Japanese company Nintendo has revealed details of the Switch 2 portable console — it will hit the market on June 5 at a price of $450.
Japanese company Nintendo has revealed details of the Switch 2 portable console — it will hit the market on June 5 at a price of $450.
The presentation took place at the Nintendo Direct event. A separate bundle with the new game Mario Kart World will also be available for $499.99, The Verge reports.
The Switch 2 will be available for pre-order in North America at select retailers on April 9th, and in European markets on April 8th. Nintendo has set the base price of the Switch 2 at £395.99 in the UK and €469.99 in Germany. The console comes with Joy-Con 2 controllers, a Switch 2 dock, an HDMI cable, a USB-C charging cable, and a Switch 2 AC adapter.
The Switch 2 will feature a 1080p display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The dock will upscale games to 4K on your TV, and the Joy-Con 2 controllers will be able to act as a mouse. The console will have 256GB of internal storage, up from 32GB on the original Switch.
The second generation of Nintendo’s handheld boasts a larger 7.9-inch screen and updated Joy-Con controllers, as well as new games like the new Mario Kart World game, which will be released exclusively on Switch 2 on June 5. Mario Kart World features an open-world mode, atmospheric effects that depend on «time of day and weather conditions,» and up to 24 players in each race.
It also became known that the following games will work on Switch 2:
The latest game to resemble PS4's Bloodborne is being developed by FromSoftware, the company behind the DarkSouls series. The Duskbloods is a new multiplayer game from the creators of Elden Ring that will be exclusive to Switch 2 and will be released in 2026.
Nintendo also announced the Switch 2 Camera for video chat, the new Switch 2 Pro Controller with customizable rear buttons, and GameCube games for the Switch 2. Nintendo is also updating the best Zelda games for the Switch 2 with Switch 2 Editions.
The price of the Switch 2 and its games has surprised and disappointed gamers. Gamers note a relatively small step forward in the console’s power, but its price is $150 more than the original Switch, which was released 8 years ago.
Mario Kart World is currently priced at $80 on Nintendo’s website. Other storefronts list it at €80 for the digital version and €90 for the physical version, so the price could increase by another €10 in some or all regions. Since the new Donkey Kong Bananza is priced at $70, this could mean that the price could vary from game to game, which would be very unusual, the BBC notes.
For a long time, the standard for video game prices was $60, but in 2020, with the new generation of consoles from Sony and Microsoft, this bar rose to $70, which also caused dissatisfaction among gamers. Just 5 years later, Nintendo is raising the bar even higher to $80 or even $90.
«It’s a wild leap, and if it works, you’ll no doubt see other publishers adopt the practice as well, at least with a $10 minimum increase,» notes the BBC columnist.
Some have blamed the recent tariffs imposed by the Trump administration for the price hike, but there’s no evidence to support this. Perhaps Nintendo is trying to figure out what they can get away with, or is simply trying to set a new industry standard as the industry awaits the release of GTA VI, which is rumored to cost around $100.
