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Everything we know about the upcoming release

As the world turns, so do the console generations. The Nintendo Switch is over seven years old, so it's time for a refresh. Nintendo Switch 2 rumors have been circulating for years, but now they're Really Things are heating up. A sequel to Nintendo's most successful home console of all time is on the way, and it's likely to be released sooner rather than later.

Will it be a direct sequel to the Switch with updated specs and the same hybrid functionality, or will Nintendo do something weird with it? Will it even be called Switch 2, or will the company go for something like Super Switch or even New Nintendo Switch? You never know with Nintendo. Maybe the thing will be called Switch U.

In any case, the last few weeks have seen feverish speculation about all aspects of the upcoming gaming console. However, it is important to note that very little information has been confirmed by Nintendo. The company has its own timeline. With that in mind, here are all the rumors that are most likely to come true according to industry analysis.

As mentioned, Nintendo marches to its own tune. We don't know exactly when there will be a console reveal event. However, many are predicting it will happen sometime this month. Why is that? The company recently changed its normal Nintendo Direct schedule to make room for something in September, according to a report. kotakuSeptember is also an important time in the Japanese video game calendar, with the Tokyo Game Show scheduled for the end of the month.

Many members of the press have also heard “industry whispers” about an unveiling event in September. These include GamesIndustry.biz Chief Christopher Dring, who hinted that something related to Switch 2 would happen this month. Editor-in-chief of VGCAndy Robinson, agreed that a “A lot of press heard it,” but he said he “wouldn't bet my house on it.”

Even Nintendo has trouble keeping the release of a major console under wraps. Parts need to be sourced and deliveries made. A senior analyst at MST Financial noted an increase in spending on production equipment at Nintendo's Hosiden assembly plant, and is also expecting a September announcement date.

Again, this is more or less a mystery. We're not completely in the dark, but it's mostly rumors and speculation. One thing we know for sure: Nintendo will announce the Nintendo Switch 2 (or whatever it's called) by March 2025, the company confirmed back in May. Some say there will be a March release date, which makes sense considering the OG Switch came out on March 17, 2017. However, other reports put the console's release window later in 2025.

We can deduce a lot from the announcement date. If the console is announced this year, March is likely, as the original Switch was officially confirmed in October 2016. If the announcement isn't made until next year, the launch probably won't be until after April.

Nintendo has a strange track record here. The amazing Wii U followed the huge success of the Wii. The Wii itself followed the more traditional GameCube. In other words, it's possible it's something unexpected and not exactly a true sequel to the Switch. This time around, however, that's unlikely. As much as I'd like to see crazy VR goggles or a completely insane console concept, all points point to a more traditional approach.

Developers have already seen the hardware, albeit in a much earlier form, and it appears to be a regular old console. While Nintendo hasn't confirmed hybrid functionality, it would be a strange omission given the Switch's absolute financial firestorm. We've also heard rumors of a mini-LED display, which would be suitable for a hybrid console. It's very likely that this will be a pure Switch 2 or something similar, reminiscent of the Super Nintendo.

If this is a sequel to the Switch, the next question has to be backwards compatibility. The Switch's library is absolutely massive and continues to grow, so gamers would rightly be upset if they couldn't play Tears of the Kingdom on their new next-gen console. There is good news in this regard.

Multiple sources have reported that the console will likely be fully backwards compatible, which is great. This should apply to digital releases as well as physical cartridges. Even Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser seemed to hint at this in an interview last year when he said that the company's goal this time was to “minimize the dip you usually see in the last year of a cycle and the beginning of a new one.” Backward compatibility would certainly achieve that. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has also told investors that the company's revamped account system will make the transition from Switch to its successor smoother than previous generational jumps.

Rumors about the specifications are everywhere, so it is difficult to pinpoint them. One thing we know for sure: it will be more powerful than the old Switch hardware, which was already obsolete in 2017. An analyst has reportedly seen a spec sheet from the Korean United Daily News That means the Switch 2 would come with an eight-core Cortex-A78AE processor, 8GB of RAM, and 64GB of internal eMMC storage. That works for me, because those specs are about as underpowered in 2024 as the original Switch was in 2017.

Another source suggests that the eight-core CPU will be housed in a Tegra239 SoC (system on a chip) produced by NVIDIA. Since the current Switch runs on an NVIDIA chip, this makes a lot of sense. The CPU will be more powerful, but it's the Switch 2's new GPU that will be a big differentiator. It's all but confirmed that the Switch 2 will support DLSS, NVIDIA's “deep learning supersampling” upscaling technology that would allow the console to render games internally at low resolution while outputting a high-resolution image. (Fun fact: We actually wrote about how perfect DLSS was for the Nintendo Switch 2 when the technology was announced alongside the RTX 20 series in 2018.)

There are still questions about Switch 2 and DLSS: Will the system support newer DLSS features like frame generation? Will existing games be automatically cleaned up by NVIDIA's algorithm? Regardless of the exact implementation, DLSS upscaling will represent a massive leap from the rudimentary techniques available to Nintendo Switch developers.

As for the display, there are a lot of conflicting rumors. Early reports from reliable sources suggested the Switch 2 would have an 8-inch LCD display, but there have also been rumors of a 7-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate. Some analysts have suggested it would be an OLED screen, while others have said it would be a mini-LED display. A mini-LED display is basically an LCD display with a backlight made of (surprise!) mini-LEDs instead of edge lighting. This allows for local dimming, which makes the blacks darker. I'm playing it safe here. I think it will be a standard LCD to save costs, with an OLED or mini-LED model coming later. Mini-LED screens are a bit cheaper than OLED displays, though, so that's certainly possible at launch.

We don't have too much information on pricing, but we do have a lot of historical data to fall back on. The original Nintendo Switch launched for $300, which is pretty much the “magic number” when it comes to Nintendo console releases over the past few years. The Wii U also cost $300.

However, there are numerous rumors circulating that Nintendo might increase the price of the Switch 2. Numerous outlets have reported that it will cost $400 or possibly even more. However, the same analysts who say the console will cost $400 were also pretty sure it would launch in late 2024, and well, it looks like that's not going to happen.

Looking back in history, there are some precedents for a price increase. The GameCube was $200 and the Wii was $250. The Wii U and Switch went up to $300 and, well, numbers like to go up. A $400 price tag would make it almost as expensive as a PS5 and an Xbox Series X. That would also put it on the same price level as the 256GB LCD Steam Deck.

Nope! But it sure has been a long time since we got a proper 3D Mario adventure, right? That would be a damn good system seller. Otherwise, your guess is as good as mine. As a prologue, we can expect something from Ubisoft and an offbeat title like 1-2 switch.

If there is a gimmick or a catch on the console, we get a game that takes advantage of it. A double release of Metroid Prime 4just like Breath of the Wild And Twilight Princess before that is also a possibility.

That's everything we know about the Nintendo Switch 2 today. We'll update this article with rumors we trust and information we get directly from sources. Any changes made to the article after its initial publication will be listed below.

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