Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa recently confirmed that the Nintendo Switch 2 unveiling will not take place before April 2024a date that fits with the information that we had been seeing in previous rumors and leaks and that leaves open the possibility of the arrival of a new console from the big N before the end of said year.
In this sense, it is important to note that Nintendo itself has also confirmed that its next console will have a shorter time distance between its announcement and its release date. This is important, because in the case of Nintendo Switch the first time we heard about it was in March 2015 under the code name “NX”, and its launch occurred two years later (March 2017).
Everything that I have just told you implies that the expected Nintendo Switch 2 could be announced and released in the same calendar year, as long as the big N doesn’t make any last-minute plan changes, obviously.
As a lot of information has been appearing in recent months, both rumors and official details that Nintendo itself has shared, I wanted to give shape to this article where I have screened for all of you those that are most credible and that make the most sense. Keep in mind that right now the only thing that is confirmed is that Nintendo Switch 2 is Developingand that its launch will take place sometime from April 2024.
Nintendo Switch 2: hybrid design?
Right now there are two possibilities on the table. The first is that the big N decides to launch a fully continuous Nintendo Switch 2, that is, that it maintains the hybrid console focus and, therefore, is a laptop and capable of working as a desktop system. This is the option that makes the most sense, since it would make it a true successor to the Nintendo Switch, and it would maintain all its value.
However, it is important to take into account that the first option would also have a negative side, and that is that would limit the possibilities of innovation by Nintendo, since in the end the experience that this new console would offer would be practically the same as what we have had with Nintendo Switch, and we would not see anything truly innovative from the playable level.
The second possibility is that Nintendo Switch introduces important changes at the level of design and components and functions that, in the end, allow the introduction of a new way of playing. This fits better with the bet that the great N of innovate and offer new ways to play, but it is also the most risky optionand therefore I think it is the least likely.
Personally, I would bet more on the first option, that is, on a Nintendo Switch 2 conceived as a minor evolution of the original, and I am convinced that the Japanese company is not going to abandon that hybrid approach that we saw in this, that is, that your new console will be able to function both as a portable and as a desktop system.
Potential Nintendo Switch 2 Specs
The most interesting will come from the specifications of this new console. We still do not have official information, but the most reliable sources that I have been able to consult have a pretty good idea of what to expect:
- Higher quality and resolution screen.
- NVIDIA SoC with ARM CPU and Ampere GPU.
- More unified memory for system and graphics.
- High performance SSD drive.
We are going to go through, one by one, all the points that we have just commented on, and we start with the screen. As our regular readers will know, the big N introduced an OLED Nintendo Switch a couple of years ago. This console was a minor update to the original, though the jump to an OLED panel made a world of difference and of course he has laid the foundations for his next console.
By this I mean that Nintendo Switch 2 will most likely feature an OLED paneland I am convinced that this will have a resolution 1080pan optimal level for a 7 or 8-inch laptop, and also according to the approximate power that your GPU will have, although we will talk about it just below.
Nintendo will once again use a NVIDIA SoC. It wouldn’t make sense to jump to an AMD APU because it would greatly complicate the issue of backwards compatibility, and because in the end a Tegra chip would allow you to offer a high performance ray tracingand would also give you access to the DLSS 2 technology.
On this subject, I already told you at the time that it is very likely that Nintendo Switch 2 will end up using a customized version of the Tegra Orin SoCa chip that, in its original version, has a 12-core ARM Cortex-A78E CPU and an Ampere GPU with 2,048 shaders, 64 texturing units, 32 raster units, 64 tensor cores and 16 ray tracing cores.
Said chip would be manufactured in the TSMC 5nm nodeand could be seen slightly trimmed at spec level to reduce consumption and working temperatures. Thus, for example, I would not be surprised if the version for Nintendo Switch 2 only had 8 active cores at the CPU level, or if the number of active shaders were reduced, or if they decided to reduce frequencies while maintaining the 2,048 shaders.
If what I just told you is confirmed, Nintendo Switch 2 would have a GPU with a approximate power of 5 TFLOPs in FP32which means it would be more powerful than Xbox Series Sand would play with the advantage of having more advanced RT kernels and support for DLSS 2. That GPU would offer good performance in demanding games with 1080p resolution, and thanks to DLSS 2, the Japanese company would have it very easy to boost its expensive desktop console.
What I have just told you is something to which we must give the importance it deserves, because gthanks to DLSS 2 in performance mode that Nintendo Switch 2 could offer a 4K experience (with reconstruction and rescaling of the image) in its desktop console mode. I have tested DLSS 2 on numerous occasions with 4K resolution, and I can confirm that the result it achieves is really good.
Another key aspect of this new Nintendo console would be unified memory. Nintendo Switch is limited to 4 GB of LPDDR4, a figure that is below even the previous generation of consoles, and which has certainly limited the possibilities of developing cross-platform games for said console. In the case of Nintendo Switch 2 we have three possibilities, because this console could come equipped with 8 GB, 12 GB, or 16 GB of unified memory.
Even in the worst case, those 8 GB would already double the amount that Nintendo Switch mounts, and would represent an important evolution compared to the current model, although to guarantee greater longevity, and to promote the arrival of multiplatform games on its new console, I think that Nintendo should bet on a configuration of 16 GB of unified memory. I remind you that this memory is shared and used as RAM for data and system, and also as graphics memory (VRAM).
Finally we have the issue of storage. Nintendo Switch uses an eMMC storage solution which, in terms of read and write speeds, lags far behind current SSDs. Since the storage unit has a enormous importance both in loading times and in the streaming of assets (data and game elements)and that poor performance can lead to popping and texture loading issues, it’s clear that the next big N console will come with a high-performance SSD.
Regarding the capacity of that storage unit, I am inclined to think that will have at least 64 GB or 128 GB. Both options seem valid to me, although again to guarantee a longer useful life and to offer a better user experience, I think that the ideal would be to opt for a 128 GB configuration.
Possible release date and price of Nintendo Switch 2
We know that the development of this new console going “smooth wind”, and from the statements that Nintendo itself has made, which recognizes that the Switch is already in an advanced stage of life, we are clear that the arrival of its successor is not something that is very far away. However, we also do not have information that allows us to clearly and reliably deduce a specific date, so for now we can only speculate.
After the latest information that I have been able to see, I am inclined to think that the presentation of Nintendo Switch 2 could take place in the middle of next year and that its release would occur between the end of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025. These are dates that make sense, and that would leave the original console with a life cycle of more than 7 years, a fairly large number considering the standards that we had seen in previous generations.
Regarding the price, it is a subject that generates many doubts, but I am convinced that Nintendo Switch 2 will cost more than Nintendo Switch at the time of its release. The first reason is that said console is going to use higher quality and powerful components which, obviously, will make the bill of materials more expensive and will make it more difficult for Nintendo to manufacture this console.
On the other hand, it should also be taken into account that the price of semiconductors in advanced nodes is, today, much higher than when the original Nintendo Switch was released.
Putting everything I have just told you in context, I think that the most likely thing is that this Nintendo Switch 2 will hit the market with an approximate price of between 399.99 and 449.99 euros. To give you context, the launch price of the original was €329.99.
Other things you should know
The first is undoubtedly one of the most important, and that is that Shigeru Miyamoto himself said at the time that backward compatibility is, nowadays, somewhat easier to achieve. This doesn’t amount to confirmation that Nintendo Switch 2 is going to be compatible with games from the original console, but it certainly points in that direction, and I think it would be a great move from the big N.
You should also be clear that the launch of Nintendo Switch 2 it would not mean the immediate end of the current model. Most likely, there will be a period of coexistence in which both consoles will continue to receive games, and that will continue for approximately one or two years. This will allow the big N to continue marketing the Nintendo Switch at a lower price, position it as an economic option to the new generation model and continue to make it profitable.
In terms of performance, if everything we have seen in this article is true, that Nintendo Switch 2 should be capable of moving demanding games in 1080p with a good level of quality and 60 FPS in portable mode, and as I have said it should not have problems moving those same games in 4K resolution and 30 or 60 FPS thanks to DLSS 2.
The difference in this sense compared to Nintendo Switch would be enormous, since the console has to resort to significant drops in resolution in demanding titles, reaching up to 360p in some cases, with a low quality level and FPS rates that do not reach a stable 30 in portable mode. In dock mode (desktop) it can reach 1080p.
With games developed by Nintendo itself, optimized from the ground up for the console’s hardware, the results we’ve seen are much better, but even in these cases the lack of power of the console is evident.
Nintendo Switch 2 It is very easy for him to achieve a good generational jump, and this in the end could be a great claim for the Japanese company to recover that most demanding player base that it was losing after the arrival of the Wii, the first console that marked its commitment to leave power in the background and focus almost all its efforts to create new ways of playing.
Concept images courtesy of ZONEofTECH.
