Because the world turns, so do the console generations. The Nintendo Swap is over seven years old, so it’s due for a refresh. Nintendo Swap 2 rumors have been swirling for years, however now we’ve some indicators of life. The corporate officially revealed the sequel to its most profitable dwelling console ever in a short trailer on January 16.
The Swap 2 appears to be like functionally similar to the unique system, albeit with a bigger show, magnetic Pleasure-Cons and a sleeker design. The corporate additionally reaffirmed that the upcoming console can be backwards appropriate with Swap video games.
Whereas the reveal did verify some rumors and have a couple of attention-grabbing particulars for individuals who had been paying shut consideration, Nintendo continues to be largely retaining its playing cards near its chest. We’ll have to attend till a particular Nintendo Direct at 9AM ET on April 2 for all of the juicy info. Annoyingly, that date is a Wednesday and never a Two-sday.
The Nintendo Swap 2 was introduced on January 16
The rumor mill had heavily suggested that Nintendo would pull again the curtain on the Swap 2 on January 16, and that turned out to be the case.
The corporate hasn’t modified the core type issue. It is a transportable console with removable Pleasure-Cons. The Swap 2 might be positioned in a dock for big-screen gaming. There are some vital variations from the unique console, nevertheless.
The obvious one is that the next-gen Pleasure-Cons will not slide into place mechanically. As an alternative, they will connect to the primary unit magnetically. There’s a small connector that is seemingly used to cost the controllers and maybe take away the necessity to hyperlink them by way of Bluetooth. It is unclear at this level if Pleasure-Cons from the unique system can be appropriate with the Swap 2.
One different huge (and really welcome) change is the addition of a second USB-C port on the highest of the machine. That ought to make it a lot simpler to plug in equipment whereas the Swap 2 is docked. It is nice to see that Nintendo has stored the headphone jack as properly. Let’s simply hope that Bluetooth headphone help is dwell from the bounce this time and Nintendo does not go away everybody waiting four years for that characteristic.
The kickstand is getting an improve as properly. As with the Swap OLED, it spans the size of the console. However, in accordance with the trailer, this one appears to be like totally adjustable, so you possibly can tweak the viewing angle to 1 that works for you.
Nonetheless, there are nonetheless a terrific many unknowns relating to the upcoming console. We do not actually know the specs but, or what kind of show it makes use of. We additionally do not know something about battery life, the UI or launch video games. We’ll seemingly study a complete lot on April 2.
When will the Nintendo Swap 2 come out?
2025. That is all we all know for positive at this level.
It is extremely unlikely that Nintendo will launch the console earlier than the devoted Direct on April 2, and never solely as a result of that is at the beginning of Nintendo’s subsequent monetary 12 months. Nonetheless, accent producer Genki, which has been a serious supply of leaks in latest months, claims the console will be released in April. Different studies have put the discharge window someday in June.
In any case, we should always study the discharge date throughout the April 2 Direct if we’ve not already by then.
When can I strive the Nintendo Swap 2?
Nintendo is planning a worldwide roadshow to let avid gamers go hands-on with the console. These occasions begin in New York and Paris on April 3-6, with others going down all through the next two months. That lends credence to some recommendations that Nintendo will launch the Swap 2 in June.
Ticket registration for the Swap 2 Expertise occasions within the US (in New York, Los Angeles and Paris) starts on January 17 at 3PM ET and can stay open till January 26. A Nintendo Account is required to enroll. Nintendo will randomly choose the recipients of the free tickets.
The complete checklist of Nintendo Swap 2 Expertise occasions is as follows:
North America:
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New York, April 4-6, 2025
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Los Angeles, April 11-13, 2025
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Dallas, April 25-27, 2025
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Toronto, April 25-27, 2025
Europe:
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Paris, April 4-6, 2025
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London, April 11-13, 2025
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Milan, April 25-27, 2025
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Berlin, April 25-27, 2025
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Madrid, Might 9/11, 2025
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Amsterdam, Might 9/11, 2025
Oceania:
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Melbourne, Might 10-11, 2025
Asia:
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Tokyo (Makuhari), April 26-27, 2025
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Seoul, Might 31-June 1, 2025
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Hong Kong, To be introduced
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Taipei, To be introduced
Will the Nintendo Swap 2 have some weirdness?
All the things we have seen and thus far about this console has been pretty, properly, conventional. It appears to be like like the unique Swap, however higher. That is superior, however will there be any of that unpredictable Nintendo magic? Possibly! There are two puzzling additions that people cannot make disguise nor hair of.
Genki, the equipment producer, simply revealed a touchdown web page for his or her Nintendo Swap 2 equipment. This touchdown web page encompasses a video that features a very detailed have a look at a Swap 2 mockup. pic.twitter.com/Db7RSk4YlQ
— Bob Wulff (@BobWulff) January 8, 2025
Eager eyes could have observed a brand new button on the underside of the appropriate Pleasure-Con. It it not but clear what this does. May it provoke voice chat throughout gameplay? May it calibrate the controllers? May it create a room-sized hologram of Bowser in your front room? We’ll have to attend and see.
Now onto the up to date Pleasure-Cons. There seems to be a brand new sensor on the connecting facet of every controller. It appears to be like a whole lot like an optical sensor, which is what a pc mouse makes use of. This has led to hypothesis that gamers will be capable to flip the Pleasure-Con over and use it like a mouse. Of notice: the trailer reveals the Pleasure-Cons transferring alongside a flat floor, connector facet down and looking out suspiciously like a mouse.
However why would anybody even need this? I can consider three phrases. New Mario Paint.
Genki reveal isnt a mockup, its straight up simply the Swap 2, optical sensor is actually flashing on this shot @Stealth40k #Switch2 pic.twitter.com/COeLsonqMd
— Ash (@Ashinarii) January 8, 2025
Mouse management isn’t the one “too unusual for any firm however Nintendo” rumor floating round. A patent filed by the corporate suggests you possibly can swap the Swap 2’s Pleasure-Cons, snapping them onto both facet of the console. That will align with the magnetic Pleasure-Con attachment scheme.
However very like the bizarre mouse rumors, it doesn’t essentially align with, properly, any logical purpose for why you’d wish to do this. The patent suggests it might permit for extra person selection in the place the headphone jack is. However because it’s Nintendo, the corporate that introduced us Labo cardboard peripherals and the Recreation Boy Advance e-reader attachment, we’ve to surprise if there are… quirkier designs at hand.
Is the Nintendo Swap 2 backwards appropriate?
The corporate confirmed in November 2024 that the Nintendo Switch 2 will be backwards compatible. It would additionally characteristic entry to Nintendo On-line, so customers will be capable to play all of these outdated retro titles.
Within the preliminary Nintendo Swap 2 press launch, Nintendo reiterated that bodily and digital Swap video games will work on the brand new system. Nonetheless, it famous that “sure Nintendo Swap video games will not be supported on or totally appropriate with Nintendo Swap 2.” Extra particulars about which video games these are can be revealed later.
Will outdated video games be enhanced in any approach?
The unique Swap has, to place it mildly, struggled to run some of the late-generation software that is come down the pike. May these video games be enhanced to benefit from the elevated horsepower of the Swap 2? We don’t know. We additionally do not know if any of those releases will obtain graphical upgrades, maybe benefiting from upscaling tech.
What is going to the cartridges style like?
You might do not forget that the unique Swap cartridges taste absolutely awful. This was on objective, to discourage people from placing the video games of their mouth. Will the successor comply with swimsuit and proceed to dip cartridges in a foul-tasting bitter coating? Solely time will inform.
What about specs?
The rumors relating to specs are in all places, so it’s robust to pin down. We all know one factor for positive: It’ll be extra highly effective than the traditional Swap {hardware}, which was already antiquated again in 2017. One analyst allegedly obtained a maintain of a spec sheet from the Korean United Each day Information that mentioned the Swap 2 would boast an eight-core Cortex-A78AE processor, 8GB of RAM, and 64GB of inner eMMC storage. This tracks for me, as these specs are about as underpowered in 2024 as the unique Swap was in 2017. Nonetheless, some studies do indicate that the console will embody 12GB of RAM.
One other supply means that the eight-core CPU can be packaged inside an NVIDIA-produced Tegra239 SoC (system on a chip). Given the present Swap runs on an NVIDIA chip, that makes a variety of sense. The CPU can be extra highly effective, nevertheless it’s the Swap 2’s new GPU that can be a serious differentiator. It is all-but-confirmed that the Swap 2 will help DLSS, NVIDIA’s “deep studying supersampling” upscaling tech, which might permit the console to render video games at a low decision internally whereas outputting a high-resolution picture. (Enjoyable truth: We truly wrote about how perfect DLSS was for the Nintendo Switch 2 when the expertise was introduced alongside the RTX 20 collection again in 2018.)
There are nonetheless questions concerning the Swap 2 and DLSS: Will the system help newer DLSS features like frame generation? Will present video games be routinely tidied up by NVIDIA’s algorithm? Whatever the precise implementation, DLSS upscaling can be an enormous leap over the rudimentary methods accessible to Nintendo Swap builders.
As for the show, there are numerous conflicting rumors. Early studies from strong sources instructed the Swap 2 would have an 8-inch show LCD show. The Swap 2’s show actually appears to be like bigger than that of the unique Swap in a side-by-side comparability within the reveal trailer. Some people have nervous that the Swap follow-up may actually be too big, particularly for teenagers.
Sure analysts have instructed this is able to be an OLED display, whereas others have mentioned it will be a Mini-LED display. A Mini-LED show is mainly an LCD show that has a backlight manufactured from (shock!) mini-LEDs slightly than edge lighting. This permits for native dimming, making the blacks extra black. I’m hedging my bets right here. I believe it’ll be a normal LCD, to chop prices, with an OLED or Mini-LED mannequin coming later down the road. Nonetheless, Mini-LED screens are barely cheaper than OLED shows, in order that’s actually a risk at launch.
As for decision, latest reporting means that the console will output 1080p in handheld and 4K when docked. That is significantly better than the OG Swap.
Extra tenuous “leaks” have intimated that the Swap 2 might additionally help a quicker microSD card normal referred to as microSD Specific. This permits for significantly faster switch charges than the widespread UHS-I playing cards supported by the Swap at present. It’s technically been around for a number of years, however we’ve solely not too long ago began to see microSD playing cards that benefit from the spec hit the market.
We truly examined one of them from SanDisk for our microSD card buying guide and located it might attain sequential learn speeds as much as round 900 MB/s. With the present Swap, microSD transfer speeds high out nearer to 100 MB/s.
So, in idea, all of this might deliver a large increase in load occasions and common storage efficiency for the Swap 2 (although it’s nonetheless not more likely to be on par with the SSDs within the PS5 or Xbox Collection X/S). However once more, these rumors are removed from concrete. It’s additionally price noting that microSD Specific playing cards price considerably greater than what we often see at present — the SanDisk card we examined, for example, begins at $45 for simply 128GB of storage.
Just lately-unearthed FCC filings additionally point out that the console will support WiFi 6 and NFC. The latter signifies that the Swap 2 will proceed Amiibo integration.
How a lot will the Nintendo Swap 2 price?
We do not have an excessive amount of info relating to value however we do have loads of historical past to work with. The unique Nintendo Swap launched at $300, which is just about the “magic quantity” relating to Nintendo console releases in recent times. The Wii U additionally got here in at $300.
Nonetheless, there are many rumors circulating that Nintendo could possibly be upping the asking value for the Swap 2. Quite a few shops have reported it’ll be $400, or doubtlessly even more expensive. Nonetheless, the identical analysts who say the console can be $400 had been additionally pretty sure it will be out by the tip of 2024 and, properly, that did not occur.
Dipping again into historical past, there may be some priority for a value uptick. The GameCube was $200 and the Wii was $250. The Wii U and Swap elevated to $300 and, properly, numbers prefer to go up. A $400 price ticket would make it practically as costly as a PS5 and Xbox Collection X. That will additionally put it on the identical value because the 256GB LCD Steam Deck.
Once more, we should always get affirmation of the worth throughout the April 2 Nintendo Direct.
Can we find out about any launch video games?
Not a lot. The reveal trailer supplied a peek at a brand new Mario Kart sport. Nintendo launched Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U over a decade in the past and it has been milking that money cow ever since, having offered greater than 64 million copies of the sport throughout that console and the Swap. It is positively time for a brand new entry!
It is actually been a long time since we’ve gotten a correct 3D Mario journey as properly, so a brand new one could possibly be a launch title. That will be one heck of a system vendor. Aside from that, your guess is nearly as good as mine. Previous as prologue, we will anticipate one thing from Ubisoft and an off-the-wall title like 1-2-Swap.
If there’s a gimmick or hook concerned with the console, we’ll additionally get a sport that takes benefit of that. A twin launch of Metroid Prime 4, identical to Breath of the Wild and Twilight Princess earlier than that, can also be a risk.
It is all however nailed on that we’ll study rather more concerning the Swap 2 launch lineup throughout the April 2 Nintendo Direct, which begins at 9AM ET. You will positively wish to set your Alarmo for that one.
That is every thing we all know concerning the Nintendo Swap 2 at present. We’ll replace this text with rumors we belief and with info we collect instantly from sources. Any adjustments made to the article after its preliminary publishing can be listed under.
Replace, February 24, 2025, 12:30 PM ET: This story has been up to date to incorporate hypothesis about storage and details about the brand new microSD Specific normal.
Replace, January 24, 2025, 12:36 PM ET: This story has been up to date to incorporate hypothesis about value, potential sport enhancements and the style of cartridges.
Replace, February 5, 2025, 9:30AM ET: This story has been up to date to notice the time when the April 2 Nintendo Direct begins.
Replace, March 6, 2025, 2:30PM ET: This story has been up to date to notice latest FCC filings to point the presence of WiFi 6 and NFC help.
Jeff Dunn contributed to this report.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-switch-2-is-launching-soon-heres-everything-we-know-so-far-153308958.html?src=rss
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