After years, yes years, of speculation and rumors the Nintendo Switch 2 is finally getting an official reveal today. It’s been over eight years since the first Nintendo Switch made its debut on March 3, 2017, when it succeeded the Wii U that had been released in 2012. While Nintendo has been primarily known for focusing on innovative console designs over technological leaps, the Wii U has been considered a commercial failure that the Nintendo Switch very successfully course-corrected for the company. With its removable controllers and mobile functionality the Nintendo Switch quickly became a favorite for families by giving children the option of taking their games on the move.
Since then many have wondered what the next iteration would look like and given the changes in the gaming ecosystem with ray tracing and other technological advances, what hardware would be used this time around. While it’s not unusual for popular consoles to receive support for the better part of a decade it is a bit unusual for a manufacturer to take that long to release a new model although the company did launch a refreshed version with its OLED model in 2021 featuring minor improvements.
Tegra No More?
NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang was once reported as being frustrated with Nintendo regarding missing sales potentials with a new model which at the time sparked rumors the GPU manufacturer that supplies the processor for the Switch might be working on another rival partnership with MediaTek to produce its own handheld gaming device. Despite those rumors, it’s likely the Switch 2 does still indeed feature a custom NVIDIA chip and with that, here’s a brief list of the many rumors and tidbits that have surfaced over time.
Nintendo Switch 2 rumor roundup
- Allegedly still using a custom NVIDIA processor and could support DLSS 3.5 featuring AI-powered Ray Reconstruction, and possibly DLAA but not frame generation
- Many insiders have claimed a $400 price point
- Will support backward compatibility and potential enhancement support for some games
- Conservative hardware performance improvements, expected to be on par with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
There you have it. Some of the more pertinent, and plausible rumors regarding the Nintendo Switch 2 while also leaving out the many, many, other possible announcements and release speculations. Today’s Nintendo Direct event will unveil the new console at 6 am PT / 9 am ET.