Nintendo has today held an hour-long Nintendo Direct on its forthcoming Switch 2 console revealing price, release date, features and games. The Nintendo Switch 2 will launch on Thursday 5th June (with pre-orders initially restricted to invite only) at £395.99 or with a digital copy of the new Mario Kart World game at £429.99.
The Switch 2 has improved hardware features over Switch 2 including magnetic Joy-Con controllers (that can both be used as in a “mouse”-style to play games), a larger 1080p screen, bigger 256GB storage, 4K in docked mode, a new Chat button for chat function (used with a Switch 2 camera that can be bought separately for in-game “GameChat”), 3D audio and bigger buttons and analogue stick.
A new Mario Kart World game was unveiled as a launch game on 5th June, with new kart features and the ability to roam around the huge world with friends online and take photos, as well as a Donkey Kong Bananza 3D platformer to release in July and a fun-looking digital-only title Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. Nintendo also announced that the Gamecube game library is coming to the online service on launch day with titles such as F-Zero GX and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker available to play with a Nintendo Online subscription. It was also revealed that some Nintendo Switch games can be upgraded for 4K visuals at 60fps including the two Legend of Zelda games and titles such as Mario Party Jamboree, which will also include extra camera, voice and mouse mini-games.
There was also a strong line-up of third party titles including Elden Ring, Civilization VII, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3&4, Star Wars Outlaws and Yakuza 0 – as well as a brand new FromSoftware game developed by Dark Souls/Bloodborne legend Hidetaka Miyazaki called The Duskbloods, due for release in 2026.
Excitingly for developers, the Switch 2 digital eShop will be significantly faster to navigate, with personal game recommendations for users as well as Wish Lists for games. Game Republic will continue to help developers and games companies in the region get info on the console directly from Nintendo. Roll on 5th June!
