Nintendo Switch 2: features, price, release date… Everything we know about the next console

This will probably not have escaped your notice if you hang around the site of Digital or the Internet these days: hardly a week goes by without some concrete information, a plausible rumor or a somewhat wild rumor surfacing regarding Nintendo’s next game console. Let us therefore try in this article to take stock. We will start by reminding that what everyone calls for convenience “Nintendo Switch 2” does not yet have an official name.

Before we begin, let us point out that this article was written with the usual tweezers (which is not very practical, you will agree). We therefore invite you to take yours when you read. Most of the information included here comes from rumors that Nintendo has rarely made official.

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What launch date for the Nintendo Switch 2?

One of the only virtually certain pieces of information surrounding the Nintendo Switch 2 comes from Nintendo itself. The firm has officially announced that a new machine will be presented (and not launched) by the end of its financial year, i.e. in March 2025 at the latest.

While it is quite unlikely that the manufacturer will surprise everyone with a launch by the end of 2024 – too bad for Christmas presents – if you are very optimistic, a miracle is always possible. Remember that the Nintendo Switch was presented in the fall of 2016, then launched in March 2017.

A launch during the second half of 2025 is today the most plausible, or a little earlier to launch a new fiscal year with style, especially since we have had no news of the start of production since the end of October.

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A design probably quite close

Now let’s get to the heart of the conjectures. According to 3D renderings that appeared on the Internet (and which are therefore worth what they are worth, which is not much), the Nintendo Switch 2 would be very close to its big sister. It would still be a portable console margin with detachable controllers and the usual buttons.

On the other hand, the screen would go from 7 to 8 inches (Oled? LCD?), the detachable Joy-Con would be redesigned to work magnetically and the analog sticks would benefit from a new design. In addition, not one, but two USB-C ports would be included. Second screen, accessories…: the usefulness of this hypothetical second port remains to be discovered.

The question of the dock to connect the console to a television remains unresolved. Same thing for the battery which would be better, or the refresh rate of the screen, which some predict at 120 Hz.

Performance seriously revised upwards

Often criticized for the poor performance of its console, Nintendo could strengthen its game, beyond the inevitable improvement of the hardware after more than seven years of loyal service, obviously. Rumors in this area come and go, but there is talk of graphics at least equivalent to those of a PlayStation 4. For fans of “specs”, the latest rumor mentions a Cortex-A78AE processor, 8 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage space.

Nvidia technologies, such as DLSS or raytracingare also mentioned, while with the dock it would be possible to achieve 4K resolution (1080p for the console alone). AI could also be used to boost performance, but once again we find ourselves in the field of pnicetets — definitely, it is hardly practical to write with tweezers…

A console backwards compatible with the Switch

Rare element confirmed directly by Nintendo: as with most of its previous consoles, the games from the first Switch will work on the new one. This should therefore support physical and digital games, while the Nintendo Switch Online subscription should also be back. It now remains to be seen what other features the console will include. For example, what if she succumbed to cloud gaming or, let’s be even crazier, to virtual reality?

What price for the Nintendo console?

Let’s end with the annoying question: the price. In addition to inflation and with more ambitious hardware, fairly limited competition in the portable console sector, and even Nintendo’s recent policy, we must expect a price higher than that of the first Switch. This was launched at $300, then $350 for the Oled version. Some are counting on prices ranging from $400 to more than $500, particularly if the firm decides to launch several versions from the outset.

As is already the case with other publishers, the price of video game titles could also increase, going from classics $60 to $70 maximum.