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Title: Nintendo Switch 2: Everything we know about the coming release

Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2024 14:00:36 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nint...

As the world turns, so do the console generations. The Nintendo Switch is
over seven years old, so itΓÇÖs due for a refresh. Nintendo Switch 2 rumors
have been swirling for years, but now they are really heating up. A sequel to
Nintendo's most successful home console ever is coming and itΓÇÖs likely
coming sooner rather than later.

Will it be a straight up sequel to the Switch with updated specs while
retaining the same hybrid functionality or will Nintendo get weird with it?
Will it even be called the Switch 2, or will the company go with something
like the Super Switch or even the New Nintendo Switch? You can never tell
with Nintendo. Heck, maybe itΓÇÖll call the thing the Switch U.

In any event, recent weeks have brought feverish speculation regarding all
aspects of the forthcoming gaming console. ItΓÇÖs important to note, however,
that very little information has been confirmed by Nintendo. The company
operates on its own timetable. With that said, here are all of the rumors
that are most likely to come true, given industry analysis.

When will the Nintendo Switch 2 be announced?

As previously mentioned, Nintendo marches to the beat of its own drum. We
donΓÇÖt exactly know when itΓÇÖll hold an event to reveal the console. It
likely won't be in 2024, as the tech year is winding down and it's rare to
get announcements of new harder in late November and December.

Even Nintendo has trouble keeping the lid on a major console release, so we
could learn something before the official reveal. There are parts that have
to be sourced and shipments that have to be made. A senior analyst at MST
Financial noted a spike in production equipment spending by Nintendo
assembler Hosiden.

When will the Nintendo Switch 2 come out?

Once again, this is more or less a mystery. We arenΓÇÖt totally in the dark,
but itΓÇÖs mostly rumor and speculation. One thing we know for sure is that
Nintendo will announce the Nintendo Switch 2 (or whatever it chooses to call
it) by March 2025, as the company confirmed back in May. Some are saying
there will be a March release date, which makes sense given the OG Switch
came out on March 17, 2017. However, other reports put the consoleΓÇÖs
release window later in 2025.

We can infer a lot from the announcement date. If the console is announced
this year, March would be a safe bet, given that the original Switch was
officially confirmed in October of 2016. However, the console likely won't be
announced until next year, at this point, so expect a late 2025 release.

Will it even be a proper Switch sequel?

Nintendo has a weird track record here. The baffling Wii U followed the
massive success of the Wii. The Wii itself followed the more traditional
GameCube. In other words, itΓÇÖs possible itΓÇÖll be something out of left
field and not exactly a true sequel to the Switch. However, this is unlikely
this time around. As much as I would love to see wacky VR glasses or a
completely bonkers console concept, all points indicate a more traditional
approach.

Nintendo Patent Points to (Another) VR Headset https://t.co/pofTjclgOt
#LaboVR #Nintendo pic.twitter.com/A5WEZUG3kL

ΓÇö The Escapist (@EscapistMag) September 10, 2019

Developers have already seen the hardware, though in a much earlier form, and
it seems to be a regular old console. While Nintendo hasn't confirmed hybrid
functionality, itΓÇÖd be a weird omission given the absolute financial
firestorm of the Switch. WeΓÇÖve also heard rumors of a Mini-LED display,
which would track for a hybrid console. ItΓÇÖs highly likely this will be a
straight-up Switch 2, or something like it, calling to mind the Super
Nintendo.

A summary of today's alleged Switch 2 images 'leak'. (1/3)
pic.twitter.com/Z4rfSGz4WQ

ΓÇö Andy Robinson (@Andy_VGC) September 18, 2024

To that end, recent rumors suggest a design that recalls the original Switch.
According to reporting by VGC, photos of the console have appeared online and
they show an 8-inch screen and magnetic Joy-Con controllers. There looks to
be SL/SR buttons and front-facing player LEDs on these controllers.

Is the Nintendo Switch 2 backwards compatible?

If itΓÇÖs a sequel to the Switch, the next question has to be about backwards
compatibility. The SwitchΓÇÖs library is absolutely massive, and continues to
grow, so gamers would be rightfully peeved if they couldnΓÇÖt play Tears of
the Kingdom on their new next-gen console. ThereΓÇÖs good news on this front.

The company has officially announced in a recent earnings report that the
console will be fully backwards compatible. It will also feature access to
Nintendo Online, so users will be able to play all of those old retro titles.


What about specs?

The rumors regarding specs are all over the place, so itΓÇÖs tough to pin
down. We know one thing for sure: ItΓÇÖll be more powerful than the ancient
Switch hardware, which was already antiquated back in 2017. One analyst
allegedly got a hold of a spec sheet from the Korean United Daily News that
said the Switch 2 would boast an eight-core Cortex-A78AE processor, 8GB of
RAM, and 64GB of internal eMMC storage. This tracks for me, as these specs
are about as underpowered in 2024 as the original Switch was in 2017.
However, some reports do indicate that the console would include 12GB of RAM.


Another source suggests that the eight-core CPU will be packaged inside an
NVIDIA-produced Tegra239 SoC (system on a chip). Given the current Switch
runs on an NVIDIA chip, that makes a lot of sense. The CPU will be more
powerful, but it's the Switch 2's new GPU that will be a major
differentiator. It's all-but-confirmed that the Switch 2 will support DLSS,
NVIDIA's "deep learning supersampling" upscaling tech, which would allow the
console to render games at a low resolution internally 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 back in 2018.)

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

As for the display, there are many conflicting rumors. Early reports from
solid sources suggested the Switch 2 would have an 8-inch display LCD
display, but there have also been rumors about an 7-inch display with a 120Hz
refresh rate. Some analysts have suggested this 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 that has a backlight made of (surprise!) mini-LEDs
rather than edge lighting. This allows for local dimming, making the blacks
more black. IΓÇÖm hedging my bets here. I think itΓÇÖll be a standard LCD, to
cut costs, with an OLED or Mini-LED model coming later down the line.
However, Mini-LED screens are slightly cheaper than OLED displays, so
thatΓÇÖs certainly a possibility at launch.

As for resolution, recent reporting suggests that the console will output
1080p in handheld and 4K when docked. That's much better than the OG Switch.

How much will the Nintendo Switch 2 cost?

We don't have too much information regarding price but we do have plenty of
history to work with. The original Nintendo Switch launched at $300, which is
pretty much the "magic number" when it comes to Nintendo console releases in
recent years. The Wii U also came in at $300.

However, there are plenty of rumors circulating that Nintendo could be upping
the asking price for the Switch 2. Numerous outlets have reported it'll be
$400, or potentially even more expensive. However, the same analysts who say
the console will be $400 were also fairly certain it would be out by the end
of 2024 and, well, it looks like that ain't happening.

Dipping back into history, there is some precedence for a price uptick. The
GameCube was $200 and the Wii was $250. The Wii U and Switch increased to
$300 and, well, numbers like to go up. A $400 price tag would make it nearly
as expensive as a PS5 and Xbox Series X. That would also put it at the same
price as the 256GB LCD Steam Deck.

Do we know about any launch games?

Nope! But itΓÇÖs certainly been a long time since weΓÇÖve gotten a proper 3D
Mario adventure, right? That would be one heck of a system seller. Other than
that, your guess is as good as mine. Past as prologue, we can expect
something from Ubisoft and an off-the-wall title like 1-2-Switch.

If thereΓÇÖs a gimmick or hook involved with the console, weΓÇÖll also get a
game that takes advantage of that. A dual release of Metroid Prime 4, just
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 with information we gather directly
from sources. Any changes made to the article after its initial publishing
will be listed below.

Update, November 11, 2024, 9:00 AM ET: This story has been updated with
details about the Switch 2's backwards compatibility as well as more details
about the current expected announcement and release timeline.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nint...
about-the-coming-release-110023903.html?src=rss

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