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.
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.
To the gsync comment, the Switch 2’s screen also has VRR
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.
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
I hope at the very least it forces them to drop it’s price
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
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.
Where did you get $150 AUD from?
It was a rough estimate, it’s “only” $114 AUD. That’s still insanely expensive.
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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?
-
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.
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.
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.
“$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.
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.
Yes but consider this: Fuck Nintendo.
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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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.
Can’t wait to never buy one. My switch has tears and BOTW on it, and those are the last games I’ll buy from Nintendo so…
Bananaza looks pretty good.
Why are you guys mad at Nintendo now?
Because they are one of the most consumer hostile gaming companies. The only redeeming quality is their games are usually top notch. I personally refuse to give them any more money.
Their games are usually top notch and their hardware is usually more cheaply priced. Not this time.
Same reason the ps3 fumbled the announcement and failed at launch. They got too greedy
Plus it was awful to develop for, so there was a lack of titles at the beginning
FIVE HUNDRED NINETY-NINE US DOLLARS
Their penchant for lawsuits
Because their only saving grace up until this point has been relatively cheap consoles.
Nintendo has been pushing the limits of how far it can make things worse for their customers, and people are still locked in because of some of the first party franchises. (Zelda, Mario, Pokémon, etc.)
Frankly, I’m surprised that Nintendo fans aren’t more mad.
For me, its not the console price thats the problem. £395.99 in the UK but if we consider inflation, the switch 1 would be around £360-365 today. An extra £30ish for a bigger screen and more power is not too unreasonable. Plus ending in 95.99 rather than 99.99 suggests Nintendo have tried to trim the headline price down.
The real problem is the accessories and games. £75 for new pro controller, £50 for new microSD Express (only ones compatible) £50 for webcam and £67-75 for physical games, £59-£67 for digital.
Ouch.
It seems like there’s nothing special about the camera, hopefully you could use others.
The SD Express makes sense, they’re not just upcharging (you can use any manufacturer’s cards), it’s how they guarantee the storage is reliably fast enough for all games to prevent lag in loading speeds
But for the other accessories, sure. And charging for switch 2 edition upgrades is annoying.
In the nintendo direct, when they were talking about the extra usb-c port, they’ve mentioned it could be used to connect a usb-c camera. Their camera announcement came way later.
Maybe there is hope?
Fuck nintendo and those prices.
7 seas for me.
$80 lmao and $90 they are insane
Guess GTA 6 is truly gonna be $100
It’s 70 and 80 tho?
And as an old, even with this price increase games are cheap, especially with how much time you get out of them.
I remember when Mario 3 was 50$ in 1990.
That’s a 120$ today I think.
Mario 3 was way easier to make.
What a shit excuse of an argument.
Nintendo has BILLIONS all these corpos have billions they can keep the $60 price tag.
But they don’t cause they want MORE while still paying workers shit.
Maybe YOUR paycheck has keep up with inflation but mine and millions of others sure as fuck hasn’t.
Either way shits getting modded so I’ll play for free. The switch 1 is the final console for me.
Nintendo is one of the last game companies that actually release a finished product that’s not filled with micro transactions and your mad that they add an extra $20 to the price of something you will likely put hundreds of hours in as prices of everything have increased. Would you rather they release it for $60 but you have to pay an extra $5 for each character/vehicle/map like all the American companies are doing it
Another fucking bootlicker. Bitch please tell me how much dick you suck to defend Nintendo?
#blocked.
My point is the prices are down even with the increase.
Nintendo, unlike Xbox and Playstation, is also one of the few where if things go poorly the management takes pay cuts rather than cutting jobs, and takes risks that justify those reserves if things go really poorly (like the Wii U or GameCube).
And just as an example of how much lower the price of video games has come:
If you want to pirate because you can’t afford it go ahead - with how shitty things are in the world, especially the USA, I’m not against it. Heck, if you need a pristine 1st generation Switch (the one that’s super easy to hack without hardware modification) I’d be glad to sell you mine. I use my PC for modded gameplay anyway.
All I’m saying is the cheap game gravy train could only go on for so long, especially with ever increasing development costs. Nintendo has in part managed to keep those costs down because they’ve kept things at 1080p / 30 (or 24)fps for so long.
End of the day, your paycheck not keeping up with inflation is your country’s fault, not Nintendo’s. If you live in the USA, you’re definitely angry at the wrong people, since Japan isn’t the one doing tariffs and eroding your worker laws.
Tldr: touch grass.
Must suck to live with that much spite and anger, and not even do anything productive with it even.
Hope you get better.
Must suck to be an ignorant moron.
I’m chilling. You the boot licker. Fucking dweeb.
Perhaps you’ve had a rough childhood, but calm, chill people nether react like you do nor speak like you do.
Especially when it’s about a luxury product like a videogame. I get that you’re mad you can’t afford it - then simple - don’t buy it. I’m not buying it day one either because of the price, I just accept that I understand why they raised the prices.
Like I said, hope you get better.
At least this game may be worth it if it’s $/h.
Nintendos game might be <40hours long of pure campaign (excluding open world games like pokemon)I don’t want that kind of pricing to be encouraging because if we’re paying per hour of campaign then Civ would be $6K and even something like Kingdom Come Deliverance would be $400
I don’t have that kind of money.
You can’t compare open end games like Minecraft and Civ with a mainly story based game like GTA.
What you do after the campaign is your issue.
I just say that it’s understandable if you compare it to traditional media.I will maybe buy it once it’s on sale.
No way in hell will I buy it for full price lol.And the price creep will come because you and me are a very quiet minority in comparison to the casual games that buy a nee console solely to play the newest GTA or CoD.
That’s why I didn’t pick Minecraft, Civ has a story mode and KCD is all about its story, just like GTA.
Didnt even know Civ had a story. Only played Civ6 and didnt really bother looking to hard as I just expected a turn based strategy game.
Well, I will just stick to PC and Steam Deck even if I consider price/hour money.
And that’s totally okay, if you are fine with it.
That’s encouraging prices to sky rocket.
Holy shit yall truly boot lick so hard.
10000% GTA6 will be $100 if Rockstar reads any of these posts.
Setting a bad precedent.
Are they legit charging money for the tech demo game?
Also did they mention how much the “upgrades” will be?
Seems like I’m staying on Steam Deck until that thing wears down into a pile of dust huh.
Hold on they are suing a grandma right now. They’ll get back to you soon.
Also did they mention how much the “upgrades” will be?
My understanding is it’s $10 for upgrades that just run better with no new content, and $20 for ones that also have new content of come sort. Nintendo’s gonna be the most expensive console to buy games for now. Remember the Switch tax? Get ready for the Switch tariff!
From what i am reading only mario party jamboree and kirby upgrades will cost money, the zelda ones are free if you pay for switch online and metroid and pokemon dont appear to have any proce attached to their upgrades.
The running theory is thst most games wont cost to upgrade unless they offer expanded content. But expansions costing money is nothing new.
if you pay for switch online
The more expensive Switch Online Expansion Pass, specifically. That’s a big if.
That’s $4.17 a month. It’s even cheaper if you get a family account and share with your family and / or friends like i do. (I am actually UK, but it seems the US price is the most quoted.) And comes with all the n64 (and the new gamecube) games. Its the cheapest online service of the three main consoles.
Also, to be clear. Im not a big switch guy, and i think nintendo are a greedy company. I mostly play playstation these days but my switch is handy and there are some amazing first party games.
That’s $4.17 a month.
…on top of all the other “It’s only $X!” subscription services out there. If it’s the ONLY subscription you have, sure, that’s not bad, but how common is that?
person just unironically said they pay nintendo 5 bucks a month for the privilege to play a curated list of 40 year old games you can quite literally find anywhere online. That’s 60$ a year to access an emulator they probably have less than 10 hours of playtime on. There’s just really no justification for Nintendo anymore, BOTW broke me and I had to be talked into it.
There are other perks, but most of them feel like problems they’re creating and then selling you the solution to rather than genuine value.
Ok. Let’s not misrepresent what i said.
Firstly, you dont round up 4.17 to 5.
Second. I said i am in the UK, so i dont bay any dollars a month.
Third, I pay for 1 quarter of £5 a month, which is the monthly cost of a family account. Which i said i have. So it’s actually £1.25 ($1.64) a month.
Forth, The games that come with the expansio are not 40 years old.the expansion gives you the n64, gameboy advance and genesis games, which are 28, 23 and 35 years old respectively.
Fifth, as well that i get 48 mario kart maps, as well ss some other games. On top of the online play which you get in the standard pack, and some other bits.
Sixth, i have played and completed mario 64 and bajo kazooie on the n64 emulator. I have introduced my son to mario kart 64 as well. I also am slowly working my way through jet force gemini. I have complete goldeneye played multiplayer with my brothers here and there and am working through perfect dark. On the GBA emulator i am playing golden sun. 10 hours is a severe underestimate for all that and more.
Finally. If you are salty about BOTW, then thats your problem. But dont go around lying about what i said to make yourself feel better.
Thats quite reasonable tbh thanks for answering!
High refresh screen and 4K support is a surprise to me, that’s very nice when it comes to Nintendo standards.
On the other hand, It’s very weird that they didn’t announce a price at the showcase… It sounds like this might be more expensive than what everybody’s expecting it to be.
There’s a price on the UK official store: £395.99 for the system. £429.99 including digital copy of MKW.
Preorders open on 8th April.
Edit: Physical copy of Mario Kart on its own is £74.99. Woof.
Nothing yet on the US store. Tariffs threw a wrench in their plans, I reckon.
Edit: $449 apparently.
$449, $499 with Mario Kart digital.
I just saw this getting reported. Oof. That’s not a great price.
The original rumor was true. Way, way too high for me to even consider it, will be getting a Steam Deck.
The Steam Deck is… not significantly cheaper?
I mean, go nuts. It will have cheaper games, a lot of the same cross-platform stuff and it trades blows on performance and display, from what I can see… but price isn’t really the biggest difference here.
The price reductions on the nintendo eshop aren’t really that enticing in comparison. So you have to pay pretty high prices for games or have to search on the second hand market to buy games cheaper.
On Steam, Gog and Epic you get good deals every day. Those crazy 1000+ game collections from Steam users aren’t there without reason. Games are often so cheap on Steam that you buy them even when you have 10 other games in the backlog you would rather play before.
The Steam Deck is significantly cheaper when you take 🏴☠️ into account. Having cheaper hardware made having to deal with Nintendo’s walled garden worth it in the past. Plus the fact that there wasn’t anything else like the Switch when it launched.
The Steam Deck is… not significantly cheaper?
Maybe, but I already have a large game library and free online play, and can get new games for much cheaper.
It’s both not unexpected and actually pretty reasonable, considering how similar hardware on PC handhelds stacks up.
I’m more upset at the nickel-and-diming of resolution and performance upgrades for Switch 1 games, to be honest.
It’s not similar to PC hardware; It uses a Tegra processor like the Switch 1. Which means it’s more like a phone with a less than laptop grade Nvidia graphics chipset thrown in. Unlike the Steam Deck, for instance, which uses an AMD Z processor, a scaled down version of what is in the Xbox and PS5.
That is entirely meaningless. That’s not how performance works, it has no bearing on anything.
In practice, they showed a whole bunch of footage of comparable games, including Elden Ring, Cyberpunk. Hitman, Star Wars Outcasts and Split Fiction. At a glance, it seems fairly comparable to the current batch of PC handheld APUs and seems to be mostly running cross-gen PC games at lower resolutions and framerates but pretty solidly otherwise.
That puts it in a weaker spot than next-gen PC handhelds, but on par with most of the current batch. Or at least as on par as the Steam Deck is.
So in terms of pricing for the hardware it seems pretty consistent with what we’re seeing elsewhere. The two Deck models seem to have the most comparable specs, and those are slightly cheaper for the LCD and slightly more expensive for the OLED. Other handhelds are marginally more powerful but also way more expensive. With the upcoing batch of high-end AMD APUs being also way more expensive than last gen, it seems the Switch 2 is price-competitive, at least until Valve decides it’s time and tries to make another custom deal with AMD for a more powerful APU at scale.
Preorders open on 8th April.
The US site lists May 8. Preorders also seem to be invite-only in the beginning?
From the US site:
Invitation emails will be prioritized on a first-come, first-served basis to registrants who have purchased a Nintendo Switch Online membership with a minimum of 12 months of paid membership and a minimum of 50 total gameplay hours, as of April 2, 2025. Once invitation emails have been sent to all registrants meeting the priority criteria, invitations will be sent to remaining eligible registrants on a first-come, first-served basis.
The German site lists April 8, but requires you two have a Nintendo online subscription for the last two years.
I would have bet real money if you had asked me yesterday that it would have been limited to 1080p to reduce cost. I am very curious to know more about how it actually performs in each setting, how much of it is upscaling, etc. I imagine that most 4k games won’t have much in the way of better graphics than the Switch 1, the higher memory bandwidth could help with higher res textures though.
There’s not going to be a single worthwhile game that will run natively at 4k. And i have my doubts about 1080@120 too. Maybe they can keep their polygons so low they can actually reach it, but then what’s the point?
Until March 31st, 2026, the GameChat system will be available for free for all Switch 2 owners
Is this so they can lock it behind the subscription after this? Along with all the other new features, not worth it for me. Getting the steam deck once I can’t get anymore physical games on the switch 1.
Just like how online play was originally free on the Switch 1.
I hope they at least allow gamechat to be used for free locally, and by that I specifically mean allowing the camera stuff to be active (like if you plug in a small USB C camera in portable mode, maybe even if you sit in wireless range but in different rooms)
