Nintendo Switch 2 officially announced: 5 things we know (and 3 things that are still to be revealed)

After what feels like a lifetime of leaks, rumours and increasingly angry internet chatter, Nintendo has finally unveiled its next console, the Switch 2. The company dropped (with surprisingly little fanfare) a teaser trailer onto its social media channels on Thursday January 16, which clocks in at just under two and a half minutes and is decidedly Apple-y in the way it shows off the next generation hardware.

Nintendo is a famously games-first company, though, and they were (mostly) absent from today’s announcement, with a Nintendo Direct presentation scheduled for April. You can expect to see a lot more of a certain plumber and his pals in the Spring. Still, it’s very exciting to finally see the Switch 2 (officially), and now we can spend the next few months daydreaming about what we might be playing on it later in the year.

Here are five things we learned from the trailer, and three we’re still in the dark about.

1. The Switch 2 is an evolution, rather than an evolution

The Switch has been an enormously successful console for Nintendo, and a dramatic turnaround from the fortunes of the Wii U, which never really recovered from its confused launch messaging. It would have been very unwise, then, for Nintendo to mess with everything that made the Switch great with its long-awaited successor. So it didn’t. The Nintendo Switch 2 is another hybrid console with a rectangular touchscreen display and detachable controllers. You can use it as a handheld device or slide it into a dock to send the picture to your TV via HDMI. Nintendo has already confirmed that the Switch 2 will be backwards-compatible with the Switch, so you can play all your existing games on the new machine. Presumably it’ll once again opt for cartridge-based physical games too. Even the name is pretty conservative (though we’ll still be calling it the Super Switch, thank you very much). All that said, the Switch 2 is markedly different from its predecessor in a number of ways, some of which are revealed in the debut trailer. Such as…

2. The screen is larger

As expected, the Switch 2 is rocking a significantly larger display than the original Switch. We don’t know exactly how much larger, but the many leaks prior to the reveal have speculated that it’ll be an 8-inch screen, and from the teaser Nintendo released that looks like a pretty solid bet. The overall shape of the device is near enough the same, but you’ll be playing the likes of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and whatever else Nintendo has up its sleeve for 2025 on a more immersive handheld canvas, should that be the way you choose to play. It’s still a Switch, after all.

3. The controllers attach magnetically

Nintendo has opted for a very similar form factor with the Switch 2, which means the two Joy-Con controllers (presumably now known as Joy-Cons 2) still detach from the tablet portion of the device when you’re docking the console for TV play or using it in tabletop mode. The big difference (other than them being larger to match the larger display) is that they no longer slide on and off, instead seemingly attaching to each side of the tablet magnetically. The controllers are now black by default (though we’d expect plenty of other colour options to arrive in time) with blue and orange accents. And as shown in the various leaks, there’s a new button located under the home button on the right Joy-Con.

4. The kickstand has been redesigned (again)

The kickstand on the first-generation Switch was notoriously rubbish and not to be trusted on a wobbly train table. Nintendo fixed it with the Switch OLED, which swapped the flimsy first attempt with a more solid stand that was almost the width of the console. It was a big improvement for tabletop play, but Nintendo clearly thinks it can do better still, as the Switch 2 has a new U-shaped stand design that allows the console to be positioned at a variety of angles. Nice.

5. You’ll be playing it in 2025

The Nintendo Switch 2 will launch at some point in 2025, with no firm release date announced yet. A Nintendo Direct broadcast will air on April 2, which will go into more detail on the hardware and hopefully show off some, if not all, of its software launch lineup. If you have a Nintendo account, you’ll be able to go hands-on with the console ahead of launch at an event in London between April 11 and 13. A number of other similar events are taking place across the globe. Those keen to attend can apply between January 17 and 26.

3 things are still to be revealed…

1. What games are coming at launch

The Switch 2 reveal was, as expected, almost entirely hardware-focused, with Nintendo keeping its cards close to its chest regarding launch titles. It did, however, show off what appears to be a brand new Mario Kart game, albeit one without a name or release date at the time of writing. A new Mario Kart at launch would make a lot of sense, given the staggering success of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (itself a launch window title) on Switch, which has sold over 64 million copies to date. We also know that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is coming out this year, which will presumably be a cross-generation title that plays best on Switch 2. Other than that, we’ll have to wait until April to find out what Nintendo is cooking up in Japan.

2. The display tech

The original Switch featured an LCD display, which was fine, but significantly upgraded when the Switch OLED and its stunningly vibrant OLED display arrived. The rumour mill has for a long time suggested that the Switch 2 will go back to LCD at launch, which would be a disappointment to anyone used to the superior colours, brightness and black levels afforded by OLED tech. We’re still hopeful that Nintendo will offer the option of both, but it seems more likely that an OLED revision would arrive later if it does at all.

3. The price

We don’t know exactly when the Switch 2 is coming, and we don’t yet know how much it will cost when it does. The original Switch cost £279.99 back when it launched in 2017 and the price hasn’t budged too much since. The Switch OLED, meanwhile, with its larger, superior display, costs £309.99. A betting person, then, might predict the Switch 2 coming in higher than both, which would likely make it the most expensive Nintendo console to date. We’ll have to wait and see, but it’s probably a good time to have a look inside that piggy bank.