The Nintendo Swap 2 has been revealed, here is every thing we all know to this point

Because the world turns, so do the console generations. The Nintendo Swap is over seven years old, so it’s due for a refresh. Nintendo Swap 2 rumors have been swirling for years, however now now we have some indicators of life. The corporate officially revealed the sequel to its most profitable residence console ever in a quick trailer on January 16.

The Swap 2 seems to be functionally similar to the unique system, albeit with a bigger show, magnetic Pleasure-Cons and a sleeker design. The corporate additionally reaffirmed that the upcoming console can be backwards suitable with Swap video games.

Whereas the reveal did affirm some rumors and have just a few attention-grabbing particulars for many who have been paying shut consideration, Nintendo continues to be largely preserving its playing cards near its chest. We’ll have to attend till a particular Nintendo Direct on April 2 for all of the juicy data. Annoyingly, that date is a Wednesday and never a Two-sday.

The Nintendo Swap 2 was introduced on January 16

The rumor mill had heavily suggested that Nintendo would pull again the curtain on the Swap 2 on January 16, and that turned out to be the case.

The corporate hasn’t modified the core kind issue. It is a transportable console with removable Pleasure-Cons. The Swap 2 may be positioned in a dock for big-screen gaming. There are some important variations from the unique console, nevertheless.

The obvious one is that the next-gen Pleasure-Cons will not slide into place mechanically. As a substitute, they’re going to connect to the principle unit magnetically. There’s a small connector that is seemingly used to cost the controllers and maybe take away the necessity to hyperlink them through Bluetooth. It is unclear at this level if Pleasure-Cons from the unique system can be suitable with the Swap 2.

One different huge (and really welcome) change is the addition of a second USB-C port on the highest of the system. That ought to make it a lot simpler to plug in equipment whereas the Swap 2 is docked. It is nice to see that Nintendo has saved the headphone jack as nicely. Let’s simply hope that Bluetooth headphone help is stay from the soar this time and Nintendo does not depart everybody waiting four years for that function.

The kickstand is getting an improve as nicely. As with the Swap OLED, it spans the size of the console. However, in accordance with the trailer, this one seems to be totally adjustable, so you may tweak the viewing angle to 1 that works for you.

Nonetheless, there are nonetheless a fantastic many unknowns relating to the upcoming console. We do not actually know the specs but, or what kind of show it makes use of. We additionally do not know something about battery life, the UI or launch video games. We’ll seemingly be taught an entire lot on April 2.

When will the Nintendo Swap 2 come out?

2025. That is all we all know for certain at this level.

It is extremely unlikely that Nintendo will launch the console earlier than the devoted Direct on April 2, and never solely as a result of that is in the beginning of Nintendo’s subsequent monetary yr. Nonetheless, accent producer Genki, which has been a significant supply of leaks in latest months, claims the console will be released in April. Different experiences have put the discharge window someday in June.

In any case, we must always be taught the discharge date through the April 2 Direct if we’ve not already by then.

When can I strive the Nintendo Swap 2?

Nintendo is planning a worldwide roadshow to let players go hands-on with the console. These occasions begin in New York and Paris on April 3-6, with others going down all through the next two months. That lends credence to some solutions that Nintendo will launch the Swap 2 in June.

Ticket registration for the Swap 2 Expertise occasions within the US (in New York, Los Angeles and Paris) starts on January 17 at 3PM ET and can stay open till January 26. A Nintendo Account is required to enroll. Nintendo will randomly choose the recipients of the free tickets.

The complete listing of Nintendo Swap 2 Expertise occasions is as follows:

North America:

• New York, April 4-6, 2025

• Los Angeles, April 11-13, 2025

• Dallas, April 25-27, 2025

• Toronto, April 25-27, 2025

Europe:

• Paris, April 4-6, 2025

• London, April 11-13, 2025

• Milan, April 25-27, 2025

• Berlin, April 25-27, 2025

• Madrid, Might 11th of September, 2025

• Amsterdam, Might 11th of September, 2025

Oceania:

Asia:

• Tokyo (Makuhari), April 26-27, 2025

• Seoul, Might 31-June 1, 2025

• Hong Kong, To be introduced

• Taipei, To be introduced

Will the Nintendo Swap 2 have some weirdness?

The whole lot we have seen and to this point about this console has been pretty, nicely, conventional. It seems to be like the unique Swap, however higher. That is superior, however will there be any of that unpredictable Nintendo magic? Possibly! There are two puzzling additions that folk cannot make cover nor hair of.

Eager eyes can have observed a brand new button on the underside of the correct Pleasure-Con. It it not but clear what this does. Might it provoke voice chat throughout gameplay? Might it calibrate the controllers? Might it create a room-sized hologram of Bowser in your lounge? We’ll have to attend and see.

Now onto the up to date Pleasure-Cons. There seems to be a brand new sensor on the connecting aspect of every controller. It seems to be a whole lot like an optical sensor, which is what a pc mouse makes use of. This has led to hypothesis that gamers will be capable of flip the Pleasure-Con over and use it like a mouse. Of word: the trailer exhibits the Pleasure-Cons shifting alongside a flat floor, connector aspect down and searching suspiciously like a mouse.

However why would anybody even need this? I can consider three phrases. New Mario Paint.

Is the Nintendo Swap 2 backwards suitable?

The corporate confirmed in November 2024 that the Nintendo Switch 2 will be backwards compatible. It is going to additionally function entry to Nintendo On-line, so customers will be capable of play all of these previous retro titles.

Within the preliminary Nintendo Swap 2 press launch, Nintendo reiterated that bodily and digital Swap video games will work on the brand new system. Nonetheless, it famous that “sure Nintendo Swap video games is probably not supported on or totally suitable with Nintendo Swap 2.” Extra particulars about which video games these are can be revealed later.

Will previous video games be enhanced in any approach?

The unique Swap has, to place it mildly, struggled to run some of the late-generation software that is come down the pike. Might these video games be enhanced to make the most of the elevated horsepower of the Swap 2? We do not know. We additionally do not know if any of those releases will obtain graphical upgrades, maybe profiting from upscaling tech.

What is going to the cartridges style like?

You might do not forget that the unique Swap cartridges taste absolutely awful. This was on objective, to discourage people from placing the video games of their mouth. Will the successor observe go well with and proceed to dip cartridges in a foul-tasting bitter coating? Solely time will inform.

What about specs?

The rumors relating to specs are everywhere, so it’s powerful to pin down. We all know one factor for certain: It’ll be extra highly effective than the traditional Swap {hardware}, which was already antiquated again in 2017. One analyst allegedly bought a maintain of a spec sheet from the Korean United Every day Information that mentioned the Swap 2 would boast an eight-core Cortex-A78AE processor, 8GB of RAM, and 64GB of inside eMMC storage. This tracks for me, as these specs are about as underpowered in 2024 as the unique Swap was in 2017. Nonetheless, some experiences do indicate that the console will embrace 12GB of RAM.

One other supply means that the eight-core CPU can be packaged inside an NVIDIA-produced Tegra239 SoC (system on a chip). Given the present Swap runs on an NVIDIA chip, that makes lots of sense. The CPU can be extra highly effective, however it’s the Swap 2’s new GPU that can be a significant differentiator. It is all-but-confirmed that the Swap 2 will help DLSS, NVIDIA’s “deep studying supersampling” upscaling tech, which might permit the console to render video games at a low decision internally whereas outputting a high-resolution picture. (Enjoyable truth: We truly wrote about how perfect DLSS was for the Nintendo Switch 2 when the know-how was introduced alongside the RTX 20 collection again in 2018.)

There are nonetheless questions in regards to the Swap 2 and DLSS: Will the system help newer DLSS features like frame generation? Will present video games be mechanically tidied up by NVIDIA’s algorithm? Whatever the precise implementation, DLSS upscaling can be an enormous leap over the rudimentary strategies obtainable to Nintendo Swap builders.

As for the show, there are lots of conflicting rumors. Early experiences from stable sources advised the Swap 2 would have an 8-inch show LCD show. The Swap 2’s show actually seems to be bigger than that of the unique Swap in a side-by-side comparability within the reveal trailer. Some people have apprehensive that the Swap follow-up may actually be too big, particularly for youths.

Sure analysts have advised this may be an OLED display, whereas others have mentioned it could be a Mini-LED display. A Mini-LED show is principally an LCD show that has a backlight manufactured from (shock!) mini-LEDs moderately than edge lighting. This permits for native dimming, making the blacks extra black. I’m hedging my bets right here. I believe it’ll be an ordinary LCD, to chop prices, with an OLED or Mini-LED mannequin coming later down the road. Nonetheless, Mini-LED screens are barely cheaper than OLED shows, in order that’s actually a chance at launch.

As for decision, latest reporting means that the console will output 1080p in handheld and 4K when docked. That is a lot better than the OG Swap.

How a lot will the Nintendo Swap 2 price?

We do not have an excessive amount of data relating to worth however we do have loads of historical past to work with. The unique Nintendo Swap launched at $300, which is just about the “magic quantity” relating to Nintendo console releases lately. The Wii U additionally got here in at $300.

Nonetheless, there are many rumors circulating that Nintendo may very well be upping the asking worth for the Swap 2. Quite a few shops have reported it’ll be $400, or probably even more expensive. Nonetheless, the identical analysts who say the console can be $400 have been additionally pretty sure it could be out by the tip of 2024 and, nicely, that did not occur.

Dipping again into historical past, there may be some priority for a worth uptick. The GameCube was $200 and the Wii was $250. The Wii U and Swap elevated to $300 and, nicely, numbers wish to go up. A $400 price ticket would make it almost as costly as a PS5 and Xbox Collection X. That may additionally put it on the identical worth because the 256GB LCD Steam Deck.

Once more, we must always get affirmation of the value through the April 2 Nintendo Direct.

Will we find out about any launch video games?

Not a lot. The reveal trailer supplied a peek at a brand new Mario Kart recreation. Nintendo launched Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U over a decade in the past and it has been milking that money cow ever since, having bought greater than 64 million copies of the sport throughout that console and the Swap. It is positively time for a brand new entry!

It is actually been a long time since we’ve gotten a correct 3D Mario journey as nicely, so a brand new one may very well be a launch title. That may be one heck of a system vendor. Aside from that, your guess is pretty much as good as mine. Previous as prologue, we will count on one thing from Ubisoft and an off-the-wall title like 1-2-Swap.

If there’s a gimmick or hook concerned with the console, we’ll additionally get a recreation that takes benefit of that. A twin launch of Metroid Prime 4, similar to Breath of the Wild and Twilight Princess earlier than that, can be a chance.

It is all however nailed on that we’ll be taught rather more in regards to the Swap 2 launch lineup through the April 2 Nintendo Direct. You may positively wish to set your Alarmo for that one.

That is every thing we all know in regards to the Nintendo Swap 2 right now. We’ll replace this text with rumors we belief and with data we collect immediately from sources. Any modifications made to the article after its preliminary publishing can be listed under.

Replace, January 24, 2025, 12:36 PM ET: This story has been up to date to incorporate hypothesis about worth, potential recreation enhancements and the style of cartridges.