Nintendo Switch 2 Direct April 2, 2025

[Anna_Lynn]

If the Switch 2 does somehow increase in price even more from now until June 5, I have a gut feeling that we're going to see a repeat of the Wii U. Hopefully not to the same extent, since the Wii U only sold 13.5M units compared to the Wii's 100M+ units, but yeah Nintendo is taking crazy pills if they think the Switch 2 is going to rival the Switch 1's 150M+ units. None of their "sequel" consoles over the years have topped the initial consoles units sold...The SNES sold less than the NES, the GBA sold less than the gameboy, the 3DS sold less than DS, etc.
Also (un)funfact, I just found out that Canada pre-orders are delayed now too, just to match with the USA delays. Not a good sign for Nintendo right now.

[JustABeautifulGuy]

I remember the rumors that this console was supposed to come this last holiday season before the internal delay due to the games not being ready. I wonder if how much better of a time that would've been to release this console... even if the games weren't ready. We could have Nintendo have one launch title with Zelda EoW and Mario games acting as the cross gen releases. And then deliever rest of the games when they'd be ready. A slow start like Wii U but... it probably would've been much better than now. I genuinely think the console price raising in both US and Canada will ruin the console sales a lot. The entire narrative about this console already itself is that it's too expensive.

[Kikki]

Figured. But honestly, it's enraging. Why do we have to be treated like an adjunct to the US? We're our own country, not some 51st state of the US. Deal with us as CANADA, not as though we were 'America's hat'. (US terms for Canada in relation to itself are always so belittling, making our entire country nothing more than an accessory of theirs. Our country becomes a mere one of their states. Or just their HAT. Yeah...a hat that is slightly bigger than the US' entire body. If we have to become an accessory, it'd be slightly more believable if we were said to be its beach umbrella. Or if that sounds too tropical for Canada, then at least its extra-large golf umbrella.)

I hope they make a deal to get the console shipped directly here so it doesn't have to go through the US at all, if that is part of the issue. Vancouver is a major shipping port...no reason why it can't go straight there, I don't think. (I thought it already did...)

It'll be what it be. I don't care too much about the delay itself, just the circumstances of it. For this country's pre-orders to be pushed off because of another country. We are separate countries, not a packaged set!

[Meowie]

Personally, everything I hear about this console is just back to back disappointments rather than any of it being good news. Or maybe I'm just too broke for this world.

80 dollar games. Fine, I get the new Mario Kart costing that much but Switch 2 editions of Switch 1 games have no reason costing that much. I want to get both new Mario Kart and Tears of the Kingdom SW2 edition to play on Switch 2. 160 dollars on these two games itself. That's just crazy. The new SoS costing 10 dollars more on it is crazy as well but atleast if you wait a year or two, you can get the game for half the price. Nintendo games literally never go on sale. If the console really does end up costing 50-100 dollars more after the tarriffs situation, I think I'm 100% out.

Other disappointments for me personally: that 10 dollars paid tech demo to introduce you to the system feels like a huge insult with the console already having such a high price point. eShop not having music. Joycons not having the hall stick effect making the joycon drift issue still remain. GameCube controller being useable only for the more expensive NSO online despite them adding additional buttons. The more expensive microSD cards that are already out of stock in many places. The main gimmick GameChat being locked behind NSO online. Switch 2 edition upgrades being just performance and visual upgrades yet costing 10 dollars more. The UI being the same.

Nintendo not having things cleared out just makes thing worse too. Does the Switch 2 edition include the upgrade pack in the card or do you have to download it?

[midnighttherabbit]

I think the issue wrt delays and pricing changes is how unpredictable everything is right now. We don't know what the situation will look like in 24 hours let alone in June. Hopefully things will have de-escalated but who knows, I don't have much hope for anything right now.

Anyway, that aside I agree with other people that game prices are waaaay more of an issue than the console price. It's also an issue that first party games are either recent £80 behemoths, a poorly optimised [b]Very Bad Thing™[/b] you have to pay a subscription fee for, or completely inaccessible unless you buy secondhand at (probably) extortionate prices. On Steam, you can get AAA games from 10-20 years ago and they're usually CHEAPER because of their age. I'd expect a GameCube-era PC game to be less than £7 on Steam during a sale, which is way less than you'd pay to be temporarily allowed to access the game for six months on Nintendo online. Playstation also annoys me by locking its older emulated games behind its higher subscription tiers, just let me buy an old game and play it!!!!

[PaleSunflower]

80 dollar games. Fine, I get the new Mario Kart costing that much but Switch 2 editions of Switch 1 games have no reason costing that much. I want to get both new Mario Kart and Tears of the Kingdom SW2 edition to play on Switch 2. 160 dollars on these two games itself. That's just crazy. The new SoS costing 10 dollars more on it is crazy as well but atleast if you wait a year or two, you can get the game for half the price. Nintendo games literally never go on sale. If the console really does end up costing 50-100 dollars more after the tarriffs situation, I think I'm 100% out.

Other disappointments for me personally: that 10 dollars paid tech demo to introduce you to the system feels like a huge insult with the console already having such a high price point. eShop not having music. Joycons not having the hall stick effect making the joycon drift issue still remain. GameCube controller being useable only for the more expensive NSO online despite them adding additional buttons. The more expensive microSD cards that are already out of stock in many places. The main gimmick GameChat being locked behind NSO online. Switch 2 edition upgrades being just performance and visual upgrades yet costing 10 dollars more. The UI being the same.

Nintendo not having things cleared out just makes thing worse too. Does the Switch 2 edition include the upgrade pack in the card or do you have to download it?

Apparently, some other games will cost $70, but Nintendo introducing their console with the opposite of a loss leader is a bold choice. Starting a console with a gain leader when the console itself is coming at a particularly bad economic time has helped cement the Switch 2's reputation as being overly expensive. Nintendo's seeming blindness to the current competition really doesn't help.

In addition, I certainly feel like Nintendo is nickel-and-diming everything about the Switch 2. Upgrades to games already purchased? That may or may not cost extra for certain games. A glorified manual and tech demo? That costs extra (meanwhile, "Astro's Playroom", another tech demo, for the Playstation 5 comes free with the console). Online play? That costs extra (when the Steam Deck doesn't charge at all for online play). The chat feature? Will be free to use at launch, but will cost extra in less than a year (but is free on Steam Deck for the foreseeable future).

Is there any announced feature of the Switch 2 that won't cost extra and that is not browsing the shop to spend more money? The only thing that I can think of is the backwards comparability, but, for that price, I'm better off waiting for a price drop either on the first- or secondhand markets while I play my Switch 1. The Switch 1 doesn't have a ton of free features either, but I already own it.

(As for the gamecube controller, there are already gamecube-style controllers for Switch on the market. The PowerA and HORI ones come to mind. These controllers not only have 2 full z-buttons unlike Nintendo's version, but also work with any games, including ones on PC. Both of the brands of gamecube-style controllers that I mentioned also are officially licensed by Nintendo, so Nintendo must have known about them. It seems like another case of Nintendo seemingly being blind to competition to me. Blindness may not be the right word, but Nintendo certainly appears to underestimate the competition.)

The line about the upgrade pack reminds me of what Kikki brought up earlier; being an early buyer of Nintendo consoles is generally a bad idea, especially if the goal is to save money. Price downgrades, comparatively cheap versions of the consoles, and upgraded components often come later, but early adopters often get nothing for embracing a console early or have to pay extra to get the upgrades that late-adopters get for no extra cost. The 3DS did give its early-adopters some free games after the 3DS dropped in price, but I don't remember Nintendo doing anything for the early Switch buyers who wanted the better battery that late buyers got or customers of the GBA that wanted the backlight and built-in battery of the GBA SP. (I also don't remember the WiiU early buyers getting anything when the WiiU dropped in price, but I also didn't pay much attention to the WiiU news.) Nintendo really doesn't reward it's early adopters.

---

As for the Switch 2 getting delayed in any way...

Personally, I suspect the tariff situation will be resolved, but the main question to me is when it'll be resolved. Countries are negotiating the tariffs, but who knows how long negotiations will take. In any case, I can absolutely see why Nintendo is hesitating with the Switch 2. Not only did the world financial situation take a downturn, but the Switch 2's reception was less than stellar. I heard that the Treehouse presentation after the Switch 2's Direct got bombarded with "lower the price" in the chat-box or something like that. I can't believe that Nintendo wanted that sort of response. We'll see how the pre-order turn-out is.

I can also absolutely see Nintendo being forced to wait on games before announcing the Switch 2. I've already complained about the selection of games for the Switch 2 on launch. Nintendo lacking games for their new console also helps explain to me why they are seemingly pinning the Switch 1 and Switch 2 against each other with the duel releases and Switch 2-versions of several games for both consoles (Nintendo was/is probably trying to pad out the Switch 2's catalogue). It also helps explain to me why the Switch 2's featured games are focusing on Nintendo's not-as-big properties. The only huge tentpole property that I see for the Switch 2 is "Pokemon Legends: Z-A" from the Pokemon franchise, but that's releasing on both Switch 1 and Switch 2. Wikipedia puts the last Donkey Kong franchise game at 2013, and that was a release of "Donkey Kong Jr." for the WiiU (if Donkey Kong was one of Nintendo's big franchises, then it would not have taken over a decade to get a new release). The same can be said about Kirby - "Kirby Air Riders" is a spin-off. Mario Kart is ultimately a spin-off of the main Mario franchise as the name suggests. There's no big Mario game from the main Mario franchise announced for the console, and the Zelda release is from the Warriors spin-off franchise.

[JustABeautifulGuy]

I know everyone's disappointed with the game prices, pre order delays, and what not but my disappointment with this thing is a little less serious.

I hate the branding for it. I dislike how it's the mostly the same one we had for the previous Switch. I get wanting to be minimalistic and modern to fit the trends but I wish they went for a much bolder choice... atleast for the colors. The console is honestly way too lowkey now, and the UI adding only rounded corners and a new selection outline is very sad to see from Nintendo. I understand the logistics behind it to save the RAM and what not for the games but I wish they did overhaul the look much better.

The line about the upgrade pack reminds me of what Kikki brought up earlier; being an early buyer of Nintendo consoles is generally a bad idea, especially if the goal is to save money. Price downgrades, comparatively cheap versions of the consoles, and upgraded components often come later, but early adopters often get nothing for embracing a console early or have to pay extra to get the upgrades that late-adopters get for no extra cost. The 3DS did give its early-adopters some free games after the 3DS dropped in price, but I don't remember Nintendo doing anything for the early Switch buyers who wanted the better battery that late buyers got or customers of the GBA that wanted the backlight and built-in battery of the GBA SP. (I also don't remember the WiiU early buyers getting anything when the WiiU dropped in price, but I also didn't pay much attention to the WiiU news.) Nintendo really doesn't reward it's early adopters.

With the temporary tariffs pause news, I feel like an early adopter might actually get some advantage this time with lower prices.

Being serious though, this is why I am heavily considering to wait a bit before getting this console. I'd like them to tweak out any faults first and then come out with a good looking special edition.

[Anna_Lynn]

I hate the branding for it. I dislike how it's the mostly the same one we had for the previous Switch. I get wanting to be minimalistic and modern to fit the trends but I wish they went for a much bolder choice... atleast for the colors. The console is honestly way too lowkey now, and the UI adding only rounded corners and a new selection outline is very sad to see from Nintendo. I understand the logistics behind it to save the RAM and what not for the games but I wish they did overhaul the look much better.

Yeah, I 100% get this. The UI basically looking the same bothered me too. DS > DSi > 3DS all had improved UI from each other, and eventually having themes. The Wii U menu was similar to the Wii, yet with more bubbly icons. The Switch 2 UI has no Nintendo charm to it, much like the Switch 1. I also fear that the gimicky features aren't groundbreaking enough to really push that average consumer to purchase the thing in the first place, at least not until some sort of holiday sale. What if fans don't care about mouse-controllers, new micro SD-EX cards, $80 pro-controller with GL/GR buttons, better rumble, microphone gamechat, or a $50 camera peripheral??

That's my biggest concern. A friend told me that going from the Switch 1 to a Switch OLED felt like going from a 2004 DS to a DS Lite, so I wonder if going from a Switch OLED to a Switch 2 will feel like going from a DS Lite to a DSi.

[S1lvergale]

I went from being very excited about the Switch 2 to being very disappointed to being just...meh. I think the main reason for this is because all of the games that I was looking forward to getting were Switch 1 games first, so I'm not feeling the pressing need to dive right into getting a Switch 2. And the Switch 2 games that they are releasing are ones that I'm not particularly interested in playing.

The only thing that I thought was cool was the option to get Gamecube games again, but that's not something I have an immediate need for. In some way, that is pretty lucky, but it's also a little disappointing because a lot of people were looking forward to the Switch 2 and have been for years, and it's just now...underwhelming. I don't personally feel that there's enough upgrades for the price boost, especially for the games and such, but that may also be because I've never had too big of a problem with Switch graphics.

I'm also a little confused as to why there's suddenly this huge push towards multi-player? With the new chat function to try and replace Discord to the microphone and the screen-sharing...I get that some people enjoy that, but there weren't a lot of improvements made for single-player people, or those who just don't want to pay for the Internet connection. Maybe it's partially because of the first big game being the new Mario Kart, but it stands out a bit to me.

[Kikki]

The whole 'tariff' thing is just market manipulation, to make billionaires some more billions. Much of it may never actually come to pass. Witness the constant changing and 'pausing' and the stock market jumps and drops whenever an announcement is made. (Stock plummets when a tariff looms, people buy tons of stock for cheap, tariffs are then luckily delayed, the stock market jumps up, makes them tons of money, and they sell. Buy low, sell high. The situation is being set via deliberate market manipulation on a global scale. We all know this.)

Meaning...who knows if we'll ever have to pay extra on Switch 2 directly because of one. Except that it puts the world economy in such turmoil that it may break entirely. This is one of the reasons why, if you ARE going to buy a Switch 2 for sure sooner or later, sooner may be better. But with the absurd situation we're living right now, who knows?

I'm going to buy it if I can get it, because I already know I for sure can't live without a new Zelda or a new Animal Crossing on Day 1, whenever they eventually materialize. They won't be playable on any other console or platform.

I wish the console was releasing with a new RingFit Adventure, though. I'd say with a new Animal Crossing, but between games like Fantasy Life i, Azuma and Grand Bazaar, I'm already well-stocked on the hundreds-of-hours type of games...I won't have enough to dedicate to a new Animal Crossing for a while.

I think adding Animal Crossing in would have been a big boost to people buying the console day one, though, since it'd bring in the 'cozy' crowd. How many copies did New Horizons sell? Something like 20 million? The pandemic was responsible for the massive surge, but it still would have sold millions even without that.

I thought the presentation was a lot of fun to watch, but Switch 2 isn't launching with a single exclusive that I want. And I'll get Azuma for PC. Maybe Grand Bazaar, too, unless it runs really well on original Switch. They mainly did a good job of making sure Mario Kart fans would buy day one, but I'm not sure about anyone else. I'm surprised there was no new mainline Mario.

I guess Pokemon will help, though I can't remember when that's coming out. Not that close to June 5, right?

[S1lvergale]

I guess Pokemon will help, though I can't remember when that's coming out. Not that close to June 5, right?

We don't have an official release date for ZA yet, but it looks like it'll be later in the year. I'm thinking around Black Friday or maybe Christmas.

[Kikki]

Well, for whatever reason, Nintendo has announced the new pre-order date for Switch 2 in Canada. It's only a few days away, on April 24. They also announced in the same piece (in the very title!) that they were maintaining the price. I never thought they were going to change it though, so...

I guess there'll be a separate release when they decide on the US date?

It has more info than that, though. Our price for Mario Kart World (if bought on its own) will be $109.99.

$30 more than it would have been on Switch 1. Insanity.

Donkey Kong Bananza will be $99.99. Still really bad, honestly. I would have been fine with all new AAA games being the same $90 that they tried TotK out on, but this is way too big a price jump. People are just going to clamp down and be even choosier than they have been the past two years or so, now.

Fortunately for me in THIS case, I've no interest in Mario Kart. But you can bet a new Zelda game, or a new Animal Crossing, will also be in this $110 bracket.

I think this was obvious, but just in case, all prices mentioned in this post were CAD.

[S1lvergale]

Well, for whatever reason, Nintendo has announced the new pre-order date for Switch 2 in Canada. It's only a few days away, on April 24. They also announced in the same piece (in the very title!) that they were maintaining the price. I never thought they were going to change it though, so...

I guess there'll be a separate release when they decide on the US date?

It has more info than that, though. Our price for Mario Kart World (if bought on its own) will be $109.99.

$30 more than it would have been on Switch 1. Insanity.

Donkey Kong Bananza will be $99.99. Still really bad, honestly. I would have been fine with all new AAA games being the same $90 that they tried TotK out on, but this is way too big a price jump. People are just going to clamp down and be even choosier than they have been the past two years or so, now.

Fortunately for me in THIS case, I've no interest in Mario Kart. But you can bet a new Zelda game, or a new Animal Crossing, will also be in this $110 bracket.

I think this was obvious, but just in case, all prices mentioned in this post were CAD.

It looks like we're getting US pre-orders on 4/25 as well. It's interesting that you have to have a Nintendo account in order to pre-order, as well as this being posted on the pre-order page:

"Invitation emails will be prioritized on a first-come, first-served basis to registrants who have purchased a Nintendo Switch Online membership with a minimum of 12 months of paid membership and a minimum of 50 total gameplay hours, as of April 2, 2025."

Price remains the same as was announced in the direct, but there's a bundle to get the Switch 2 with the new Mario Kart World for $50 more dollars. Which would save you $30 if you bought them separately. What did get a price boost is the accessories. Most of the accessories got a $5 price bump, which was news to me. Apparently it's because of market changes, but at least it wasn't anything that's considered necessary for a lot of players.

Link to Nintendo's statement on the fact is here: https://www.nintendo.com/us/whatsnew/ni ... 24-in-u-s/

[Kikki]

I registered my interest in pre-ordering back on April 2, and it's still saved to the pre-order page, so looks like the delay didn't do anything to change that. Having to have Nintendo Online and 50 or more play hours was the case then, too...I believe it is for everyone, from everywhere. It's one of the tactics they're using to block scalpers from buying up tons of stock.

I don't know if the actual NINTENDO pre-order time was ever changed, though. That was always set for May 8th. What was delayed was the RETAIL pre-orders, which are now a-go again, for April 24th. So you'll be able to pre-order from Amazon or Walmart or wherever on that day.

I kinda think there are probably no scalper barriers on the retail purchases. Be nice if there were, but...how?

[PSI_Nightshade]

Not sure if this flew under the radar or I just plainly missed it but Marvelous posted a Q&A related to the Switch 2 version of Rune Factory and there's this tidbit that they just casually dropped:

The Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is a red 64GB game card that includes, in full, the Nintendo Switch game and the Upgrade Pack.

There’s no need to download the full game: simply insert the card into either a Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch 2 console, and the correct version will launch automatically.

Source: https://marvelousgames.com/news/rune-fa ... itch-2-faq

So huh, unless Marvelous is being the fancy one and is the exception to the norm, I guess that they just confirmed that Switch 2 Edition game cards can be used on regular Switch systems to play the regular Switch version? Seems like a small detail but if you plan to keep the old Switch for whatever reason, I guess you just need the Switch 2 physical version of a game that is for both system.