Nintendo offers new details on Switch 2 hardware, software

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

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[Resolute]

Switch 2 Welcome Tour seems like a great free pack-in title to onboard folks in the vein of Astro's Playroom for PS5. Wait, it's not a free pack-in title? You're doing this again, Nintendo? Didn't you learn anything from 1-2 Switch? /sigh

On the one hand, they sold almost 4 million copies of that game. On the other, the throwaway sequel most likely never broke a million. Making that particular demo a paid digital title was definitely a choice.

Personally, looking forward to Mario Kart World, Bravely Default again, Hades 2.

Thought I was done with the BOTW art style, but a Zelda-led Hyrule Warriors game set in the past has my interest.

 

[Joe_diGriz]

Switch 2 Welcome Tour seems like a great free pack-in title to onboard folks in the vein of Astro's Playroom for PS5. Wait, it's not a free pack-in title? You're doing this again, Nintendo? Didn't you learn anything from 1-2 Switch? /sigh

This was my exact reaction when I saw "Paid download". Really Nintendo? You went and spent the time to develop an entire game/learning experience around the Switch 2, so people can know how the system works and how to use it, and then you... charge extra for it. Pretty much ensuring no one is going to bother.

I mean, Wii Sports was probably the main reason the Wii became so big so quickly - because not only did it help people figure out exactly how the motion controls worked, but also, every single person with a Wii had a copy automatically, so everyone could immediately experience it. Now, I can understand not wanting to go as far as a full pack0in game like that anymore, but a tutorial plus a few mini-games is a great way to get people interested.

 

[ktkwon00]

I think there’s many points to appreciate about the new switch, including that the price has not increased by that much considering inflation, but it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth that they are re-introducing region locking with the new Japan discount. Feels like a step backwards.

 

[pavon]

I’m excited for new first party GameCube controllers. I still prefer them, especially for Smash, and the PowerA versions only last 3-6 months before a button or stick starts getting wonky.

The GameCube controller is still my favorite controller of all time! I use the originals on my switch with an adapter, but the fact that it only has 3 shoulder buttons and buttons can't be remaped make it not suitable for all switch games. I'm hoping this first party controller will improve that situation, but we'll have to see. It appears to still only have 3 shoulder buttons, but hopefully they will let you remap buttons - they have been oddly selective about what controllers they support remapping for on the original switch.

 

[Numfuddle]

BTW how does VAT work? I've been wondering the past couple weeks if it's similar to if the US had a flat 20% tariff on everything from everywhere, and that 20% was passed on 1:1 to the consumer?

Basically yes. But the same applies to a state‘s sale tax as well

VAT is already included in the price. Without the German VAT of 19% the proce would be €380 or about $414.

 

[MsSuperPartyWonderFunDay]

I would have considered it for $350. $450 is a hard pass. I haven't owned any Nintendo console since the Wii tho, and I've also been playing more board games than I have video games lately.

I'm most excited to hear about the SoC and if it's coming to a new version of the Nvidia Shield.

 

[Chuckstar]

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.

The Euro price includes VAT, though, doesn’t it?

 

[Kurama]

Is there any information about networking? For one thing, are they still going to use their idiotic peer-to-peer design for games like Mario Kart? Where they require port forwarding to just play online?

 

[ThatMrFry]

I actually replaced the sticks on my joy cons with hall effect thumbsticks, and not only did it not completely solve joy con drift I also couldn't really see a difference in precision. So personally I don't much care whether the new joy cons have hall effect or not. Overall, I think the new switch is everything I wanted.

What I do want to know is now that there is another Nintendo console with a mouse, will we see a sequel to Mario Paint?

 

[Chuckstar]

Basically yes. But the same applies to a state‘s sale tax as well

VAT is already included in the price. Without the German VAT of 19% the proce would be €380 or about $414.

Yeah, VAT is equivalent to our state/local sales tax.

Except

1) It’s constant across the EU instead of skewing the markets by people being able to go buy things cheaper in nearby jurisdictions, and meaning online merchants don’t need expensive systems for managing calculation/collection for different jurisdictions.

2) The chained collection system allows for better enforcement.

3) Tourists can get their VAT refunded, as it’s considered a residents’ tax.

4) Probably other things I’m not thinking of.

 

[J.C. Helios]

LCD display

Such an anachronism. I only buy budget phones, yet even for me it's been six years since the mobile OLED changeover.

 

[Disgruntled User]

I thought $450 was bad until someone mentioned that's before VAT. J-e-s-u-s.

 

[madwolf]

Yeah, VAT is equivalent to our state/local sales tax.

Except

1) It’s constant across the EU instead of skewing the markets by people being able to go buy things cheaper in nearby jurisdictions, and meaning online merchants don’t need expensive systems for managing calculation/collection for different jurisdictions.

2) The chained collection system allows for better enforcement.

3) Tourists can get their VAT refunded, as it’s considered a residents’ tax.

4) Probably other things I’m not thinking of.

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.

 

[accantant]

Yeah, VAT is equivalent to our state/local sales tax.

Except

1) It’s constant across the EU instead of skewing the markets by people being able to go buy things cheaper in nearby jurisdictions, and meaning online merchants don’t need expensive systems for managing calculation/collection for different jurisdictions.

No, it's not. Each country has its own VAT rates.

When I buy something from Amazon in Germany, it removes its German VAT and applies my (higher) VAT from the Netherlands.

Here's a site with all the rates in one go: https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/eu/value-added-tax-vat-rates-europe/

 

[coconutboy]

Didn’t watch the presentation, will probably skim it later. I’ll be waiting an extra year or two to pick up some white or special edition version of the console, but wow am I surprised to hear about a FROM Software exclusive. Given that nobody above is buzzing about this, I’m guessing it wasn’t given much airtime in the reveal?

Duskbloods + the usual Metroid/Zelda/Mario stuff would normally make this a day 1 system seller purchase, if not for the fact I still have a large backlog of top-shelf games that include finishing the vanilla Elden Ring experience, base Cyberpunk, Witcher 3, and around a dozen or so Switch games still sitting in their shrink wrap.

Maybe I’ll get around to finishing most of those before Playstation 7 and Switch 4.

 

[mandlecreed]

Drag x Drive, ie Extreme Wheelchair Basketball looked intriguing. I imagine the one mouse per wheel/hand set up would give a good workout and a good(ish) indicator of how much effort my wheelchair bound friend exerts when she plays the sport

 

[Zoc]

I think there’s many points to appreciate about the new switch, including that the price has not increased by that much considering inflation, but it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth that they are re-introducing region locking with the new Japan discount. Feels like a step backwards.

They had no choice, really. If they priced it the same as other countries, no one in their domestic market could afford it. The value of the yen has cratered, but there has been minimal inflation and wage rises. On the other hand, if the Japanese console was cheaper and could play other regions' games, the scalpers would go on a feeding frenzy exporting the console to other markets, so the domestic market still wouldn't get access.

 

[accantant]

Didn’t watch the presentation, will probably skim it later. I’ll be waiting an extra year or two to pick up some white or special edition version of the console, but wow am I surprised to hear about a FROM Software exclusive. Given that nobody above is buzzing about this, I’m guessing it wasn’t given much airtime in the reveal?

Duskbloods + the usual Metroid/Zelda/Mario stuff would normally make this a day 1 system seller purchase, if not for the fact I still have a large backlog of top-shelf games that include finishing the vanilla Elden Ring experience, base Cyberpunk, Witcher 3, and around a dozen or so Switch games still sitting in their shrink wrap.

Maybe I’ll get around to finishing most of those before Playstation 7 and Switch 4.

The FromSoft reveal was a pretty long trailer, but it was towards the end (and well after the Elden Ring port reveal, for some reason).

I'm kinda excited about it, but I'm also very worried that we'll have another cool FromSoft title trapped on an underpowered console forever.

edit: Weirdly, the reveal that so many games are using Mouse Mode was probably the most exciting to me, especially Metroid Prime 4. Having a mouse as part of the system opens up a lot of interesting ports/games, and I never plan to play an FPS with a controller again.

That said, I'll almost certainly wait, too. Either for a decent sale (and after games come down from the ridiculous prices Nintendo suggests) or the OLED edition.

 

[Lorentz of Suburbia]

Nintendo is sadly probably waiting to announce the price because of the looming Trump tariffs...

May be just-in-time before everything grinds to a halt. I expect they'll have a bunch of inventory stocked now, and once gone, suddenly becomes more scarce than the PS5 was at its dearthiest.

Stoked to see a lot of major non-Nintendo franchises showing up to the party: if they really stepped up on the hardware, this might stand shoulders with Steam Deck and whatever the hell Microsoft is cooking up for a portable Xbox.

 

[ERIFNOMI]

BTW how does VAT work? I've been wondering the past couple weeks if it's similar to if the US had a flat 20% tariff on everything from everywhere, and that 20% was passed on 1:1 to the consumer?

VAT, or Value Added Tax, is more like sales tax. But as the name implies, it's a tax only on the value added to something. If you buy €100 of steel (which has VAT already baked in from all the previous steps) and make something from that steel and sellnit for €20 markup, VAT is only added to the €20 of value you added. So in the US where that would ring up as anywhere from $120 to like $140ish depending on sales tax, with a 20% VAT it will become a €124 product. The difference from sales tax is that VAT is applied at every step along the way where sales tax only applies when the consumer buys the final product. That's why you only tax on the value added, so the government isn't double/triple/quadruple dipping. It kinda removes the complexity of deciding if sales tax needs to be levied or not when something is sold. But in the end, it ends up the same. 20% added to the final cost or 20% added at each step, but only to the added value means the government is collecting the same amount. All that changes is how it's collected (at each step, so there's no worrying about if something should be taxed or not depending on who the buyer is) and how much money each intermediary has to front to hold inventory.

Which is better? I don't know. But most of the world uses VAT instead of sales tax, so it must work pretty ok. From the consumer perspective, it doesn't really matter.

 

[Chuckstar]

No, it's not. Each country has its own VAT rates.

When I buy something from Amazon in Germany, it removes its German VAT and applies my (higher) VAT from the Netherlands.

Here's a site with all the rates in one go: https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/eu/value-added-tax-vat-rates-europe/

Thanks for the correction. Still less market skewing than each town sometimes having a different rate, though.

 

[J.C. Helios]

Yeah, VAT is equivalent to our state/local sales tax.

Except

...

2) The chained collection system allows for better enforcement.

...

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!)

 

[Chuckstar]

VAT, or Value Added Tax, is more like sales tax. But as the name implies, it's a tax only on the value added to something. If you buy €100 of steel (which has VAT already baked in from all the previous steps) and make something from that steel and sellnit for €20 markup, VAT is only added to the €20 of value you added. So in the US where that would ring up as anywhere from $120 to like $140ish depending on sales tax, with a 20% VAT it will become a €124 product. The difference from sales tax is that VAT is applied at every step along the way where sales tax only applies when the consumer buys the final product. That's why you only tax on the value added, so the government isn't double/triple/quadruple dipping. It kinda removes the complexity of deciding if sales tax needs to be levied or not when something is sold. But in the end, it ends up the same. 20% added to the final cost or 20% added at each step, but only to the added value means the government is collecting the same amount. All that changes is how it's collected (at each step, so there's no worrying about if something should be taxed or not depending on who the buyer is) and how much money each intermediary has to front to hold inventory.

Which is better? I don't know. But most of the world uses VAT instead of sales tax, so it must work pretty ok. From the consumer perspective, it doesn't really matter.

One of the values of the each step system of VAT is in enforcement. As products move through the supply chain, each buy/seller reports the transaction. The government can then track through the whole chain, right to the final sale. In a straight sales tax system, from the perspective of what gets reported to the taxing authority, it’s just the retailer reporting what they sold. There’s no report the tax authority could simply link up algorithmically to check that what the retailer claims they sold is the same amount they bought. (They’d have to get that info through a specific audit.)

Communists use VAT, though, not real capitalists like us Americans. /s

 

[madwolf]

One of the values of the each step system of VAT is in enforcement. As products move through the supply chain, each buy/seller reports the transaction. The government can then track through the whole chain, right to the final sale. In a straight sales tax system, from the perspective of what gets reported to the taxing authority, it’s just the retailer reporting what they sold. There’s no report the tax authority could simply link up algorithmically to check that what the retailer claims they sold is the same amount they bought. (They’d have to get that info through a specific audit.)

Communists use VAT, though, not real capitalists like us Americans. /s

As I'm on the other side and have no experience with sales tax... how does that work with materials that are bought by a manufacturer? Does he have to pay sales tax on them as well?
So let's say I make furniture from wood. I pay sales tax on the wood I buy and then the customer pays sales tax again when he buys my furniture?

 

[sword_9mm]

I'm most excited to hear about the SoC and if it's coming to a new version of the Nvidia Shield.

The Shield is dead Jim.

I was kinda shocked the screen was 120/hdr. VRR would be nice.
Yeah and the hall effect stuff. Maybe it's in there who knows.

Price kinda high but nothing is getting cheaper or keeping up with salaries. Just spend more more more more.

I'll wait and see. I haven't played the Switch since last year and I barely play the PS5/Deck so I can wait.

 

[chickenboo]

I'll wait until the fall to see what games have released before I buy, if I buy: my Steam Deck OLED is handheld enough, and allows full desktop access.

 

[gizmotoy]

Pretty happy overall with the console. The price could be lower, but inflation-adjusted (and tariff-uncertainty-adjusted) it's not as bad as it could have been.

What really is missing is the OLED screen. I have both an LCD and OLED Switch 1, and the OLED version is a massive improvement. I'm sure they'll eventually release an OLED Switch 2, but in the meantime the regression is annoying.

 

[instant classic]

They had me with EVERYTHING until pricing. I get that they see what everybody else in different spaces are doing but they could have kept game prices the same and still sold gangbusters. I see this selling well initially but not having the tail the current console did.

And the fact that it seems unless they're patched, Switch 1 titles run exactly the same via back compat is a bummer.

 

[ERIFNOMI]

One of the values of the each step system of VAT is in enforcement. As products move through the supply chain, each buy/seller reports the transaction. The government can then track through the whole chain, right to the final sale. In a straight sales tax system, from the perspective of what gets reported to the taxing authority, it’s just the retailer reporting what they sold. There’s no report the tax authority could simply link up algorithmically to check that what the retailer claims they sold is the same amount they bought. (They’d have to get that info through a specific audit.)

Communists use VAT, though, not real capitalists like us Americans. /s

It certainly seems like a more sensible system to me, but I can imagine the crying from retailers of their inventory cost a little bit more up front to stock.

Plus it's probably a mess if you want to have 1,000 different rates within your country. That moves some money from where consumers are buying things to where things are made, which you'd think wouldn't be a bad thing, but I'm sure politicians would have an easy time spinning that. Ah who am I kidding, all they have to do is say "tax bad" and people will be against anything.

 

[Verbail]

I can't be the only one that's alarmed by this being part of the selection criteria, can I? It just feels all kinds of wrong (especially as I've just read Nate's article that includes a bit about LG TVs all snooping on us)

...have opted to share gameplay data,...

 

[Resolute]

I would have considered it for $350. $450 is a hard pass. I haven't owned any Nintendo console since the Wii tho, and I've also been playing more board games than I have video games lately.

I'm most excited to hear about the SoC and if it's coming to a new version of the Nvidia Shield.

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.

 

[Resolute]

I can't be the only one that's alarmed by this being part of the selection criteria, can I? It just feels all kinds of wrong (especially as I've just read Nate's article that includes a bit about LG TVs all snooping on us)

If you get the Year in Review emails, you are already sharing your gameplay data.

 

[Mangosteen69]

Pretty happy overall with the console. The price could be lower, but inflation-adjusted (and tariff-uncertainty-adjusted) it's not as bad as it could have been.

What really is missing is the OLED screen. I have both an LCD and OLED Switch 1, and the OLED version is a massive improvement. I'm sure they'll eventually release an OLED Switch 2, but in the meantime the regression is annoying.

The way I see it is they wanted to prioritize the 120 hz for some reason. 120hz, HDR and OLED would jack the price even higher than it already is. Personally I would have preferred 60hz 1080p with OLED (hdr optional) but that ship has sailed

 

[ktkwon00]

And the fact that it seems unless they're patched, Switch 1 titles run exactly the same via back compat is a bummer.

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

In addition to Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games, select Nintendo Switch games may also take advantage of the system's new capabilities* to bring benefits like improved graphics and faster loading times.

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.

 

[Psyact]

The Shield is dead Jim.

I was kinda shocked the screen was 120/hdr. VRR would be nice.
Yeah and the hall effect stuff. Maybe it's in there who knows.

Price kinda high but nothing is getting cheaper or keeping up with salaries. Just spend more more more more.

I'll wait and see. I haven't played the Switch since last year and I barely play the PS5/Deck so I can wait.

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

 

[stige]

the better quality screen and 4k60hz / 1080p120hz gameplay is enough to move me.

the price is stiff, but it seems like a great value overall.

considering i bought a Switch 1 at launch with a Pro controller and extra joycons and that's still getting used regularly i'd say it's money well spent. ($500 for hardware + $600 for ~10 games) / ~9 years comes out to about $122/yr for the thing and all the fun Switch 1 provided. that's like 1 nice dinner per year if you amatorize it out.

did they explain how digital Switch 1 downloads will work on Switch 2? will it be as simple as logging into your Nintendo account and re-downloading them on the new device? that's really gonna be the deal breaker for me if it's not deadass easy to port games over to the new device.

 

[happyraul]

I'm a huge fan of the Switch and Nintendo in general, but I found this...underwhelming? No doubt I'll eventually get a Switch 2, but I'm not going to be in a rush for it. I already have a massive library for the Switch to play through, and nothing they've shown here seems that compelling to me. Plus the price is definitely higher than I was expecting, especially for what you get. Maybe I'm getting old...

 

[iamsupreme]

$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.

 

[Psyact]

I'm a huge fan of the Switch and Nintendo in general, but I found this...underwhelming? No doubt I'll eventually get a Switch 2, but I'm not going to be in a rush for it. I already have a massive library for the Switch to play through, and nothing they've shown here seems that compelling to me. Plus the price is definitely higher than I was expecting, especially for what you get. Maybe I'm getting old...

Besides my Switch, the only portable gaming console I use regularly is my G Cloud to stream my Xbox, and that was $200.

$450 seems high for a Nintendo system, but I know that if it's solidly built and has a legitimately premium feel and performance to match, it's not completely unreasonable. The original Switch felt like a toy to me, and not in a good way. Even the OLED model I have now -- the Joy-Cons kind of flex, the screen isn't really competitive, and the sound is mediocre. And the battery life is only decent.

If this actually feels and plays like a premium device, I'd be okay with the price. But Nintendo doesn't typically do premium. And that's my biggest concern.

 

[Resolute]

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