It’s been more than seven years since Nintendo released its first Switch console back in 2017 and rumours of its successor – the Nintendo Switch 2 – have been mounting.
We’ve seen a couple of mid-cycle releases, including the handheld-only Switch Lite and the Switch OLED, which included a bigger, brighter screen, more storage and an extended battery life. However, nothing has been quite big enough to qualify as a sequel to the OG Nintendo Switch.
While it was previously believed that the Nintendo Switch 2 would arrive toward the end of 2024, a more recent report from VGC suggests that Nintendo has pushed the launch back to Q1 of 2025.
Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about the Nintendo Switch 2 based on all the latest news and rumours.
Release date
The Nintendo Switch 2 is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2025. This is according to the aforementioned report by VGC based on a post by Brazilian journalist Pedro Henrique Lutti Lippe, who, in turn, received this information from five separate sources.
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has since stated that the company will make an announcement regarding the successor to the Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year, which wraps up in March 2025.
More recently, Metro reported that the CEO of a video game accessories manufacturer had offered more details regarding the launch. Blade CEO Ruben Mercado stated in a podcast for Spanish website Vandal that the next Nintendo console is “done” and “ready”, sharing that Blade has access to near-final versions of the hardware.
More specifically, the CEO shared that the Switch successor will launch in either March or April of 2025 depending on Nintendo’s financials for the current year.
Price
Nintendo has been tight-lipped about how much this new console will cost. With the original Nintendo Switch priced at £279/$299 and the Switch Lite costing £199/$199, we expect a sequel to cost over £300/$300.
VGC reports that the Switch successor could launch with an LCD screen, instead of an OLED screen, in a bid to bring down costs. That doesn’t necessarily mean the Switch 2 will be more affordable than the £299/$349.99 Nintendo Switch OLED, since the former is expected to have more powerful specs.
We will update this article when we know more about the pricing.
Specs
The Nintendo Switch 2 is expected to boast improved specs over its predecessors, although we don’t have any concrete details on the internals yet.
Reuters has reported that the Switch 2 will be powered by a new Nvidia custom design processor, although there’s no official word on what kind of performance we can expect from it. Since the original console is powered by the Nvidia Tegra X1 processor, it’s no surprise that Nintendo and Nvidia could be working together once again.
The next iteration of the Nintendo Switch 2 has long been expected to support a 4K resolution. Bloomberg has also reported that the future console will support Nvidia’s DLSS technology. Put simply, DLSS uses artificial intelligence and clever upscaling technology to boost the frame rate of a game without impacting the visual quality. DLSS is currently used by Nvidia’s high-end graphics cards like the RTX 4000 and RTX 3000 series and has been well received by gamers.
DLSS would make sense on a console like the Switch as it could help to make up for the limited hardware and boost the frame rate high enough to make 4K gaming possible.
Taking a closer look at the 4K rumours, Bloomberg alleged that the company is asking developers to make new Nintendo Switch games 4K ready in docked mode. Bloomberg also claims that up to 11 game studios have had access to an official development kit that featured 4K support. Although it’s possible that this was for the rumoured Nintendo Switch Pro which was seemingly shelved in favour of the Nintendo Switch OLED.
This means it’s difficult to know whether these scrapped plans will be re-used for the eventual successor of the Nintendo Switch. It’s entirely possible that Nintendo decides to go in a different direction altogether.
VGC also reports that the Nintendo Switch 2 will support ray tracing, allowing it to generate realistic lighting effects, which the PS5 and Xbox Series X are capable of.
Nintendo has also filed for a patent on new Hall Effect-style joysticks, which could possibly eradicate the existing Joy-Con drift issue on current Switch consoles. This is because the joystick’s physical mechanisms would move to a magnet-based system, removing the chance of erosion over extended periods of time.
VGC reports that Nintendo could boost the storage for the Switch 2 in order to keep up with the inflating sizes of modern games, and will likely retain the cartridge slot in order for it to continue running physical games.
While it’s possible that the Switch 2 will support a higher 4K resolution, VGC suggests that Nintendo will stick with an LCD screen rather than an OLED. This will apparently be done to keep down costs, although we suspect an OLED iteration could launch a few years after.
Games
Since the new console has yet to be announced, there are no official games for the Switch 2 yet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t speculate on what could be arriving.
Nintendo has been suspiciously quiet about a potential follow up to Super Mario Odyssey. Odyssey was released fairly early into the Switch’s life cycle, and there’s no sign of a sequel to Mario’s globe-trotting adventure which might indicate it as being earmarked as a Nintendo Switch 2 launch title. Fans have also been clamouring for a new Mario Kart game, since Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was the last iteration and launched back in 2017.
A report from website Universo Nintendo suggests that the Switch 2 will be backwards compatible, allowing you to play your collection of physical and digital games on the next-gen console. What’s more, it’s possible that older games could benefit from the performance boost, potentially improving the visuals and loading times.
That’s everything we know about the potential Nintendo Switch 2 so far, but we’ll be updating this article as soon as we hear more.
