Nintendo Switch 2 (5th June 2025)

[Hero-of-Time]

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Nintendo fully revealed the Nintendo Switch 2 last week, including information about the system's UI, the new GameChat feature, and more. However, one feature that fans were hoping for more information on was the potential inclusion of an achievement system.

When asked by Polygon if the new system will break from Nintendo tradition and introduce system-wide rewards for playing games, Nintendo's vice president of player and product experience, Bill Trinen, said, "Nope."

Booooooo. I suppose it's for the best. They would probably charge for them as well. 

 

[drahkon]

3 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Booooooo. I suppose it's for the best. They would probably charge for them as well. 

"Earn up to 10 Achievements every month. Now included in NSO for an additional 3 bucks!"

[Julius]

1 minute ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Bill Trinen, said, "Nope."

[darksnowman]

Trinen missed a trick not asking IGN in their big Nintendo Switch 2 interview with him if they are rebranding Nintendo Voice Chat to Nintendo GameChat.

Off the topic of Switch 2, I hope they asked him if he (and any others) will be sending out their Miis again for the new Tomodachi Life game.

[Julius]

On 1/7/2025 at 1:29 PM, Julius said:

I want to know if we're getting a legit D-pad and if the cartridges are going to taste weird again 

The cartridges will taste weird again!

From GameSpot:

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The Switch 2 includes a number of upgrades and improvements over the original Switch, but one thing has stayed the same. The Switch 2 carts remain coated in material that tastes very bad in an effort to help prevent children or animals from accidentally eating them.

In an interview with GameSpot, Nintendo's Takuhiro Dohta confirmed that the gross-tasting coating returns for Switch 2 carts, adding that the goal was the same: "We don't want anybody to be at risk of any unwanted consumption. We have indeed made it so that if it enters your mouth, you'll spit it out."

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Anyone who licks a Switch 2 cartridge won't be harmed apart from having a bad tase left in their mouth, Nintendo said. We licked the original Switch cartridges and found them to taste very gross. We have not (yet) been able to conduct the same very important scientific research for Switch 2 cartridges. Whatever the case, we're going to take Dohta at his word for now. "I do not advise that you do," he said of licking a Switch 2 cartridge.

Nintendo's Kouichi Kawamoto added: "When the Nintendo Switch was being developed, I did lick it once, but never again. I can't believe that other people are trying that."

GOTY, or something 

[nekunando]

The dust has settled a little after a few chaotic days of information on Switch 2 and I'm maybe only just about ready to gather my thoughts into something coherent 😅

Wednesday, the day of the Nintendo Direct, was all go! I took an extended break at work just to watch it all unfold on my phone and then it was straight back to work, home to make dinner and then the tension of the Merseyside Derby. It didn't feel like there was a minute to breathe and yet I managed to get my pre-order in with Smyth's for the Mario Kart bundle along the way.

I expected the Switch 2 to be £429 so was actually relatively happy to see that we were getting Mario Kart World thrown into the mix for that price.. and what a game it may turn out to be!

It was a great way to kick off the Direct and, as much as I often berate the open world obsession that continues to infiltrate and attempt to destroy modern gaming, I have so much faith it will work here and make the new Mario Kart more special than I ever thought possible.

I hope the Mario Kart World Direct next week shows off just how much there is to do and that we're not just driving around big open areas for the heck of it.

If not for Mario Kart, though, things would be an awful lot less encouraging.

The hardware probably goes above and beyond what I hoped and expected so I have no complaints there and given that I don't own a PS5 or XBOX then all of the ports of third party games is extremely welcome. I may not necessarily be into many, if any, of them but I'm glad they are there. It bodes well for what can come in the future 😀

GameCube probably got the biggest cheer from me when I was watching in my car. I'm happy to be playing all 3 of the introductory games, especially F-Zero GX. I've longed for an HD version of that to come to Switch over the years but this will have to do!

I would have been even more ecstatic if Wave Race: Blue Storm and 1080 Avalanche were confirmed but I have faith they'll appear down the line 🔥

That may be as far as the positivity goes! What on earth was Drag x Drive?!

I was looking forward to seeing what game would be used a showcase for the new mouse functionality and this was it..?

The control scheme doesn't seem like something you'd want to be playing for any length of time but it would at least be more encouraging if it had the same fun and vibrancy shown in something like ARMS from the early days of the Switch. This bordered on depressing!

Oh.. and you expect everyone to pay for Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour? Good luck. It looks like something you may mess about with if included on the system but it definitely did not give off vibes of something that you'd go out of your way to pick up.

If Nintendo didn't try to fill up the time (and too much time, in my book) with the Switch 2 versions of Switch games, they really didn't seem to have that much to show from themselves.

Metroid Prime 4 looks so much better on Switch 2, and that's great, but I can't pretend to be enthusiastic about jumping into Breath of the Wild again. Tears of the Kingdom could also be 8K and a million frames per second- I'm not touching that one again unless I forget just how much I disliked it 20 years from now!

Anyway, I watched through it all thinking that surely 3D Mario was on the cards. It had to be, right?

Just before the last reveal began, I was thinking 'Please be Mario'. Then the trailer began and I was thinking 'Please DON'T be Mario' as I wasn't into the style of the environments at all.

It quickly became clear that it was going to be a Donkey Kong game and that also didn't seem to fit quite right 😕

I've watched it back a few times and there are certainly things I liked but I'm still apprehensive about the game. Destroying everything looks like it'll become boring very quickly but worse than that is that it didn't quite come across as a Nintendo game. I was getting some Ratched & Clank vibes, for some reason, and that is absolutely not a good thing 😬

I'm still hoping it'll be a blast and I'll almost certainly pick it up in July as I only plan on having Mario Kart World at launch. With the prospective price of games on Switch 2, though, I feel like I'm going to have to be completely certain of everything before committing to it.

That Luigi's Mansion font creeping its way into Bananza is NOT welcome, though. That's a tick in the 'Do Not Purchase' box!

Overall, I'm massively excited for Mario Kart World and looking forward to getting my hands on the console itself. I was always going to pre-order Switch 2 no matter what as it'll be my main console for the next number of years so I'm happy that there's a huge game I'm genuinely excited to play from day one.

I did hope there would be more from Nintendo themselves to be hyped for but I'm sure that will come eventually.

That said, the hype around the C button wasn't warranted for me. Cool for those that want it but I can't see myself ever really using it!

 

[Cube]

16 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Hall Effect isn't the only way to achieve good quality control sticks.  Nintendo used to be masters of it after all! The GCN controller has probably the most durable control stick ever made, and that doesn't use Hall Effect.

You don't really hear that the Dreamcast controller has better or longer lasting sticks than the other consoles of they generation. The Switch 1 sticks are just poorly designed.

 

Also, would the big, very strong, magnets in the Switch 2 mess up the readings of a hall effect sticks?

[Julius]

I knew this situation with pricing seemed eerily familiar

[Kav]

Kit & Krysta’s channel has been real good to watch during this Switch 2 reveal, given their insights to the company and the PR they’re putting, and not putting, out there.

Krysta raises a fantastic point about the justification of MKW’s $80 price tag; that Nintendo have said that the longevity of the game is taken into account when pricing, that if MKW has paid DLC then what does that truly say about the longevity!

Edited Tuesday at 04:13 PM by Kav

[Cubechris]

My annual survey on all things Switch went live a couple of days ago, and has a few questions regarding the Switch 2 (price, games, etc). Should take around ten mins to fill out if you're interested!

[killthenet]

7 hours ago, Kav said:

Kit & Krysta’s channel has been real good to watch during this Switch 2 reveal, given their insights to the company and the PR they’re putting, and not putting, out there.

Krysta raises a fantastic point about the justification of MKW’s $80 price tag; that Nintendo have said that the longevity of the game is taken into account when pricing, that if MKW has paid DLC then what does that truly say about the longevity!

I watched that last night too and while I can see where Krysta is coming from when she says that any paid DLC for MKW will contradict their comments about longevity I don't think it's as big a deal as she says. If they announce DLC in the upcoming direct then sure, it would be a bit of a slap in the face to consumers but I don't think it means that they can't announce paid DLC in the future. DLC should always be a bonus, if Nintendo do offer it in the future (which we all expect then to do) them that doesn't automatically mean the base game was lacking or inferior. 

Edited Tuesday at 07:53 PM by killthenet

[Cube]

It's an up and down rollercoaster for Switch 2 Editions.

My Nintendo Store is saying that the expansion for Breath of the Wild is not included.

In other news, tariffs have been paused for 90 days (except China, and unless he changes his mind again), so Nintendo's Vietnam stock is good to go to the USA 

[Ashley]

21 minutes ago, Cube said:

tariffs have been paused for 90 days

Love how I found out about this here of all places. 

What a weird world we're living in. 

[Dcubed]

https://venturebeat.com/games/nintendo-hardware-developers-talk-about-designing-the-switch-2/

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Question: Have you improved the Bluetooth connection for the Joycons while in TV mode, or the audio connection for earphones in table mode with Joycons attached or detached?

Sasaki: If I were to go too far into it, I feel like it would take forever, but yes, it has improved. To add a bit more, a lot of those features depend on size. That has a lot of impact. The bigger the antenna, the better the connection. Because we’ve been able to do that, I think you’ll find that the connection has improved. Aside from increasing the number of antennas, there’s a lot of other adjustments that we’ve made to improve that.

 

Promising

[Julius]

Further clarification from another Nintendo spokesperson on the whole Switch 2 Edition on a physical cart ordeal: 

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However, what wasn't clear was what was actually inside the game boxes, so we sought clarification from Nintendo and received a comment. The main concern was that the box might only include the original Nintendo Switch game card, with the upgrade delivered as a download code. This would mean you couldn't resell, loan, or trade in the full game, leaving you with just the base Switch version. Thankfully, this doesn't seem to be the case.

In a statement to Vooks, a Nintendo spokesperson has said "That physical versions of Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games will include the original Nintendo Switch game and its upgrade pack all on the same game card (i.e. they are exclusively Nintendo Switch 2 game cards, with no download code).

Alternatively, some publishers may release Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games as download codes in physical packaging, with no game card. For Nintendo and Nintendo-published games, the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition will include the entire game on the card, with no download required. However, this may not be the case for other publishers.

Welp, okay, so now we're back to Nintendo published games having Switch 2 Editions included on cart, but third-parties get to choose how they handle things – and they could keep it separate. And considering how all of them seem so onboard with having full games on cart and aren't at all being cheapskates with their physical releases at launch, surely they'll have their potential Switch 2 Editions completely on cart too, right? 

I'll be honest, I think Nintendo have in recent history been pretty on point with their level of communication. So why they decided to jumble up their own sentences and not proofread their own small print, not come forth with the console pricing in the Switch 2 Direct, the fairly messy state of Nintendo Store invites, the abysmal state of Switch 2 Edition covers and the box size/banner, etc., is beyond me. I swear we've spent more time this last week since the Direct clarifying their spotty communication than we have actually talking about the games and the console itself, which is pretty insane! Not to mention the conversation already being about pricing due to the raised physical vs digital prices and the price increase across the board for next-gen titles, and this perfectly escalating into the whole tariffs mess delaying pre-orders going live in some territories. 

What a mess. I'm curious to see if they do anything by the end of the month to bring the conversation back squarely to the games and the system, or if they're happy to just ride things out and watch on with a bucket of popcorn like the rest of us. 

Though, I guess they at least told us in the Direct itself what was at launch. Still can't believe PlayStation didn't do that for the PS5 and left it to Twitter and Geoff Keighley...

[Julius]

I'm attending the Switch 2 Experience in London tomorrow, and while I think coverage and impressions have been pretty thorough up to this point, if anyone has anything in particular they want me to try with the system or bug a steward at the event unrelentingly for then just let me know  have a feeling the games will be digital rather than physical, though, so probably won't be able to take on any cartridge taste test requests 

I'm sure I'll be back with impressions on it all either way 

Edited yesterday at 03:03 PM by Julius

[BowserBasher]

There’s only one thing we need. Is Cow really the best character in MKW? We need to know all there is about Cow. 🐮 
 

And if you have time, how does the Joycon feel when playing with it like a regular controller. So like in its grip. I remember playing like that for the first bit before I got the Pro Controller and just can’t see going back. 

[Kav]

@Julius let us know your thoughts on MouseCon on Metroid Prime 4.

Thats the one game that’s tempting me to get Switch 2, even though I really don’t want to because of the game-price debacle.

[Ashley]

55 minutes ago, Julius said:

I'm attending the Switch 2 Experience in London tomorrow, and while I think coverage and impressions have been pretty thorough up to this point, if anyone has anything in particular they want me to try with the system or bug a steward at the event unrelentingly for then just let me know  have a feeling the games will be digital rather than physical, though, so probably won't be able to take on any cartridge taste test requests 

I'm sure I'll be back with impressions on it all either way 

Lick a cartridge. Go on, do it!

[RedShell]

3 hours ago, Julius said:

if anyone has anything in particular they want me to try with the system or bug a steward at the event unrelentingly for then just let me know

If you're allowed to check out the system menu and can take a look at the Mii Maker, I'd be curious to know if there have been any changes or updates made to that.

Anyway, have fun at the event!

[darksnowman]

4 hours ago, Julius said:

if anyone has anything in particular they want me to try with the system or bug a steward at the event unrelentingly for then just let me know  

Load time of the Find Channels page.

[Dcubed]

Interesting hardware insight from a dude on Resetera who Apparently attended a recent NVidia developer event…

https://www.resetera.com/threads/cyberpunk-2077-on-switch-2-will-be-cross-progression-with-other-platforms.1159077/page-3#post-138297678
 

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Yesterday in Warsaw, Poland, NVIDIA held an event called NVIDIA Partner Days. I've been a journalist in this field for 20 years, and I was invited to attend. I asked an engineer from NVIDIA about what else the upcoming Switch 2 might be capable of. He told me it would "definitely surprise us," and that NVIDIA provided a very custom chip with elements not only from the Ampere architecture, but also from newer ones.

The T239 chip in the Nintendo Switch 2 is a heavily modified design. I don't know how many CUDA cores it has, but I do know the memory bandwidth is higher than 102 GB/s. The fundamental base is the Ampere architecture, known from the RTX 30 series, but for example, the RT and Tensor cores come from the RTX 40 series.

Overall, the engineer couldn't share too many details. Before we wrapped up, I asked him what console the Switch 2 could be compared to. He said it's "definitely more powerful" than the PS4/XOne, and in his view, with DLSS support, it will offer prettier games and more features than the Xbox Series S. He believes it's absolutely capable of running any multiplatform game available on the market that works on XSX/S or PS5.

Sounds pretty believable and makes a lot of sense.  Lovelace is a lot more power efficient than Ampere and the original info about the T239 is almost 3 years out of date at this point

[Ashley]

27 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Sounds pretty believable and makes a lot of sense.  

Really because I have no idea what any of this is: 

28 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

The T239 chip in the Nintendo Switch 2 is a heavily modified design. I don't know how many CUDA cores it has, but I do know the memory bandwidth is higher than 102 GB/s. The fundamental base is the Ampere architecture, known from the RTX 30 series, but for example, the RT and Tensor cores come from the RTX 40 series.