Nintendo Switch Successor Announced

[Dcubed]

I see…

[Dcubed]

NEW NEWS!!!!

https://www.nintendo.com/us/gaming-systems/virtual-game-cards/

Quote

**Compatible systems must be linked to a Nintendo Account to use virtual game cards. Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive games and Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games can only be loaded on a Nintendo Switch 2 system. To move virtual game cards between two systems, you must pair the systems via local wireless and an internet connection, but only when pairing the systems for the first time. Up to two systems total can be linked per Nintendo Account.

Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games you say!?

Looks like we have ourselves a line of Switch 1 BC enhanced titles!

[killthenet]

The latest rumour about the C button is that one of its functions is to connect an original Switch as a controller or second screen...

So the dual screen dream might not be over yet

[Julius]

47 minutes ago, killthenet said:

The latest rumour about the C button is that one of its functions is to connect an original Switch as a controller or second screen...

So the dual screen dream might not be over yet

Damn it man how bad does the world need to get for the C-button to be for a churro dispenser?! 

In all seriousness, this is totally wild and very silly, and there are obviously potential pitfalls to the idea...but that makes it sound absolutely Nintendo. They need to get DS games on there somehow, because the DS/3DS catalogue is otherwise going to be the only big Nintendo catalogue you can't reasonably play on the system. If this is how they do it – I mean, I don't care how they do it, I'm totally game 

The fact it would probably boost Switch sales post-Switch 2 launch is kind of hilarious to think about too. And would probably be good for the environment in a weird way (people's Switch consoles not getting thrown away as soon as they get a Switch 2). 

 

EDIT: just seen the source is eXtas1s...yeah...idk man...

Edited Friday at 05:59 PM by Julius

[Nicktendo]

22 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Looks like we have ourselves a line of Switch 1 BC enhanced titles!

...which we are quite clearly, based on that wording, going to need to pay for... 

[Julius]

2 minutes ago, Nicktendo said:

...which we are quite clearly, based on that wording, going to need to pay for... 

Take it back before they read it man!

Those damn Ninjas are everywhere! 

Edited Friday at 05:22 PM by Julius

[Nicktendo]

Just now, Julius said:

Take it back before they read it man!

Those damn Ninjas are everywhere! 

I can see it now. 6-7 years of Direct segments dedicated to upgraded Switch games. 

June 2025: Legend of Zelda™: Breath of the Wild™ - Nintendo Switch 2™ Edition!! Dropping in the e-shop right after this trailer!!! 

Spoiler

Only £44.99!!!

Spoiler

For those of you who already own Breath of the Wild™ on Nintendo Switch™, fear not! The Nintendo Switch 2™ upgrade expansion is available for ONLY £19.99!

 

December 2025: Super Mario Odyssey™ - Nintendo Switch 2™ Edition!! Dropping in the e-shop right after this trailer!!! 

Spoiler

Only £44.99!!!

Spoiler

For those of you who already own Super Mario Odyssey™ on Nintendo Switch™, fear not! The Nintendo Switch 2™ upgrade expansion is available for ONLY £19.99!

 

Repeat Ad Nauseum until...

December 2030: Donkey Kong Country Returns™: HD Remake - Nintendo Switch 2™ Edition!! Dropping in the e-shop right after this trailer!!!

Spoiler

Only £44.99!!!

Spoiler

For those of you who already own Donkey Kong Country Returns™: HD Remake on Nintendo Switch™, fear not! The Nintendo Switch 2™ upgrade expansion is available for ONLY £19.99!

 

[drahkon]

9 minutes ago, Nicktendo said:

...which we are quite clearly, based on that wording, going to need to pay for... 

Mario Kart 8: Switch 2 Edition for the low low price of 60€, yet again  

It surely will be an upgrade path akin to some PS4/5 games, but I would not be surprised if Nintendo went with the full price option...quite frankly, because they can  

[Julius]

An unnamed large US retailer - are they in witness protection or something? What did the [unnamed large US retailer] do?! - has apparently leaked how things will be going down on the other side of the pond. 

Per Insider Gaming:

Quote

Retailers are expecting that they will run out of pre-order units for the Nintendo Switch 2 on day 1, despite Nintendo allegedly accumulating a large quantity for launch.

That's according to internal emails and documents provided to Insider Gaming from a large US retailer, who are anticipating they will sell out of the Switch 2 on the same day they open up the pre-orders due to a limited unit allocation from Nintendo.

According to the documents, the Switch 2 is scheduled to release in June, a release month that has already been a widely rumoured and was a highly talked about by developers at this year's GDC.

However, the documents do add a little confusion as to when the pre-orders go live, especially following the Best Buy Canada "leak" earlier this week that revealed they'd go live on April 2nd.

According to the documents from the US retailer, pre-orders are set to go live on April 9th, one week after the Nintendo Switch 2 direct. The documents include a messaging strategy following the direct to include "Pre-Order Coming Soon" messaging and a Countdown Clock that will end on April 9, with an exact time to be confirmed by Nintendo on April 2.

The documents also included details on a exclusive collectible coin for those who pre-order the console.

Whether or not Best Buy Canada's "leak" was a mistake or not is unclear, but the company did promptly remove the information after it started circulating online. In any case though, pre-order's are almost certainly going to live within a week of the direct.

Related to pre-orders, just wondering ahead of Wednesday's Switch 2 Direct: could it be worth having a dedicated Switch 2 pre-orders thread?

Just thinking it might make it easier for people to parse when and where pre-order drops are happening, as well as talk about what they've managed to put in an order in for, rather than those posts inevitably getting buried in a general Switch 2 thread and people potentially missing out simply because they hadn't seen a post about pre-orders dropping at X or Y retailer? 

Edited Friday at 05:57 PM by Julius

[Ashley]

1 hour ago, Julius said:

Related to pre-orders, just wondering ahead of Wednesday's Switch 2 Direct: could it be worth having a dedicated Switch 2 pre-orders thread?

That's fine with me. I'm always game for more threads.

[Dcubed]

If preorders open on April 9th, that’s fine by me.  I’m off work that day

[Julius]

2 hours ago, Dcubed said:

If preorders open on April 9th, that’s fine by me.  I’m off work that day

The source on this being a "large US retailer" in WITSEC makes me think that it could be US-specific, or even specific to that retailer. I would be shocked if this was a globally adopted thing, because that would be impossible for Nintendo to keep tabs on. The only they would be able to come close to trying to implement it would be through some absolutely obscene and draconian methods. 

Plus, if anything, the ideal time for pre-orders to go up is to not have such a huge heads-up that we know the when and where of it all too far ahead of time, because otherwise scalpers will be able to make preparations of their own which will screw a lot of people out of the chance to get their own Switch 2 pre-order in. 

I'm going to be shocked if pre-orders aren't up by the end of next Thursday (3rd) over here, and am half expecting them to drop randomly in the afternoon/evening on Wednesday following the Direct, somewhat similar to what we saw happened with the PS5 (went up late evening/early morning following that September 2020 event earlier in the evening). 

[Julius]

Some interesting stuff going around today about dev kits – remember that rumour last week from Insider Gaming about third-party devs not getting the dev kit until June? We've got some people talking about the dev kits today. 

Per John Linneman of Digital Foundry game (timestamped):

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We'll talk about GDC later, but based on a lot of the things I've heard it also seems like many many many many developers are still without kit. So they are very slow at rolling this out to a lot of developers.

I think there will be third-party games early on of course, it just seems like a lot of medium to small developers still do not have access to development hardware. So Nintendo has been very selective with who they allow to do it.

Imran Khan has echoed this sentiment in reaction to this over on ResetEra, referring to a big third-party dev Nintendo has apparently deemed "too chaotic". 

Quote

I know of at least one kind of big third party that didn't get anything because Nintendo deemed them too chaotic at the moment. They were afraid the kits would go to studios that would then be closed down and then the kits might have gone missing.

And lastly, Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson has suggested that these dev kits - or some of them - don't have 4K output:

Quote

I heard this from one developer at GDC and also heard it separately in an email but the dev kits, or some of the dev kits, don't have a 4K output.

Interesting stuff. Really curious to see who has and hasn't been left out on the third-party side of things when it comes to dev kits, imagine it'll make Nintendo's job of curating things a lot easier. 

Anyways, here's another look at the console per tomorrow's Nintendo Today! countdown to the Switch 2 Direct (because timezones), including a tabletop + Mouse-Con configuration on the right:

Lookin' good 

[bob]

3 hours ago, Julius said:

 

Lookin' good 

Looks expensive. Why does this one need three screens?

[Cube]

Weren't there lots of rumours about it having an upscaling chip? It wouldn't surprise if the games were rendered at 1080p (I find that on a sofa, the processing power for 4k isn't worth it anyway) and then upscaled, so as it's something that developers can't change, it would make sense to not include it to make dev kits cheaper.

[killthenet]

It would be pretty weird not to include 4K output in the devkits if the final console was going to be capable of outputting a 4K image. Surely developers need to be able to test every aspect of their games so why would Nintendo block them from being able to test resolutions beyond 1080p if the retail units are going to be able to output a higher resolution image? It's obviously unlikely that many games will be able to be upscaled to a full 4K through DLSS but I would have thought there would at least be some indie games and less intensive remasters that would be feasible to render at higher resolutions so it would be a surprise to me if the console is limited to 1080p output (especially considering the seemingly pretty accurate leaked specs that point to it being able to output a 4K signal)

I suppose they could have limited the upscaling capability of early devkits to avoid leaks before the reveal and then intended to patch that in an update before launch so developers can finalise their builds before release but it seems unnecessary when DLSS is already so prevalent in consumer hardware - there's not exactly much people wouldn't already be aware of

Technically the video processing chip in the original Switch is capable of outputting in 4K (at 30 FPS, while the OLED dock is theoretically able to put out a 4K 60 FPS signal) so the hardware in the Switch 2 will have that baked in, it just depends if Nintendo decide to make use of it this time.

[Dcubed]

This is the same as the original Switch 1 dev kit.  The original Switch 1 dev kit only output 720p and could only run in handheld mode (with said handheld mode allowing video monitor output at 720P; similar to the various Switch Lite mods currently available).  Later on, a dongle became available that allowed those dev kits to unlock the 1080p Docked output.

Note the HDMI-out on the device itself

Switch 2 dev kits being limited to 1080p makes sense, because handheld mode runs at 1080p on a 1080p panel this time.  Docked mode will 100% support 4K output, it is the current HDMI standard, and has been for well over a decade at this point.

Edited 30 minutes ago by Dcubed