Something I’ve seen far less reaction to than I expected? While the Switch 2 looks like it takes standard MicroSD cards, it DOESN’T. It takes the fairly obscure MicroSD Express standard! I can’t even BUY an SD Express card locally right now! It seems likely, at launch, that Nintendo’s branded cards will be the only ones people can get that will work with it!
The Switch 2 has 256GB of onboard storage, much more than the Switch, it is true. But it’s also backwards compatible with the Switch, and lets users bring their old digital library over with them. I have a 256GB card in my Switch, it’s nearly full, and it doesn’t have my whole library on it! If I got a Switch 2, I’d have it filled up on day 1!
And the MicroSD card issue won’t be obvious to most buyers. Parents will get their kids Switch 2s, and wonder why their old card won’t work with it. It’ll look to them like the Switch 2 or the card is broken, unless they implement a physical lock against incompatible cards, and I don’t know if SD cards even support those. Also, SD Express cards are more expensive than standard ones.
This could end up being a debacle almost on the scale of the price (which, as others have noted, isn’t even Nintendo’s fault entirely).
Man I’ve just forgotten about Nintendo at this point. Microsoft and Sony get that exclusives aren’t working when people don’t have enough money to buy every system anymore. I see Nintendo as a niche console with a handful of games. There’s just not enough to justify buying one, and I grew up on Zelda and Metroid. I love them, but it’s not worth buying another console for a few high priced games with questionable performance.
The Switch has sold more than the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S combined. Very “niche”
Cool. And Sony can sell to PS and PC, same with Xbox. They have two markets, one that they don’t have to support with hardware. They can also make games that look nice and run nice because they have much better hardware. Plus they actually do cross play with each other, making bigger player pools for match making and such.
We’re not talking about consoles sold. I’m talking about game choice and experience. If you want to look at how you can play the games, there are a few more PCs than Switches sold.
But sure, Mario Party is fun every so often.
Best selling PS5 game: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 @ 11 million
9th best selling Switch game: Super Mario Party @ 21.1 million
Super Mario Party Jamboree released in October and already sold over 6 million.
But sure, I guess Nintendo is the niche one
Cool and how many games are there on the system? With no backwards compatibility for these expensive games? How many shooters are popular on switch? Or is it that they lock down their IP and it’s marketed strongly towards children and cashing in on nostalgia.
But sure, nuance doesn’t matter. Nintendo is clearly the best system with the best games. I wonder how gaming PCs are even selling anymore, no one even should be playing on anything else it’s so obviously good. Jesus…
What exactly do you consider high priced? $60 for a game that you end up playing for 10 hours is only $6 an hour. Compared to the price of a movie ticket, that’s pretty cheap entertainment.
You can try to rationalize it all you want, bottom line is people don’t have money to buy $80 games these days. Those people aren’t going to the movies either.
I bought a rug that I’ve gotten years of value out of, should it have been thousands of dollars then? The idea that time used is how you measure value is flawed.
Edit: look what popped up on my feed, so looks like it’s not just me
https://tech.yahoo.com/gaming/articles/former-blizzard-boss-says-hard-090054442.html
I mean, yeah, I never said it was a perfect basis for measuring the value of games or anything else in the world. It’s just one metric, and by that measure it’s a pretty good value for time of enjoyment. Congrats on the rug bro.
As far as games go, it’s still a lot. I’ve played some $20 games for hundreds of hours. Not a dealbreaker, and I’ll gladly buy the game if it looks fun. On the other hand, the games generally being expensive is not a selling point for the console.
The GPU has less than 10% the CUDA cores of a 4090, a GPU that can’t hit 120 FPS in most modern games @4K without DLSS. No way in hell will the Switch 2 hit 120 FPS @1080p, not without some extreme DLSS upscaling and some serious graphical compromises… Proper RT is completely out of the question.
This thing won’t even be able to keep up with the PS5, a 5 year old console. It will compete with the Steam Deck, however.
That said, I miss the days when Nintendo cared about graphics. But at this point it’s been over 25 years since those days. That’s almost as long as it’s been since I last enjoyed a Mario or Zelda game. Between all this and the fact that they sue their fans, I am so done with Nintendo. I feel like I’ve outgrown them anyway.
the PS5, a 5 year old console
Can we out spoiler tags on things that make me, someone who isn’t 30 yet, feel downright ancient please? It’s too early to be facing my mortality like that
Hello, is this your first time finding out consoles blatantly lie about 4k since console gamers have no understanding how 4k is impossible to run with the best hardware.
Yeah seriously it’s so annoying.
the size of the framebuffer has nothing to do with how much power the device has to fill it up.
Even the crappiest integrated gpu is “4k” capable
4k? My 3070 can’t even get close to 60fps 4k on most games
It’s 4k compatible, probably not 4K native. Maybe zome games like Zelda will use Nvidia upscalling.
Gotta just be for video playback not games right??
Or maybe 30fps max?
Or it’s rendered at 1080 and upscaled…
Probably this. TV does this all the time. There is not much actually filmed in UHD/12G, except maybe Premier League, F1 and other major sporting events.
the games will still run at 1080p, or 720p but be upscaled to 4k using dlss, xess, or fsr
And yet switch 2 can on 10 year old phone hardware.
Brought to you by the losers of the lawsuits… Losers like you and me.
120 and 4K are often claimed on console specs but are rarely achieved within games. At best it will be capable of that when playing Netflix or streaming.
They announced Metroid Prime 4 will be able to run at 1080p 120fps or 4K 60fps when docked. It doesn’t have the most impressive graphics or anything, but it sounds like they’re actually going to try doing it for a few games.
I’d bet that’s using a lot of upscaling in both modes
Switch 1 games can support dynamic resolution, it’s probably going to be used for higher end games on Switch 2 as well.
Nintendo will try but based off of some of the third party gameplay they seem to be the only ones who will
There was fine print at one point during the stream that specified that 4K will be limited to 60 FPS.
Well spotted!
I missed that while i was reading the supported resolutions on the screen.
The real advantage of a 120 Hz screen is that you get a much more graceful degradation if you dip below your fps target for a bit. If you’re targeting 30 fps but drop to 25, it still feels pretty smooth on a high-refresh screen, whereas that’s appallingly clunky on a low-refresh one. A “poor man’s gsync”, if you will.
To the gsync comment, the Switch 2’s screen also has VRR
This is what a lot of people don’t understand. Higher refresh rate even with lower fps makes games feel more responsive. I can play 30 fps games much easier on a refresh rate higher than 60hz.
Yes, for all but the simplest games it will be one or the other, not both at once. That’s how it tends to work even on the flagship XB/PS systems.
But how does Stardew Valley run?
If you don’t have autorun on you just hold the stick all the way in one direction.
After a week with Nintendo controllers you don’t even have to hold it anymore.
Zing!
Or it’s actually running at 720p30 and being FSR/framegenned into a blurry shimmery mess. There’s no way Nintendo managed to cram a chip powerful enough to render its own Switch 1 games at true 4k120 into a tablet.
Nah the direct didn’t claim 4k at 120.
You get 1080p at 120, or 4k at 60.
Or it’s actually running at 720p30 and being FSR/framegenned into a blurry shimmery mess. There’s no way Nintendo managed to cram a chip powerful enough to render its own Switch 1 games at true 1080p120 into a tablet.
Fixed.
The problem isn’t getting enough computing power into the tablet, the problem is cooling and battery power.
90€ for Mario Kart 🤡 I hope this console flops because of this alone.
I hope at the very least it forces them to drop it’s price
You know it will not… The best I hope is that MK doesn’t sell too well separately thus forcing a discount.
Depends on the customer really, we do not live in times where everyone can buy food or even think about raising another family member. Mind the release sales of the switch 1 were pre covid.
This might flop due to 2-class conflict, although Id love to see the switch 2 to succeed
The reporting I’m seeing puts it at 40 if you buy the console bundle. Which… I mean, why wouldn’t you?
I’m not sure what the deal is with the physical version, I have to assume it’s some collector’s edition deal with an Amiibo or something. Can’t imagine they straight up double the price if you want to buy the card in a box instead of bundled with the console. Waiting on official prices for all of it, in any case.
But you know that’s not gonna be the only $80 game. The next Zelda and 3D Mario are guaranteed to be $80, too, because they know people will pay it. Just like TotK’s $70 price point.
This is the price for the game on the official Nintendo store. DK is priced at 70€ digital and 80€ physical, it’s not just a Mario Kart thing.
Got a link? My official Nintendo site hadn’t updated with Switch 2 info when I checked. Do they detail the contents of the physical versions?
Here’s the link to the French store: https://store.nintendo.fr/fr/nintendo-switch-2 all regional stores have similar prices in their own currencies. No details on what’s inside the box.
Got it, thanks. Yeah, it seems it’s a 10 euro extra for physical. I get why, those Switch carts were expensive, and it seems like they’ve moved to even more expensive, faster storage, but it REALLY sucks. Puts the “virtual card” stuff they announced in perspective.
It just seems crazier for MK specifically because… well, it’s forty bucks with the bundle, and the bundle is digital-only. Makes physical 2x the cost, which is nuts.
They’re really milking this launch on a number of avenues I’m not cool with, and I’m not sure the offering justifies it. Some of those current-gen ports looked rough.
The 10 FPS screenshare feature didn’t entice you? And like cmon, gamechat. Nothing else has gamechat. And you will never even have to use a mouse ever again cuz u can just take your joycon to work and scratch it over the desk.
Don’t quote me, but I think they will ship a plastic guard to use for the mouse, just like the Lenovo Legion Go does. Don’t knock it til you try it, it does work.
For the record, it’s weird to see Nintendo stumble upon the incredible concepts of Kinect and Discord in the year of our lord 2025. But hey, every Nintendo console needs a gimmick you can proceed to ignore, and this one will at least be useful to… somebody? At least it’s a gesture that online games aren’t an afterthought anymore.
What I’m not sure about at all is the pricing model for games and backwards compatibility as it is. And while the hardware is perfectly acceptable for a modern handheld and very comparable to the current batch of PC handhelds it’s the target for the next decade, presumably, so it’s at best as outdated as the original Switch was while not being the only game in town to play some of those HD ports.
I don’t think it’s an underwhelming propostion at this point, and you can’t deny the first party software on display. I don’t think it’s nearly as exciting as the first Switch, though. We’ll see how it does with mainstream audiences, I suppose.
So it’s $650 CAD $700 AUD for the Switch 2 and it’s $120 CAD $150 AUD for Mario Kart.
LMAO
Where did you get $150 AUD from?
It was a rough estimate, it’s “only” $114 AUD. That’s still insanely expensive.
Preorder for mk in AUD is $114, fortunately. 😅
…still fucking steep.
Also it’s a “preorder”
Holy fuck lol. I’ll buy it used in a few years then. This’ll motivate softmodders and emulation too.
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I think I might buy a steamdeck instead and just hope that the fromsoft game is a temporary exclusive
Definitely getting a Steam Deck instead. I was waiting for confirmation of the ridiculously high price.
For $50 less, you get a similarly capable machine in terms of specs but more comfortable to hold, with an immensely larger library, and an operating system far more respectful of your authority to do what you want with the machine you bought.
I don’t think we know the specs yet, it might be way more powerful than the Steam Deck. I agree though that the Steam Deck is a better value considering the amount of games and their prices.
Digital Foundry has been looking at what tech could feasibly be in this thing for a long time now. They’re going to be very comparable in performance.
And you can play online for free.
Most importantly for someone with limited funds like me, you can sideload games onto it.
I’d encourage you to utilize those limited funds legally by buying games on deep discounts, if you were implying piracy, but even legitimately, being able to sideload all the old PC games you have is a massive plus. GOG and Epic give away great games for free on the regular, and an Amazon Prime subscription has recently been filled with some bangers that you get to keep via both of them.
“$450 is an insanely high price for a new console, so I’m going to buy a $400 2 year old console instead.”
It’s a 60Hz vs 120Hz screen, and it’s got true 1080p resolution. It’s certainly on-par with the Steam Deck in terms of performance and performance per dollar. The price isn’t ridiculous by any stretch.
“$450 is an insanely high price for a new console, so I’m going to buy a $400 2 year old console instead.”
Sure. But it’s also a choice between a library that will forever cost $70 00-$90.00 per game, and a game library infamous for game sales so good that an average player cannot finish their library because the seasonal sales are too good to pass up.
A $400 2 year old console that I can sideload games onto, yes. Nintendo’s strength has been “weaker hardware, cheaper price” since the Wii. Now they want to price themselves alongside Sony and Microsoft? No thanks.
Yes but consider this: Fuck Nintendo.
The price isn’t ridiculous by any stretch
The thing for me is: The Switch is only a closed-down console. You can only buy games through the nintendo store. The Steam Deck is open. I can play my older games, even physical games via external optical drive, on my Steam Deck.
A temporary exclusive, just like Demon’s Souls and Bloodborne…
I have a steam deck, and I just hope yuzu or ryujinx will be able to run Duskbloods :P
tbh the fact the fromsoft game seems to be mostly focused on multiplayer makes me not too hyped
and yeah, a steamdeck is a solid investment
I think I would wait for a Steam Deck 2 just for the sake of future proof.
Steam Deck 2 isn’t coming for a long time. Steam Deck OLED is still more than viable.
Yeah. No way valve launches SD2 with Switch 2 and the upcoming xbox handheld. It will at least take another 2, maybe 3 years
and I gotta be honest I kinda wanna play rimworld, emulated stuff and stardew valley mainly. I just rlly like the idea of it being run on linux and me owning the fucking games forever.
Well, “owning,” if they’re bought through Steam.
Does the Steam Deck have GOG support?
You can sideload a program called Heroic Games Launcher that lets you easily manage your GOG games, as well as Amazon and Epic.
You can download it through dicvover in Desktop Mode.
Yup. Install either Heroic or Lutris (though Heroic is a little better). I think there’s also a plugin to allow you to access Heroic through the Steam frintend, but in Desktop Mode, when installing a game through Heroic, it’ll add it to your Steam library, which means you can access it in Game Mode too.
You don’t own your games on GOG. Please stop spreading this easily disproven lie. GOG, like all digital storefronts, only sells revocable licenses.
You can download and keep the installers forever in your personal storage somewhere, and install them without the need of Internet connection.
When you buy a game from GOG you’re buying without DRM and have all the installers available to download as backups. Regardless of what the fine print may say, this is effectively owning your games forever.
They also flat out said it will be a long time before they even consider a 2nd version. Performance efficiency and battery tech need to make some leaps to make it practical.
The Steam Deck is getting long in the tooth. New triple A games don’t run very well on it or aren’t even playable. It’s fine if you wan tot run older games or indie games, but otherwise you might have to look for one of the competitors.
I mean, I’ve been using a Switch to play games portably so far. A Steam Deck will be a revelation by comparison.
For sure. It’s a great machine. I have one. But I’m trying to keep expectations down. Some people might be surprised to know that it isn’t a latest gen machine. Some people might have too high expectations because of all the rave it gets.
I have a PS5 and decent PC for the stuff that the Deck can’t handle. I tend to prefer older games, anyway.
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Best switch console is still the steam deck I’m sure :3
Given the switch2 is going to cost more, definitely.
Also games are going to be $80 apparently :(
Either that, or the powerful gaming PC you put the Switch 2 money towards that will eventually emulate the Switch 2. Seems like a better investment than buying a locked down console with a GPU less powerful than a RTX 3050 that can only play $80 games.
Legion Go (Debian) for me :)
How good is it? Does everything work like on the deck?
Yea, except:
-
KDE’s built in screen keyboard is broken (Using Steam’s keyboard). GNOME keyboard does work fine.
-
Autologin is on and screen locking is off due to a broken keyboard.
-
Manual installation if hhd, steam, flatpak, lutris may required a physical keyboard for first setup.
-
KDE wallet is on to protect (non-file) data. (Wifi passwords, chrome/Firefox login, etc…)
-
JamesDSP is used as pulse/easyEffects may need a reset as the audio may “break” when resuming from suspend.
I didn’t want a non-vanilla Debian system (Bazzite), so I chose to manually install Debian and have a nice Debian setup. Besides those issues, everything works pretty good (no crashes, hiccups.)
Are you interested in Debian on a legion Go?
-
Given Nintendos never on sale pricing I cannot commit to this console. God 90 for a game is ridiculous.
Not to mention their awful peripherals pricing and chatoic lineup.
I don’t actually think that $90 for a game is ridiculous nowadays, if the game has tons of content.
But a company of Nintendo’s size, with their sales volume, selling a game for $90 when it only has a few hours of content? Fuck off
They’re like the exact opposite of the spectrum from Minecraft
One thing I can believe is that AAA games have gotten really expensive to make, so it’s not surprising that companies have broken that sort of soft $60 limit that we had for a while. I’m not even against paying more for a good game. When an indie game for $20 can provide over 100 hours of enjoyment, it’s just getting to be a tough sell.
Look at this bootlicking 🤡
Whose boot am I licking?
Nintendos but you’re too bent over to see.
Really confused by this. I said Nintendo can fuck off.
Console price doesn’t bother me so much, but these game prices really instantly killed my hype. Can’t wait to not buy the Wii U 2
That pricing is really putting Nintendo out of its core market. The reason the Switch was an absolute smash is because it was and remained accessibly priced. The fact they’re charging $450 is really putting them out of the “hey that’s not too bad” audience. This is a wildly bad move on their part.
The nickel and diming about every single thing they mentioned makes Sony and Microsoft seem generous by comparison.
Switch 2 announcement in one image:
The G stands for gamers’ money!
Yes, it is a price increase, but the inflation has been wild. For context, the Switch in 2017 for $299 is equivalent to $389 in 2025 dollars. It’s really been insane. The Nintendo 64 from 1996 was $199, or $404 in 2025 dollars.
Consumers also had more buying power back then, so converting the currency doesn’t tell the whole story.
While you’re not literally wrong adjusting for inflation, their “value proposition” is a bit out the window. It’s so close in price to comparable tech, it seems like a much more serious purchase. Nintendo hit it right with the Wii and the Switch by pricing competitively low. The Switch 2 should follow the same value quotient to be a runaway success. This is effectively what killed the Wii U. The Switch 2 could be destined to follow the same fate.
Even the mental trickery of “$399” would be more effective than “$449” for Nintendo in the long run. They have to question whether that $50 is worth losing marketshare. I think if they are keeping the game prices and (potentially) the cost of services like online higher than the entry point of buying the system should be lower.
2017 for $299 is equivalent to $389
Yes, but it doesn’t cost $389 but $450. For $389 I would’ve considered it, bot not $450. Also the bigger issue for me are the game and accessory prices.
I have never purchased a game at $70 so for $80 they can be sure as shit I am hard noping out of this one. I was a day 1 3DS (ambassador club!) and Wii U buyer. Really hope this backfires, so incredibly stupid
What’s the source for the $80 thing? If it’s in the article I’m missing it.
Nintendo US website. Mario Kart has an MSRP of $79.99. Donkey Kong has an MSRP of $69.99.
https://www.nintendo.com/us/gaming-systems/switch-2/featured-games/mario-kart-world/
Scroll down a good amount, 79.99$ MSRP for Mario kart world. Thats not a guarantee they’ll all be 80$. The new donkey Kong is 70$. No official word on other games, though.
It’s pretty much a guarantee that 3D Marios and Zeldas will be $80.
In Australia we had an au$90 price tier with only 6 titles:
- Breath of the Wild
- Pokkén Tournament DX
- Fire Emblem Warriors
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2
- Super Smash Bros Ultimate
- Tears of the Kingdom
All their other AAA titles were au$80, for example:
- Super Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Super Mario Odyssey
- Pokémon Sword/Shield or Scarlet/Violet
- Super Mario Party / Superstars / Jamboree
- New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe / Super Mario Wonder
Then smaller releases were placed at $70, for example:
- 1-2-Switch
- Go Vacation
- Fitness Boxing 2/ 3
- Miitopia
- WarioWare: Get It Together / Move it
You can see they used the $90 tier quite aggressively early in the piece and then scaled back significantly with almost 5 years between Smash Bros and Tears of the Kingdom.
At the same time they made sure the Marios (Kart, 3d, 2d, Party, Sports), Pokemons and other franchises with broad all-ages appeal were priced in the middle at $80.
To be honest I’m a bit worried about the pricing for Super Mario Kart World, the previous one was the beat selling Switch title and if they come out of the gate with high sales they may take the wrong lessons and try to lock in that au$120 price (a 50% increase!).
On the other hand they may just be price anchoring with the bundle. Having the standalone console priced at au$700 and the bundle at au$770 will let the consumer find ways to justify the purchase, they might say the console is worth $700 so the game is only $70, or they might argue the game is $120 so the console is really only $650. Either way will make them feel better about giving Nintendo the money.
I suppose the best outcome for the consumer would be for most people to get SMKW in the bundle and then hopefully the next title they release at that price point has lacklustre sales. If they see they sell more units at a lower price it can be a good outcome for everyone.
