The Big Story : What Do We Actually Know About Switch 2?

After years of people clamouring for a higher-end version or successor to the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo of Japan’s President Furukawa sent rumours and leaks into overdrive when he announced that the company would “make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year”, i.e by the end of March. With so many conflicting “leaks” and groundless theories floating around it’s hard to find concrete information on the system. So what do we actually know about the Switch 2?

Is it backwards compatible?
During their 6/11/24 Corporate Management Policy Briefing, Nintendo announced that Switch software will be playable on the Switch 2, along with Nintendo Switch Online being available on it. More information on compatibility will be given “at a later date”. We also know from their 83rd Annual General Meeting of Shareholders that Nintendo Accounts (which all digital purchases are tied to) will remain in use between systems to ensure a “smooth transition”.

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What games will launch on it?
At present, there are two Nintendo-published games announced for 2025 without a release window : Pokémon Legends: Z-A (Game Freak) and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (Retro Studios). With the Pokémon Presents showcase taking place on the 27th of February for the last three years, we won’t have to take long to hear more about one of these games.

Historically, Game Freak have waited until a few years into the next system’s life before moving over – Pokémon X & Y in 2013 for 3DS or Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire in 2002 for GBA, for example – it is likely that Z-A will only be on Switch 2 via backwards compatibility. However, Metroid Prime 4 could well be a cross-platform release like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was for Wii U and Switch.

As far as third party games go, we know that Activision executives met with Nintendo back in December 2022 to discuss the Switch from emails leaked from the FTC vs Microsoft case. Nate the Hate – a leaker and podcaster who has also claimed the Switch 2 will be announced this Thursday – has claimed that Ubisoft has “half a dozen” games coming to Switch 2, as well as Konami. Game companies set to release games on a games console? Shocking.

What can it do?
Some of the first rumblings about the Switch 2 were during Gamescom 2023, where some partners were shown tech demos running on the new system. These included a higher-end version of Breath of the Wild and the Unreal Engine 5 tech demo The Matrix Awakens, which was released for PS5 and XBox Series X in 2021 and is now delisted. Of course tech demos run in an extremely limited and controlled environment so the everyday limits of the console are still unknown – but it can run a Wii U game, don’t worry.

It also seems to be using a custom version of Nvidia's Tegra T234 processor called the T239 that can cut down on on load times using “an all-new file decompression engine” and features a “core component of DLSS [Deep Learning Super Sampling] 3 frame generation" despite being a trimmed-down version of the chip, according to Digital Foundry. This means that it’s possible games running on the Switch 2 will be upscaled to a higher resolution without compromising performance thanks to frame generation.

What does it look like?
Picture a tablet-like screen with two detachable controllers. Seriously, we don’t know how different the Switch 2 will be. Accessory manufacturers Genki and Dbrand have shown off accessories and cases for the Switch 2 that they claim are to the specs of the real thing, Genki even going so far as to make a mockup for the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show. Nintendo has decried what they’ve shown off as “not official” and not provided by them. Leaks suggest a bigger system, magnetically-attached Joy-Cons and a “C button” without a clear use, but there’s no saying for sure until we see the real thing.

Ultimately, we know very little about the next Nintendo console…because they haven’t announced it. I hope this article can serve as a time capsule of what we were working off of in the days and weeks before the official unveiling. Hope it has a better name than “Switch 2”.

The Week In Me - This Is The Run

I’ve been playing a lot of Spelunky lately. I’ve dabbled before, but after getting it on Switch over the holidays, I’ve really been making progress. 15 hours in, I’ve glimpsed the third area maybe three times. It’s going great.

Thanks to early episodes of the Eggplant podcast (back when it was called The Spelunky Showlike), I’ve picked up all kinds of tips from the community. The main thing that’s shaped how I play the game is their focus on the Daily Challenge. I’d started getting sick of the first area when I started listening, with death after death on those same brown rocks. Instead of hurling themselves into the depths 100 times a day like I was, they were focusing on that one seeded run each day and improving each time. Or failing and spending the rest of the day gearing up to take another shot at the game.

My big mistake was not taking runs seriously, with all too many ending seconds after they started thanks to a careless jump or bomb throw. Although I haven’t pared back to just the Daily Challenge (I don’t think you can unlock characters or shortcuts that way), I take it every day now and see how far I get. One thing that’s really changed in my regular runs is how often I’ll think “This is the run.” and stop taking silly risks.

This does lend some extra irony when accidents happen (“I thought this was the run,” I’ll scoff at myself when dying on spikes in the second level.) but I find myself getting past the first world more and more often. I found the Black Market a few days ago and died trying to rob it! I went back the next day with enough money for the Ankh and died two levels later! I went back today and died in the Market!

Thinking on my time with other run-based games like Slay the Spire (or my greatest shame Super Auto Pets), I’ve realised that it’s only when I’ve shifted into that “This is the run.” mindset that I’ve made real progress on a run or even finished one. Pursuing random dead ends and playing while listening to something else are perfectly good ways of interacting with a game with their own rewards, but I all too often feel like a hamster stuck in a wheel when I play roguelikes. Now I can feel like a hamster stuck in a ball, still locked to the run’s limits but getting somewhere despite them.

It’s going to be a while before I reach the end of Spelunky, let alone discover all of its secrets, but thanks to a change in perspective, I’m going to fly much further before I fall with each attempt.

The Week Ahead

16/1 Blade Chimera (PC, Switch)

17/1 Dynasty Warriors Origins (PC, PS5, XBox Series S/X)

18/1 National Winnie the Pooh Day (it’s a quiet month for games)

19/1

20/1 Aotenjo: Infinite Hands (PC)

21/1 Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders (PC, XBox Series S/X)

22/1 Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist (PC, Switch)

Housekeeping

Thanks for reading the first installment of The Week in Games newsletter (The W.I.G)! I haven’t settled on a day to release these yet but be sure to subscribe if you want my writing in your inbox each week. Expect coverage of the week’s biggest games news along with a smaller story from my own week and a curated release calendar for the week ahead.

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