POLL: Your thoughts on the Switch 2
The Nintendo Switch 2 is about to be released one month from now, on June 5th 2025. It’s going to launch with a new Mario Kart game (again!) so you should expect it to sell like hot cakes for a while.
The specs have now mostly been disclosed, and they are as follows:
| Component | Specification |
|---|---|
| CPU | Arm Cortex-A78C (8 cores) |
| GPU Model | Nvidia T239 Ampere |
| GPU Details | 1 Graphics Processing Cluster (GPC) 12 Streaming Multiprocessors (SM) 1534 CUDA cores 6 Texture Processing Clusters (TPC) 48 Gen 3 Tensor cores 2 RTX ray-tracing cores |
| RAM | 12 GB LPDDR5 |
It’s definitely a lot more powerful than the first Switch, but at the same time it’s still a Nintendo product, meaning it relies on already outdated tech (hence cheaper to produce) at the time of launch. For example, Cyberpunk 2077 is said to run at about 30 FPS on this machine, which is already what an unoptimized client for the Steam Deck can deliver for several years by now.
Price-wise, it’s going to be more expensive than the Switch, priced at 450 USD. This is coming very close to the pricepoint of actual PC handhelds - which is why we wondering what you guys may think of that product positionning.
The results are pretty clear: most of you guys think that the value proposition is not great. It won’t prevent the Switch 2 from being a smashing success for other audiences, mind you. One of the key selling points is that the Switch 2 will have backward compatibility (close to 100% according to Nintendo’s own tests) with Switch 1 games, so there’s about nothing to lose if you sell your Switch to upgrade.
One of the good things that may come from the release of the Nintendo Switch 2, is that the Switch 2 will become a target for newer games. Its hardware being significantly closer to PC handhelds, this makes a lot more sense for devs to ensure that their games run well on this kind of hardware and format. Even though the Steam Deck has probably been selling relatively well, it hasn’t had much impact to convince developers to target the platform beyond simply checking things work.
I would also expect the Switch 2 release to accelerate the release of next generation of PC gaming handhelds. One Switch 2 purchased is potentially one less customer for a PC Gaming handheld, so the earlier they get on the market with something way more powerful, the most likely they will be able to capture potential portable gamers.
We’ll come back on how the market evolves later in the year.