interesting to see some specs. Is the GPU 15% better, 50%, what? The switch came out 7 years ago... there is opportunity for some fairly serious performance improvements even in the mobile form factor.

Clearly it's the same basic platform. And I think that's fine - they've really cornered a pretty big niche of mobile (ish), motion controls, family.

I suspect the larger screen size is because more people are using the mobile aspect in their home, not out on the subway or something.

> most people have no choice but to hold off on a purchase decision

Probably all people, right? Who decides to buy the thing based on this sneak peek and then when it comes out and has some deal-breaking flaw says “oh no siree, I already made my decision when I saw the trailer months ago and I’m sticking to it no matter what”?

I'm no Nintendo fan but I still find this criticism unfair as it's simply the design reveal and a date of when more information will be provided (April 2, 2025).

It says in the trailer that they're going to be having a direct for it... on April 2nd.

Tears of the Kingdom is far from the only Switch game with performance issues. Off the top of my head, the newest Pokemon games (and the next newest, to a lesser extent) run like shit on the Switch. I've heard complaints about other games too.

It was underpowered when it was released in 2016, so it really shouldn't be that surprising.

Ooh, thank you for the reminder to see where the state of emulation is. I played Breath of the Wild on both Switch and on PC under emulation, and the difference was night and day. The stuttering on the Switch distracted quite a bit. My PC played in beautiful 4k.

> But still it would be interesting to see some specs. Is the GPU 15% better, 50%, what?

This is obviously more of a teaser than an actual full trailer.

They announced a Nintendo Direct on Feb 2, so I’m sure full/most details will be covered then.

I've been playing TOTK over the last month and have had zero issues running it on my switch (OLED edition).

I don't care what hardware is inside the new Switch 2. It cannot compete with the Steam Deck because the Switch 2 is still made by Nintendo.

Made by Nintendo means that it'll be a super locked down device that only plays games made by Nintendo or a rather small list of 3rd party game makers. Developing for the platform is expensive and requires an extremely lengthy certification process. This means that all the games are reasonably high quality, sure but it also means that small developers or games with some adult content will never make it.

The Steam Deck, on the other hand runs an enormous library of Steam games and new games crop up every day. It also runs Switch 1 games! The barrier to entry is tiny and it's actually possible to mod games which is probably the single most important feature in modern gaming if you want your game to last and be popular for a very long time.

The Steam Deck also runs Linux which means hackers all over the world can make it better. Even simple shell scripts that automate common tasks provide an enormous benefit! You can automate synchronizing your save games between your PC and your Steam Deck wirelessly, for example without much effort because it's just (mostly) normal Linux.

The Steam Deck is general purpose hardware in a portable form factor running a general purpose operating system that's been optimized for (portable) gaming. If you want a feature you can make it happen yourself or ask the monstrously huge (and obsessed) Linux community for assistance.

The Switch is locked-down, application-specific hardware in a portable form factor running an application-specific operating system that's severely locked down and can't be modified or improved in any way by end users. If you want a feature you have to ask Nintendo and pray.

Interesting, as an American, I read the date in the video (02.04.2025) as February 4th, 2025 (I agree that the DD/MM/YYYY format makes more sense, but dates are commonly listed MM/DD/YYYY everywhere here). It makes me realize when doing a worldwide release, it's important to be as explicit on the date as possible.

But Mr. Anderson, how can Tears of the Kingdom run better on an emulator... if no emulators for the system can legally exist?

wrt portability - this console will be competing with a healthy market of PC handhelds, which Xbox is preparing to enter soon.

In a couple years we'll have a new console war between Switch 2, Steamdeck 2, and Xbox portable.

This is where your first point is critical. People who want to play Mario/Zelda/Pokemon etc will buy the console, regardless of form factor.

Developers are asking for it. It shares a market with bigger consoles but in terms of capabilities it's closer to a tablet.

It's hard to cross-port from PC/PS/Xbox to Switch because it is so far behind. Not impossible, of course, but if you're choosing to target Switch from the start you're often committing to building your game on all platforms without using some modern technologies or new engine features. If you're backporting from a more powerful platform then you might need to make significant (expensive) changes to get it running.

It's mostly a developer cost calculation, but one that can keep new titles away from the Switch.

(Could GTA VI run on Switch 2? I'm pretty sure Nintendo would want that even if it's not their traditional user base.)

I don't doubt it will be released.

Im sure there are more details in this video for someone more discerning, too. My point is that I didn't find there to be much information in the trailer because it's clearly mostly a refresh. And I'm not complaining about that. Nor am I complaining about the nature of teasers.

"This year we put a 12 on the box"

Again, from how many?

And if we are going to start counting frame drops as argument against focusing on gameplay instead of triangles per second, there is no safe platform then.

They announced a direct on 2nd April.

Why do people by a Switch? Mario (Kart), Zelda, and Pokémon.

Those three franchises represent a huge percent of sales. 70%?

Illegal emulation is not a fair play here.

Nintendo's "moat" is their exclusive IP and single-screen multi-player party games, which other platforms have largely forsaken. Their competition is still mostly PlayStation and Xbox, too. (Steam Deck sales are a rounding error.) So portability is still an edge for now.

I do hope Steam Decks become more mainstream, though.

I don't think the number of games in the catalogue matters in this discussion? There are hundreds of Switch games that perform great, and I don't care because I will never play them.

When I play a game and there are frame drops, stuttering, lag, dropped inputs, etc., it reduces my fun just as much as if the game were poorly designed. Maybe that's not the case for you, maybe you don't care, but I do, so do others.

I don't think Nintendo should make a console that rivals the best machine money can buy. I do think they took too long to refresh the hardware in the Switch lineup and their customers are worse off for it.

People that hardly know Nintendo yes.

People that know Nintendo, buy those and plenty of others.

So better not buy any computing device.

Having been through the demoscene and home computing days since their birth, I can only laugh when calling Switch underpowered.

Those folks would never played any GB generation device, the whole line of devices.

Nor are old enough to have lived through 8 and 16 bit home computers days.

Those developers should spend less time with Unreal and Unity, and dust off some Michael Abrash books.

Yet its sales leave the SteamDeck miles behind, and its future is kind of uncertain with a dependency on Windows games translation, that currently Microsoft happens to tolerate.

I was about to say...

I'll geek out on the specs once they're leaked or announced or reverse engineered, but also I sorta don't care. It's going to be a solid upgrade over the Switch 1, which is already a lot of fun as long as you're not looking to play contemporary AAA titles from other systems.

But then I thought...

Hmmm. If it's powerful enough to essentially be "portable PS4 era level hardware" then that really increases the number of quality third-party titles we'll see ported over. Sure, they won't be latest and greatest PS5 era level AAA stuff. But they might be last generation's AAA stuff and that could be a very very very solid addition to this thing.

We know the first party Nintendo games will be good, so, the ability (or not) to actually get good ports from other systems (even if not the latest) is pretty compelling.

Of course, but that doesn't negate OP's comment that it runs better emulated still.

> So better not buy any computing device.

I don't have this issue on other computing devices. My PC runs all the games I want to play on it very well. I can also upgrade the hardware whenever I want, unlike in my Switch.

> Having been through the demoscene and home computing days since their birth, I can only laugh when calling Switch underpowered.

What does this have to do with the fact that the Switch has performance issues with first party Nintendo games? Hardware power only makes sense when talking about the software you want to run on it. The Switch is underpowered for software released exclusively for it, by the company that makes it. It's not underpowered for NES games, sure, but neither is an NES.

The Switch 1 is certainly underpowered compared to what it's competing with in the market with right now. That's why Nintendo is making a switch 2.

I'm quite certain that lot of people have already decided to buy it!

Nintendo's stuff isn't for everybody, but if you do like it... they truly do have a strong 40 year history of doing their thing and getting it mostly right nearly all of the time.

So for many people their default action is "buy the next Nintendo console every 5-10 years, because I would like the play the next 5-10 years of Mario/Zelda/etc games."

It's not unconditional love (Nintendo was in a tough place after the Wii U flop) but realistically, I think a lot of people have decided they're going to get one of these unless there's some big fiasco.

ISO 8601 is the only correct date format.

I don't care if people laugh at me when I sign documents and date them with "2025-01-16"

> But without any real upgrade or even games announcements, I suppose most people will keep holding off their purchase decisions for now.

It's not for sale yet—they haven't even announced when it will be for sale. So what purchasing decision are you talking about?

People always have this argument that it's hard to port for it because it's so underpowered. But ultimately, games like Balatro or Neon White absolutely shine on Switch, while extremely graphic intensive games like Indiana Jones and his Big Circle cannot run

Nintendo has correctly decided that if it can attract all the low requirements indie titles plus offer its own games, then it has an extremely compelling product. Which it does, it outsold Sony and Microsoft combined.

Same here until I saw the date below that spelled out April 2nd :)

It's not "safe from any frame drops" vs. "has frame drops." How often they drop to what framerate for how long is what makes up the experience. (Similarly, I don't need games on my Switch to look as high-fidelity as my 4090 renders them on my PC, but more textures/reflections would still be welcome over less.)

That's why I agree with what some others in the thread have said-- we'll need to wait for either numbers or, absolutely, some real-world experience to know how big of an improvement we can actually expect to get from an upgrade.

Aside from missing out on the last software dev cycle's worth of hardware updates, unless they've continued to bump the specs to match what's become available in the meantime. (I know the line does need to be drawn somewhere.)

You've misunderstood the point, it's cost not coding ability.

Modern PCs, PS5 and Series X have greater resources available and newer hardware that allows for more advanced shaders, among other things, which are simply not performant or even possible on the Switch.

If you want to support these features AND support Switch or low-powered devices as well, you are making the business decision to build and maintain two codepaths and to duplicate, rework and maintain a second set of assets.

The cost often doesn't work out, so the choice is either support Switch and don't have a game that looks as good as contemporaries (a reasonable choice for indies, but graphics do sell games), or to ignore the Switch (maybe hire a studio to back-port it later if it does well enough).

Games companies and Nintendo would love for more big titles to be on Switch.

For sure, but they would absolutely want more titles to be available, and consumers are asking for their favourite titles to be on their favourite console.