Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa recently confirmed the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal will not take place before April 2024a date that matches the information we’ve seen in previous rumors and leaks, and that leaves open the possibility of a new console coming 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 gap between the announcement and the release date. This is important because in the case of the Nintendo Switch, we first heard about it in March 2015 under the codename “NX” and it was launched two years later (March 2017).

Everything I just told you indicates that the expected Nintendo Switch 2 could have been announced and published in the same calendar year, unless the big N makes any last minute changes to the plan, of course.

Since there has been a lot of information in recent months, both rumors and official details shared by Nintendo themselves, I wanted to put together this article where I’ve checked out the ones that are the most credible and make the most sense for you all. . Keep in mind that right now only one thing is confirmed it’s nintendo switch 2 Developingand that its launch will take place sometime from April 2024.

Nintendo Switch 2: a hybrid design?

There are two options on the table right now. The first is that the big N has decided to launch a fully continuous Nintendo Switch 2, meaning it maintains a hybrid console focus and is therefore laptop and able to work as a desktop system. This is the choice that makes the most sense as it would make it a true successor to the Nintendo Switch and retain all of its value.

However, it is important to consider that the first option would also have a negative side, and this is it would limit the possibilities of innovation from Nintendo, because in the end, the experience that this new console would offer would be practically the same as the one we had with the Nintendo Switch, and we would not see anything really innovative from a playable level.

The second possibility is that the Nintendo Switch introduces important changes at the level of design and components and functions that, as a result, allow the introduction of a new way of playing. This fits better with the bet that the big N has to innovate and offer new ways of playing, but it also is the riskiest optionand therefore I think it is the least likely.

Personally, I would rather bet on the first option, i.e. Nintendo Switch 2 designed as a smaller evolution of the original, and I am convinced that the Japanese company will not give up this hybrid approach that we saw in it, that is, that your new console will be able to function as a portable as well as a desktop system.

Potential Nintendo Switch 2 specs

The most interesting things will come out of the specifications of this new console. We still don’t have official information, but the most reliable sources I’ve had the chance to consult do pretty good idea what to expect:

• Higher screen quality and resolution.
• NVIDIA SoC with ARM CPU and Ampere GPU.
• More unified memory for system and graphics.
• High performance SSD drive.

We’ll go through all the points we just commented on one by one, starting with the screen. As our regular readers know, the big N introduced the OLED Nintendo Switch a few years ago. However, this console was a minor update of the original the jump to an OLED panel made a world of difference and of course laid the groundwork for his next console.

That’s what I mean The Nintendo Switch 2 will most likely feature an OLED paneland I am convinced that it will have a solution 1080pthe optimal level for a 7 or 8-inch laptop, and also according to the approximate performance that your GPU will have, although we will talk about it further down.

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 backward compatibility, and because eventually the Tegra chip would make it possible to offer high performance ray tracingand would also give you access to DLSS 2 technology.

On this topic, I told you back then that it was very likely that the Nintendo Switch 2 would end 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 texture units, 32 raster units, 64 tensor cores and 16 ray tracing cores.

Said chip would be manufactured in TSMC’s 5nm nodeand it was visible slightly trimmed at the spec level to reduce consumption and working temperatures. So I wouldn’t be surprised, for example, if the Nintendo Switch 2 version only had 8 active cores at the CPU level, or if the number of active shaders was reduced, or if they decided to lower the frequencies while keeping 2048 shaders.

If what I just told you is confirmed, Nintendo Switch 2 would have GPU sa approximate performance of 5 TFLOPs in FP32which means it would be more powerful than the Xbox Series Sand will play with the advantage of having more advanced RT cores and support for DLSS 2. That GPU would offer good performance in demanding 1080p games, and with DLSS 2, the Japanese company would very easily boost its expensive desktop console.

What I have just told you is something that we must give the importance it deserves because Mrthanks to DLSS 2 in performance mode, the Nintendo Switch 2 could offer a 4K experience (with reconstruction and rescaling of the image) in console mode on the desktop. I have tested DLSS 2 on many 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. The Nintendo Switch is limited to 4 GB of LPDDR4, a number that is lower than the previous generation of consoles and which certainly limits the possibilities of cross-platform game development for said console. In the case of the Nintendo Switch 2, we have three options as this console could be equipped 8 GB, 12 GB or 16 GB of unified memory.

Even in the worst case, those 8 GB would already double the amount that the Nintendo Switch mounts and would represent an important evolution compared to the current model, although to guarantee a longer life and support the arrival of multi-platform games on its new console, I think Nintendo should bet on a configuration of 16 GB of unified memory. As a reminder, this memory is shared and used as data and system RAM, as well as graphics memory (VRAM).

Finally, we have the question of storage. The Nintendo Switch uses an eMMC storage solution which lags significantly behind current SSDs in terms of read and write speeds. Because the storage unit has a enormous importance in both loading and streaming assets (data and game elements)and that poor performance can lead to cracking and texture loading issues, it’s clear that the next big N console will come with a high performance SSD.

As for the capacity of that storage drive, I’m leaning towards it it will have at least 64 GB or 128 GB. Both options seem valid to me, although again to guarantee a longer life and for a better user experience, I think it would be ideal to choose the 128 GB configuration.

Nintendo Switch 2 possible release date and price

We know that the development of this new console there is a “smooth wind”, and from the statement made by Nintendo itself, which acknowledges that the Switch is already at an advanced stage of its life, it is clear to us that the arrival of its successor is not something that is too far away. However, we don’t even have information that would allow us to clearly and reliably derive a specific date, so not yet we can only speculate.

According to the latest information I’ve had the chance to see, I’m inclined to believe that the Nintendo Switch 2 launch could happen in the middle of next year and that it will be released between the end of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025. This is data that makes sense and would leave the original console with a lifespan of more than 7 years, which is quite a large number by the standards we’ve seen in previous generations.

As for the price, it is a topic that raises a lot of doubts, but I am convinced of it The Nintendo Switch 2 will cost more than the Nintendo Switch at the time of its release. The first reason is that said console will use higher quality and more powerful components, which will of course increase the bill of materials and make it more difficult for Nintendo to produce this console.

On the other hand, this should also be taken into account the cost of semiconductors in advanced nodes is much higher today than when the original Nintendo Switch came out.

Putting everything I’ve just told you into context, I think it’s most likely that this Nintendo Switch 2 will hit the market with an approximate price of between 399.99 and 449.99 euros. To give context, the starting 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 it at the time backwards compatibility is somewhat easier to achieve these days. This isn’t confirmation that the Nintendo Switch 2 will be compatible with games from the original console, but it definitely points in that direction and I think it would be a great move from the big N.

It should also be clear to you that the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 it would not mean an immediate end to the current model. There will most likely be a period of coexistence where both consoles will continue to receive games, and this will last for about a year or two. This will allow the big N to continue to market the Nintendo Switch at a lower price, position it as an economical option next to the next-gen model, and continue to make a profit from it.

In terms of performance, if everything we have seen in this article is true, the Nintendo Switch 2 should be able to transfer demanding games at 1080p resolution with a good quality level and 60 FPS in portable mode, and as I said, it should not have problems with the same games being moved 4K resolution and 30 or 60 FPS thanks to DLSS 2.

The difference in this sense compared to the Nintendo Switch would be huge, as the console has to resort to significant drops in resolution for demanding titles, in some cases reaching up to 360p, with low quality levels and FPS rates that don’t reach a stable 30 in portable mode. It can reach 1080p in dock (desktop) mode.

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 console’s lack of performance is evident.

Nintendo Switch 2 It is very easy for him to achieve a good generation leap, and that could end up being a big call for the Japanese company to recapture the most demanding player base it lost with the arrival of the Wii, the first console that marked its commitment to put its energy behind and focus almost all of its efforts on creating new ways to play.

Concept images courtesy of ZONEofTECH.