Nintendo Switch 2 live – Nintendo has officially revealed its next console!
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Nintendo unveils its Switch successor
Nintendo has officially unveiled its Nintendo Switch successor, officially called the Nintendo Switch 2, via a new trailer posted to YouTube.
In the trailer we see the console showed off for the first time and it looks… almost exactly how we predicted! You can see it for yourself below.
Will there be any Nintendo Switch 2 launch deals?
Unfortunately, it’s very unlikely that we’ll see any substantial Nintendo Switch 2 deals for the launch or pre-order phase. Nintendo will likely offer bundles with at least one major launch game included but this will almost certainly be at full price.
Your best chance to get a saving will be to trade in your current Nintendo Switch (or any other existing console) and put that towards an upgrade to the Switch 2.
As we saw with the recently released PS5 Pro, this was one of the better ways to get the console for less. In the UK, the phone network EE bumped up its trade-in rebate for the original PS5 by £30 to £260 when you also bought a PS5 Pro, making it one of the largest discounts from all retailers.
It’s best to expect something similar to that trade-in discount whenever the Nintendo Switch 2 is up for sale – at least until the major end-of-year sales get underway in November for Black Friday.
Nintendo Switch 2 is going to be backwards compatible
One of the very few pieces of concrete information we have about the Nintendo Switch 2 is that it will be backwards compatible with Nintendo Switch software. This was confirmed in an X / Twitter post by a Nintendo corporate account on November 6 last year.
What does this mean? Well, you won’t have to worry about your existing library of Nintendo Switch games not working on the new console. The company has also stated that Nintendo Switch Online will be available on the Nintendo Switch 2, too, so you should be able to carry over your save data via the cloud.
You can see the company’s full statement below.
This is Furukawa. At today’s Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch. Nintendo Switch Online will be available on the successor to Nintendo Switch as well. Further information about…November 6, 2024
What new Nintendo Switch 2 features should we expect?
As ever, Nintendo hasn’t revealed anything official for Switch 2 features as of yet, but some leaks have given us things to speculate over.
First up is the mysterious ‘C’ button which surfaced in a Nintendo Switch 2 rumors Discord server (via Game Rant). It’s suggested that this could stand for ‘Campus’, a feature that had been previously datamined. We’re still not exactly sure what Campus could be, but folks are speculating it to be a new social feature that’s potentially similar to the Wii U’s excellently charming Miiverse.
As for the hardware itself, it’s heavily rumored that the Switch 2 Joy-Con will feature magnetic connectivity, as opposed to the current Switch’s rail attachment system. This should make the Joy-Con easier to disconnect and reattach while in handheld mode.
It’s potentially going to be a bigger handheld, too, with rumors stating the Switch 2’s display will be around 8 inches. That’s slightly larger than the Nintendo Switch OLED’s 7.2-inch display. That could be a great thing for overall image clarity, but will likely mean the device will be a bit less portable-friendly overall.
What color will the Nintendo Switch 2 be?
One of our biggest questions is of course what color the Nintendo Switch 2 is going to be. Based on recent leaks, we actually have a pretty concrete idea of how it might look.
Like the original Nintendo Switch we think that it will come in two colorways, one plainer black option for all the boring gamers out there and something more adventurous for those who love a bit of whimsy.
We suspect that the latter will be a striking combination of black, orange, and blue. The orange and blue elements will likely come into play most on the refreshed Joy-con, with colored rings around the thumbsticks and a bright rail where it attaches to the system.
How will Nintendo reveal the Switch 2?
The way in which Nintendo will reveal the Switch 2 remains a mystery even today, as we’ve still heard nothing in regards to what we can expect from that first reveal.
For the original Nintendo Switch console, we got a fairly comprehensive reveal teaser that showed the Switch’s use cases. It demonstrated its docked and handheld mode capabilities while also showing off a number of unannounced titles like Super Mario Odyssey and a port of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. This was shortly followed by a full in-person presentation detailing specs, pricing and game announcements.
If Nintendo doesn’t reveal anything concrete today, then an announcement of an announcement would be the next best thing – perhaps a social media post telling us exactly when a potential reveal will happen. We are still expecting a teaser video, potentially followed by a more in-depth Nintendo Direct presentation for the hardware.
Similarly, we don’t expect Nintendo to just shadow drop a Switch 2 video or presentation. As with any Nintendo Direct, we do anticipate there will at least be some lead-up to the event itself.
What time should we expect?
We’re expecting the Nintendo Switch 2 to be revealed at some point today, but what time should you get ready for? Although there’s obviously no word on an official reveal window, we can make an educated guess as to when it might be.
A lot of it depends on the current time in Japan, which is 9 hours ahead of coordinated universal time (UTC). At the time of writing it’s almost 8PM, so we might even see some news in the next few hours before Japanese Nintendo fans head to bed.
That said, we suspect that that the reveal will be a bit later than that, potentially even tomorrow morning in Japan. 7AM Japan time would be about 5PM EST in the US, which would allow the news to reach two large audiences at once. Fingers crossed!
What we know so far
In terms of official Nintendo Switch 2 information, there isn’t a whole lot to talk about. However, as mentioned in the intro, we do know that Nintendo “will make an announcement about the successor to [the] Nintendo Switch within the fiscal year” as per company president Shuntaro Furukawa.
Also confirmed by Nintendo is that the Switch 2 will be backwards compatible with original Switch games. Furukawa stated: “at today’s Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch.”
Furukawa then added that the Nintendo Switch Online “will be available on the successor to Nintendo Switch as well,” so it’s reasonable to expect your Nintendo account will also carry over to the new console.
Refresh 2025-01-16T13:09:17.413Z Nintendo unveils its Switch successor Nintendo has officially unveiled its Nintendo Switch successor, officially called the Nintendo Switch 2, via a new trailer posted to YouTube. In the trailer we see the console showed off for the first time and it looks… almost exactly how we predicted! You…
