Nintendo Switch 2 live – Nintendo has officially revealed its next console!

The sound of the Switch 2

One of the less-discussed but major improvements in the Switch OLED over the original model was a set of massively improved speakers, and it looks promising that the new version will live up to that, with the trailer showing some chunky speaker grilles as the camera flies around the edge of the device.

The trailer also confirms that there will still be a 3.5mm audio jack – great to see Nintendo not falling into the track of recent phones and cutting that out – and it even appears to show that the device may have two USB-C ports. This would enable you to connect USB-C wired headphones to the Switch 2 and charge it at the same time, which wasn’t an easy option with the original.

What we don’t know from the trailer is what will happen with Bluetooth headphones. Nintendo added it to the original Switch years into its life, seemingly reluctantly. It may be that Nintendo wasn’t keen to add Bluetooth audio to the Switch because of the transmission delay in wireless tech – but that was improved in Bluetooth 5.0, and the original Switch used Bluetooth 4.1, so as long as Nintendo is up to date with its wireless options on the Switch 2, Bluetooth headphones should be a good experience.

It’s unlikely that Nintendo will use any of the more advance low-latency Bluetooth options from Qualcomm, such as aptX LL or Snapdragon Sound, since those cost more to include, and not all headphones support them anyway.

The big question for us is whether Nintendo will try to include any kind of spatial 3D audio for headphones, even if it doesn’t include speakers that support it. There’s lots of custom solutions for this – Sony came up with its own for the PS5 – so it wouldn’t be a surprise if Nintendo included it, and it would be great to hear the world of Zelda in a more immersive way.

Switch 2 screen: bigger, but will it be better?

The Switch 2 trailer essentially confirms what had been universally leaked: that the Switch 2 will have a larger screen, and the claims of eight inches (or perhaps a tiny bit off from that) look to be essentially correct from we can see.

But what the trailer doesn’t tell us is what kind of screen is used, and the simulated game images don’t really confirm anything either way. The original Switch launched with an LCD screen, and then the Switch OLED brought us… well, an OLED screen, with its richer colors and better contrast.

Rumors of what to expect from the Switch 2’s screen have been fairly limited, but over the course of the last year, there have been claims both that it’ll be LCD (perhaps made by Sharp) to keep costs down, but also that it’ll definitely be OLED.

For anyone who has a Switch OLED, going back to an LCD screen would probably feel like a major step backwards, so we really hope that Nintendo has stuck with OLED. But equally, we don’t want this console to cost a ton, and Nintendo doesn’t sell consoles at a loss.

We’ll find out on February 4th at the Nintendo Direct, no doubt. For now, we live in hope.

A bit of nostalgia

In many ways, that reminds me of the trailer for the original reveal of the Wii. Zero information, zero game footage, just the emergence of a new console design over music. Relive those heady days here… although the music on the Wii trailer was way better if you ask me.

A new Mario Kart?

I said below that Mario Kart 8 is the game that lives forever – but did I speak too soon? Actually, we may be looking at a new Mario Kart game, judging by the models and track.

Mario Kart 8 came out in 2014 originally – we are a full decade with a brand new dose of Kart. So it’s about damn time we got something new, if that’s what we’re seeing here (and not Mario Kart 8 MEGA DELUXE With Four New Tracks).

More details coming February 4th

So, if you’ve watched the trailer below, you’ll have seen that this is really just a teaser. It contains no features information other than the fact that the Switch 2 will play physical and digital Switch (original flavor) games, except not all games will be supported. Mario Kart 8 clearly will be, though – truly this is the game that never dies.

However, if you didn’t watch until the end of the trailer, you’ll have missed the reveal that a Nintendo Direct stream will happen on February 4th, 2025 – presumably, we’ll get all the details there.

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.

Nintendo Switch 2 – First-look trailer – YouTube

Watch On

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.

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.