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Our first quick dive into the system-level settings and the new GameChat multiplayer. Eight years ago, just before the release of the Nintendo Switch, we provided an in-depth review of the hardware thanks to early production units provided by Nintendo. This year, Nintendo has opted not to provide such unrestricted early press access to the Switch 2 hardware, citing a "day-one update" to the system software and some launch games that would supposedly make pre-release evaluation more difficult. As such, we won't be able to provide our full thoughts on the Switch 2 until well after the system is in players' hands. While that's not an ideal situation for readers looking to make an early purchase decision, we'll do our best to give you our hands-on impressions as soon as possible after launch day. In lieu of review access, though, we were able to get some extended hands-on time with the final Switch 2 hardware at a daylong preview event held by Nintendo last week. This event provided our first look at the console's system-level menu and settings, as well as features like GameChat (which was hard to fully evaluate in an extremely controlled environment). While this access was far from sufficient for a full review, it did let us discover a few interesting features that we weren't aware of beforehand. Here are some of the new tidbits we stumbled across during our day with the Switch 2 hardware. GameChat can generate captions for live speech One of the most unexpected accessibility features of the Switch 2 is the system's ability to automatically generate on-screen captions for what friends are saying during a GameChat session. These captions appear in their own box that can be set to the side of the main gameplay. The captioning system seemed pretty fast and accurate in our test and could even update captions from multiple speakers at the same time. GameChat can automatically update captions for multiple speakers at once. Credit: Kyle Orland While this is obviously useful for hard-of-hearing players, we could also see the feature being a boon for managing crosstalk among rowdy GameChat parties or for quickly referring back to something someone said a few seconds ago. You can generate spoken speech from text messages In a reverse of the auto-captioning system discussed above, GameChat also has a feature buried deep in its menus that lets you type a message on the on-screen keyboard and have it spoken aloud to the other participants in a slightly robotic voice. This could come in handy when you're playing in an environment where you have to be quiet but still want to quickly convey detailed information to your fellow players. The camera has built-in head-tracking During GameChat sessions, you can make the connected camera show only your face instead of your entire body and/or the background behind it. This mode keeps your face centered in a small, circular frame even as you move around during gameplay, though there is a slight delay in the tracking if you move your head too quickly. While you can also activate a similar face display during local multiplayer sessions of Mario Kart World, the game doesn't seem to track your movements, meaning you can easily fall out of frame if you don't hold your body still. The system can detect the angle of the kickstand Wonderful! This was a cute little surprise I discovered in a Switch 2 Welcome Tour mini-game that asks you to set the kickstand as close as possible to a given angle. This mini-game works even if the Joy-Cons are not attached, suggesting that there is a sensor in the kickstand or tablet itself that measures the angle. It did take a few seconds of stillness for the game to fully confirm the system's resting angle, though, so don't expect to be tilting the kickstand rapidly to control action games or anything. You can use mouse mode to navigate system menus I stumbled on this feature when I was holding the Joy-Cons normally and one of my fingers accidentally passed over the mouse sensor, activating a mouse pointer on the system menu screen. When I put the controller down on its edge, I found that the pointer could scroll and click through those menus, often much more quickly than flicking a joystick. Mouse mode also lets you zoom in on specific areas of the screen with a quick double-click, which should be useful for both vision-impaired players and those playing on tiny and/or far-off screens. You can adjust the mouse mode sensitivity The system menu lets you adjust the mouse sensor's sensitivity between "low," "medium," and "high." While that's a lot less precise than the fully adjustable DPI settings you might be used to with a computer mouse, it's still a welcome option. In some quick testing, I found the high-sensitivity mode to be especially useful when using the mouse on a small surface, such as the top of my thigh. At this setting, the pointer could move from one end of the screen to the other with the slightest wrist adjustment. Low sensitivity mode, on the other hand, proved useful in more precise situations, such as in a Welcome Tour mini-game where I had to move a ball quickly and precisely through a large, electrified maze. You can play sounds to find lost controllers Find lost controllers easily with this menu option. Lose a Joy-Con somewhere in the depths of your couch? Not to worry—a new menu option on the Switch 2 lets you play a distinctive sound through that Joy-Con's improved HD Rumble 2 motor to help you find its precise location. While we confirmed that this feature also works with the new Pro Controller 2, we were unable to determine whether it can be used for original Switch controllers that are synced with a Switch 2. You can set a system-wide security PIN Your unique PIN code must be entered any time the system comes out of sleep mode, making the hardware functionally useless to anyone who doesn't have the PIN. This should be great for kids who want to keep siblings away and parents who are worried about their kids sneaking in extra Switch 2 time when they shouldn't be. You can limit the battery charging level A new system-level option will prevent the Switch 2 from charging as soon as it hits 90 percent of capacity, a move intended to increase the longevity of the internal battery. This is already a common feature on many smartphones and portable gaming devices, so it's nice to see Nintendo joining the bandwagon here. Thus far, though, it appears that the 90 percent battery capacity is the only cutoff point available, with no further options for customization. You can adjust the size of menu text MAXIMUM TEXT SIZE. Credit: Kyle Orland As you can see in the photo above, setting the system text size to "MAXIMUM" lets menu options be seen easily from roughly the moon. You can set the system text to bold and high-contrast for even more legibility, and there's also an option to make the system menu text smaller than the default, for whatever reason. You can swap the A and B buttons at the system level With this menu option activated, the B button is used to "confirm" and the A button is used to "cancel" in system menus. This should be welcome news for players more used to the button layout on Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam Deck controllers, which all have the "confirm" and "cancel" options in reversed positions from the Nintendo default. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Tariffs, cheaper alternatives, and a relative lack of innovation are all factors that could slow the console down. With the Switch 2 launch days away, analysts and consumers are watching to see how well Nintendo can follow-up the best selling home console in its history. Judging from the pain of trying to secure a Switch 2 pre-order, it seems like Nintendo has nothing to worry about – at least at launch. Down the line, however, concerns about tariffs, a steadily rising cost of living, and a saturated market might cast a shadow on the Switch 2. The Verge talked to analysts, journalists, and normal video game playing people to put the Switch 2 launch in perspective. The key takeaway? While the console will assuredly have another blockbuster debut, its future looks much less certain. The Wii U gets brought up a lot in the conversation surrounding the Switch 2, as it’s the most famous example of a Nintendo failure. “The Wii U, with its confusing controller-screen gimmick, sluggish user interface, and lack of a great Custom Robo game, was one of Nintendo’s worst flops,” GameFile author Stephen Totilo explained in an email to The Verge. It sold less than 14 million units, a dramatic drop from the Wii, which sold over 100 million. And while Nintendo expects to sell one million more Switch 2 units in its first year than the Wii U sold in its life, that’s not necessarily indicative of long-term success. “The Wii U nevertheless sold out at launch back in November 2012,” Totilo said, “pulling in sales that reportedly topped the US launch sales of the Xbox 360 and PS3.” The OLED version of the original Nintendo Switch. Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge When looking at launch sales projections and predictions, Mat Piscatella, video game analyst for Circana, warned that what a console does during its launch period is no indication of what it’ll do overall. “Sales around the launch period are more reflection of available supply than anything,” Piscatella said. Another, more important factor for a console launch is the audience. “With anything regarding gaming right now, we have to separate the enthusiast market from the mass market, because they’re behaving very differently,” Piscatella added. According to Piscatella, it’s the enthusiasts driving most of the Switch 2 hype we’re seeing, particularly since the last major console launches – the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S – happened five years ago. “We haven’t had new hardware designed for the masses in a long time,” he said. “So we have a big pent up demand just for something new.” We’re seeing part of that demand satisfied by the Switch 2 pre-order frenzy. The day pre-orders opened in the US (after a few weeks’ delay because of President Donald Trump’s tariff chicanery) they sold out within hours. GameStop held in-store pre order events that saw people lining up outside storefronts for hours to secure one. But what will really determine the success of the console is how the bigger, mass market reacts, the same one that made devices like the Wii and original Switch such hits. Piscatella says this group is biding its time right now, “leaning into free-to-play and the content they already have.” It’s a tricky time for the industry. New blockbuster titles are getting ever more expensive to make. Consumers, in turn, are buying fewer of them in favor of spending their time and money in established games, all while persistent layoffs three years running are making it harder for new games to come out on time. Add that to 2025’s unique and volatile US tariff situation and the associated price increases, and now is one hell of a time to launch a video game console. “A games console is for a lot of people [...] an unaffordable luxury, especially for families,” said Keza MacDonald, video game editor at The Guardian and author of a forthcoming book about Nintendo’s history. MacDonald believes that most people who want a Switch 2 will have already pre-ordered one and that Nintendo’s real work will be to convince everyone else they want one too – a job the company doesn’t seem to be doing that well. The Nintendo Switch Lite. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Silvie Krekow, a gamer who works at Vox Media as a creative director, says she knows “almost nothing” about the Switch 2. She doesn’t frequent gaming websites or consume gaming media, but she noted it was odd that “a 33-year-old gamer with disposable income who owns a Switch, PS4, and Xbox One” didn’t casually come across at least some Switch 2 information. Other colleagues and self-described “gaming casuals” I spoke to expressed similar sentiments. According to MacDonald, Nintendo is handling this launch period very conservatively. “It’s like, ‘We know everyone’s going to buy this anyway. We don’t have to sell you on it,’” she said. “But I’m not sure if that’s true.” At the Switch 2 Direct in April, Nintendo showed off a console with some slight quality-of-life and performance upgrades. That may work for the enthusiasts – they get more of what they already liked about the original. But without something more to entice consumers beyond the diehards, the Switch 2 may struggle to find its audience. “As for the [Switch 2 features] I’m not particularly excited,” said Kushal Raval, an operations manager at Vox Media. “The rolling controller sounds interesting, but the voice chat feature seems a bit pointless.” Kushal owns a Switch, which he said didn’t run games like Fortnite as well as he wanted. And while the Switch 2’s technical upgrades will likely improve this, Kushal said, “With a $450–$500 price tag, I’m leaning much more toward getting a Steam Deck.” The Switch 2 also has to compete against people content with its predecessor. “I have a Switch Lite that I bought during the pandemic,” said Jackie Noack, a video producer at Vox Media. “My husband has the Switch 1, and I don’t think we use them quite enough to justify replacing them.” For Noack, the console’s price is also a major factor. “$500 does seem steep to me!” The Switch 2 will not be a dud like the Wii U, but it likely will not reach the heights of the original Switch. The price and lack of defining new features are two reasons, but perhaps the biggest is that the circumstances that fostered the OG Switch’s success were incredibly unique. “The Switch really picked up during the pandemic with Animal Crossing. That was an enormous hit,” MacDonald said. “And obviously that was such a unique combination of circumstances, I’m not sure that could happen again.” Piscatella agrees: “The Switch is an outlier success. I think [the Switch 2] is unlikely to do Switch numbers in the long term.” The lead up to the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 has been filled with so much built-up pressure from the anticipation of hungry gamers eager for any news, which was exacerbated by prolific leaks and Nintendo’s typical propensity for silence. With the console’s official reveal and the enthusiastic response from dedicated fans, that pressure could not be higher – and with launch coming next week, the release valve is finally about to open. “Simply because of the logo on the box, it’s safe to say that the Switch 2 is too Nintendo to fail,” said Totilo. “At least in the early going.” Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

Eight years after the launch of the massively successful hybrid console, the Switch, Nintendo is bringing out a sequel to the masses in just a couple of months. Following the announcement of the Switch 2 earlier this year, today Nintendo hosted its latest Direct showcase with a closer look at the upcoming console, plus details about its launch plans. The Nintendo Switch 2 launches on June 5 worldwide. It will cost $449.99 for the base edition. The Switch 2 is a 1080p resolution system supporting up to 120fps on its LCD screen (with HDR support). 256GB of internal storage has been confirmed for the base unit too, with faster read and write speeds than the last console. When docked, the console will be able to output at 4K HDR, on supported games, to compatible displays. A fan will be present on the dock itself to keep the Switch 2 cool while playing games at more power as well. As for the controllers, the company is touting a more comfortable experience with larger buttons and control sticks. Mouse controls are confirmed too, letting Joy-Cons be used on a flat surface for navigation and, potentially, in upcoming games. The Joy-Cons are now attached magnetically to the console. The new C button on the right Joy-Con that everyone has been curious about turned out to be a communications button, letting users open a chat and streaming window to quickly check on their friends. The Game Chat feature works while in docked and handheld modes, with a mic now being featured on top of the console itself. A separate Switch 2 camera is also launching alongside the console for use in group video chats with Game Chat and some game features. A new Switch 2 Pro Controller is coming soon as well, with it touting an audio jack and a C button of its own for full compatibility with the new system. As for returning features, the Switch 2 continues the company's trend of hybrid approach for its consoles, allowing both handheld and docked TV play. Backward compatibility is confirmed for last-generation Switch games. However, regular microSD cards will not be supported on the Switch 2, with it only supporting microSD Express. Nintendo will be charging for Upgrade Packs to enhance Switch games for the Switch 2, with first-party games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom already being confirmed for the program. Pricing has not been announced just yet. Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4, Hitman World of Assassination, Split Fiction, Street Fighter 6, Elden Ring, Hades 2, and many more games have been confirmed for the system from third-party publishers already. Source Hope you enjoyed this news post. Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years. News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of March): 1,357 RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend

New Joy-con buttons, 1080p screen also feature in MobaPad's "first-hand information." Thus far, Nintendo has offered only vague hints regarding whether or not the upcoming Switch 2 will run games and software designed for the current Switch. Now, an obscure Chinese peripheral maker is reporting that the new console will indeed work with existing physical Switch game cards and digital Switch game downloads. The new report comes from MobaPad, a little-known creator of Switch controllers and carrying cases based in Shenzen, China. In a Sunday morning blog post, the company says it is "in the process of developing the next-generation console controller" for the Switch 2 and has "acquired a lot of first-hand information" about the console as a result (MobaPad shared similar insights days earlier on Chinese video site Bilibili and briefly on its English Facebook page). Chief among MobaPad's purported revelations is that "the cartridge slot of the Switch 2 will support backward compatibility with physical Switch game cartridges, ensuring compatibility with players' existing game libraries, including digital versions." Game cards designed specifically for the Switch 2, on the other hand, "may not be compatible with the first-generation console," suggesting there may be a physical change preventing Switch 2 game cards from being accidentally inserted into an older Switch console. Play it forward Earlier this year, a Brazilian podcast suggested that the Switch 2 would offer full backward compatibility with the current Switch library. But this is the first time we've gotten similar information directly from a company claiming first-hand knowledge of the Switch 2's design from Nintendo itself. It would be a shame if all those Switch game cards didn't work on your next Nintendo console. Jingdu / Amazon Bringing forward support for thousands of existing Switch games would definitely be a boon for the tens of millions of Switch owners who might be looking to upgrade to a new, more powerful Nintendo console soon. But direct competition from earlier games could be seen as limiting for Switch 2 game developers—in November 2022, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto noted that "Nintendo's strength is in our creation of new entertainment, so when we release new hardware going forward, we plan to continue to offer new and unique gameplay that cannot be realized on existing hardware." Historically, Nintendo's portable consoles have offered backward compatibility with software designed for the previous generation of outgoing portable hardware, in a chain dating back to the original Game Boy. The Wii and Wii U extended this tradition to home consoles before the Switch's hybrid, disc-free design marked a hard break in software compatibility. More buttons? Elsewhere in its report, MobaPad suggests that the new Switch 2 Joy-Cons will have a few additional buttons compared to the Switch's standard controllers. One set of new inputs will be on the rear of each Joy-Con, just below the ZL or ZR button. Another "additional function button" reportedly sits below the Home button on the right Joy-Con, MobaPad says, though it's unclear what system or gameplay function this button might serve. A MobaPad illustration shows where a new "rear button" may appear on the Switch 2 Joy-Cons. https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv34149535/?jump_opus=1 MobaPad says an "additional function button" appears below the Home button on the Switch 2. MobaPad / Bilibili MobPad's report also echoes a recent report from Spanish-language news site Vandal, which suggested that the new console would have Joy-Cons that attach to the system magnetically (Vandal's report cited "several manufacturers of accessories and peripherals for the Nintendo console," which might have also included MobaPad). MobaPad says the new Joy-Cons will feature metal SL and SR buttons (the ones along the slide-in rail on the Switch Joy-Cons) to help facilitate this "electromagnetic suction technology." Elsewhere in its post, MobaPad corroborates earlier reports saying that the Switch 2 will have an 8-inch screen, which MobaPad says will support 1080p resolutions in portable mode. MobaPad also echoes earlier reports in saying that the new console can deliver upscaled 4K graphics while docked to a TV. The still-unannounced Switch 2 is now widely expected to see release in early 2025, reportedly to give developers more time to craft launch software. But if peripheral makers are getting detailed looks at the system this early, the actual hardware might be going to production well before that rumored launch window. Source