Nintendo Switch 2 Preview: All You Need to Know

The Switch is Nintendo’s best-selling household system of all time and is renowned for its extensive collection of games—a extraordinary change from the mediocre Wii U before it. But it’s been eight decades since the Switch launched, and viewers are getting restless for Nintendo’s next big thing.

Thankfully, it’s on its way. Nintendo officially revealed the Switch 2 system in January 2025 following years of rumors and leaks, as well as a few standard acknowledgments that the next-generation model was coming.

From what we know publicly and what’s been broadly reported, the Switch leader will pack in more energy than the initial while maintaining its winning combination of home unit and portable features. All you need to know is provided here.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is what?

It’s official: Nintendo is making a son to its wildly common Switch system. Granted, that’s not surprising to anyone who has followed the video game industry for more than a second. However, we presently know what is about to happen.

Nintendo shared the first official trailer movie below on January 16, 2025, sharing some important details for the Switch 2 while still playing cautious on others. Without a doubt, we’ve learned a ton from this picture, but there is still much more to learn.

However, this is not the first official comment made by Nintendo. On May 7, 2024, Nintendo’s standard business account tweeted the following statement:

” This is Furukawa, the President of Nintendo. Within the next fiscal year, we may make an announcement about the Nintendo Switch’s leader. Since we first announced the existence of the Nintendo Switch back in March 2015, it will have been over nine times. Please be aware that during the Nintendo Switch assessment there won’t be a mention of the Nintendo Switch son. We will hold a Nintendo Direct in June regarding the Nintendo Switch program lineup for the latter third of 2024.

Nintendo was evidently planning for what’s to come out even before the May 2024 statement. Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said in response to a lover problem in June 2023,” We want to make the transition from Nintendo Switch to the next-generation system, in order to facilitate the use of the Nintendo Account.”

When will the Nintendo Switch 2 come out?

Studies had long suggested a discharge date of 2024, but that didn’t happen. All we now have is a” 2025″ release window now that the official trailer has been released.

We can produce some educated guesses around, however. Nintendo will conduct a Clear livestream on April 2, 2025, apparently to share a lot more information about the console, and then conduct hands-on events in Dallas, Los Angeles, and New York throughout the month until April 27. The last event to be held is expected to come to an end.

So we have no idea when the Switch 2 will be available to purchase. Maybe a May or June fall makes sense, therefore, but we definitely won’t know for sure until that Strong broadcast in April.

Any shortages that arise with in-demand console launches are inevitable, but Nintendo’s president claims the company is presently considering ways to reduce the impact the following time.

In a consultative Q&amp, A from June 2024 that was translated from Chinese by , Shuntaro Furukawa stated that Nintendo is considering onward with supply problems and looking into how local laws and regulations might help hinder the resale market where many consoles are sucked up and sold into at exorbitant prices. Furthermore, the firm doesn’t anticipate significant component shortages that could slow console manufacturing.

This situation has now been resolved, he said, despite the fact that we were unable to produce enough Nintendo Switch hardware last year and the year before due to a shortage of semiconductor components. We do not believe that the production of the successor model will be significantly impacted by the production shortage at this time.

How much will the Nintendo Switch 2 cost?

We are yet to learn anything from Nintendo on this front, according to the official release. However, there has been a lot of speculating.

The original Switch launched for$ 300 in 2017, with the purely handheld Switch Lite rolling out for$ 200 in 2019. The Nintendo Switch OLED model, which included some premium improvements, including a larger, bolder screen, was released in 2021 for$ 350.

A leaker who s claimed in October 2023 that the Switch 2’s price point would be$ 449 for the base model and$ 400 for a version without cartridge support that is entirely digital. The official Switch 2 trailer did not showcase or point to any fully digital model, however, so that may not actually be in the works.

The Switch 2 will enter a rapidly tense handheld market, which includes a number of PC gaming units. For instance, Valve’s popular Steam Deck starts at$ 399 for the basic model with an LCD screen, while more robust models with OLED panels start at$ 549.

What will the Nintendo Switch 2 look like?

After a ton of speculation, the majority of which was accurate, we can finally say that The Switch 2 mostly appears to be a bigger Switch.

Nintendo, thankfully, keeps the Switch’s smash-success hybrid design alive by providing a handheld that isn’t difficult to dock for TV use. At its core, the Switch 2 doesn’t change much. However, the trailer and the current official imagery do contain some notable adjustments and improvements that we can’t see from the trailer and official imagery.

First of all, the screen and the Joy-Con attachment controllers are unquestionably bigger. If we had to guess on screen size, we’d estimate somewhere around 7-8 inches, compared to 6.2 inches on the normal Switch. However, official specifications have not yet been made by Nintendo.

The original launch model’s bold red and blue Joy-Con designs are replaced by the sleek black or dark gray design, which includes red and blue accents under the analog sticks and in the connective tissue between the console (screen ) unit and controllers.

These Joy-Con controllers will plug in via an adapter port and be held in place with what appear to be magnets rather than slide into place. There had been significant speculation that the Switch 2 will use electromagnets to keep the controllers in place. The Joy-Cons have a new release button that, according to the trailer, causes them to be disconnected from the unit by a tiny plunger.

Once plugged into the wrist strap attachments, the Switch 2 Joy-cons can be used like a computer mouse on a flat surface, according to an a new sensor on the device. This appears to confirm speculation regarding mouse-like functionality, enabling more advanced control schemes for games like shooters, strategy sims, and maybe even creative apps.

In the trailer, Nintendo even shows the Joy-Cons whizzing around like tiny techie mice. However, the right Joy-Con appears to have abandoned the infrared camera from the original model, which was hardly ever used by many games in any way.

Other interesting details from the trailer: The new kickstand is much larger and hopefully sturdier than that of the original Switch, allowing for more freestanding positions. Additionally, there are now two USB-C ports, one top and one bottom. Is the additional one intended to allow for possibly brand-new accessories?

And we know that the Switch 2 will continue to use the same physical cartridges from the Switch—yes, enabling backwards compatability—along with downloadable games.

The Nintendo Switch 2’s power level will be unknown.

The one game from the trailer didn’t give a great sense of a visual upgrade, and Nintendo hasn’t shared official specs yet. But we certainly expect a notable step up from what the original Switch could handle.

According to reports, Nintendo won’t attempt to compete with the PlayStation 5 or Xbox One as the industry standard for home consoles and will instead create a gaming experience with a little less fidelity. That has been the norm for Nintendo for a while. Even so, it sounds like a significant improvement over the Switch.

Leaked documents from major game developer Activision in September 2023 revealed that the company had evaluated the hardware in late 2022, leading to the prediction that the Switch replacement would have the same amount of power as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One hardware.

Although those are 10-year-old home consoles, they would still be a significant improvement over what the original Switch can handle. The Switch’s hybrid home-plus-handheld model also means that Nintendo has to keep in mind a slim form factor and battery life expectations, so it’s unlikely that we’d even see a Switch-like device with top-end internals at a reasonable price.

At the Gamescom conference in August 2023, Nintendo reportedly showed developers private tech demos for the Switch 2 and that it used an improved version of the 2017 video game franchise’s hit The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as a demonstration of the new hardware’s capabilities.

backed that claim, adding that Nintendo also made use of the Matrix Awakens tech demo from Epic Games for Unreal Engine 5 that had ray tracing ( realistic lighting effects ) and AI-driven visual scaling tricks enabled. Another rumor points to the use of “ray reconstruction”, a less hardware-intensive way of delivering ray tracing effects with the help of AI, via Nvidia’s DLSS 3.5 tech.

Overall, this could indicate that hardware is actually more advanced than the PS4 or Xbox One, even if it doesn’t quite match the standards of the newest PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. However, Felipe Lima, a renowned leaker, suggested that the device had 12GB of RAM, which is more than the Xbox Series S console’s 10GB. This suggests that the device may be reasonably well equipped.

A February 2024 report from&nbsp, cites a source claiming that the Switch 2 will use a custom Nvidia chip, much like the original Switch hardware did.

According to a January 2024 report from Bloom, Omdia analyst Hiroshi Hayase, Nintendo has chosen a sizable 8-inch display for the Switch 2, and the display will use LCD technology as other reports have previously stated. Nintendo did not comment. The current Switch OLED model has a 7-inch screen, so this would be larger than any original Switch device.

Mobapad also mentions an 8-inch display, which it claims was upgraded from the original Switch’s 720p HD resolution to the new Switch’s 1080p Full HD resolution.

What games are planned for the Nintendo Switch 2?

We know one for sure: a new Mario Kart, revealed in the Switch 2 trailer. Although earlier rumors suggested a name for Mario Kart X, which was responsible for the Wii U and later Switch’s launch of Mario Kart Tour, the game’s official name is still unclear at this time. Considering the series ‘ mainline entries, Mario Kart 9 would make sense.

Whatever its final name, the new Mario Kart resembles what we’ve come to expect from the series, though the brief tease does reveal 24 starting spots on the track, which could result in a ton of extra racers.

You can bet that we’ll see Nintendo’s tried-and-true franchises like Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and many others in the mix before long, though Nintendo hasn’t shown anything else besides Mario Kart just yet. There have been rumors that point to a new Donkey Kong or Ubisoft’s yet-unannounced Far Cry sequel, but those are currently unconfirmed.

Will Grand Theft Auto 6 be available for Switch 2 after Rockstar Games ‘ official reveal of it for PlayStation 5 and Xbox One? And perhaps more pressingly, will the Switch 2 be powerful enough to run it?

Of course, there isn’t an official announcement for now, and there won’t be until Nintendo actually releases its next console. Despite the leaks so far, the technical experts at are unsure whether the Switch 2 will have enough power to handle Rockstar’s upcoming big game.

” I’d love to say it would happen. In a YouTube video (via&nbsp, ), founder Richard Leadbetter said,” I don’t think it will, realistically.” It has a mobile chipset, it says. We’ve seen a lot of amazing things on the Switch 1. Switch 2 will be significantly better, a proper generational leap, and in many ways forward-looking. However, GTA 6’s content may not be available until later in the year.

” It seems a step beyond”, he added,” and out of character with what we know about Rockstar’s M. O”.

Will it play original Switch games?

Yes! Nintendo tweeted on November 5, 2024 that the” successor to the Nintendo Switch” will also be able to play original Switch software. The gaming giant dissected any doubts about Switch owners making a graceful transition to the new device despite previously being reported and rumored. On Switch 2, the Switch Online service will also be available again.

In the January 2025 trailer, Nintendo stated that digital games will also be supported, and that the Switch 2 will support the same model. A physical copy of Super Mario Bros. Wonder was shown in the trailer. There was, however, a caveat: Some games might not be fully supported or functional.

What does that imply? While we don’t know for sure yet, it’s likely that some games designed for the size and shape of the original Joy-Cons—like fitness game Ring Fit Adventure, which had players snap their controllers into an accessory shell—simply won’t work with the Switch 2 controllers. Additionally, the Switch 2 hardware will no longer support the IR camera on the original right Joy-Con, unlike the 1-2 Switch, which is one of the few games that did this.

The Switch games will simply run as-is, or will they take advantage of the expected performance bump, whether it’s an automatic upgrade or one that developers might need to code and patch in.

A report from in February 2024 suggested that Nintendo will let users play their original Switch games ( both physical and digital ) in the Switch 2 hardware with enhancements. Developers will reportedly need to update their games to get these upgrades, which means not every game will need to take advantage of the Switch 2’s increased power.