Nintendo Reportedly Demoed Switch 2 at Gamescom

Nintendo is no stranger to taking risks with its game console hardware, but it really paid off with the Switch. Since its release in 2017, this ARM-based handheld console has sold 130 million units, about triple the sales figures for the PlayStation 5 and even more than the older PS4. Rumors about a switch successor have been swirling lately, and we might be nearing an announcement. Nintendo was allegedly on hand at the recent Gamescom event to demo the Switch 2, but only a handful of trusted developer partners were allowed to take a peek.

Nintendo's public contribution to Gamescom was unveiling the quirky Super Mario Bros. Wonder, a Super Mario RPG remake, and a new WarioWare title. These games are coming to the current Switch in time for the holidays. So, you don't need to toss your Switch in the trash—plenty of great content is still coming to the aging hybrid console.

We no longer expect a Switch Pro, so a Switch replacement should be next on Nintendo's roadmap. The first indication of Switch 2 activity at Gamescom came from Eurogamer, whose sources report that Nintendo showed its trusted partners a demo of Zelda: Breath of the Wild enhanced for the Switch 2's more powerful hardware. The publication stresses that it was merely a tech demo, not a full version of the game set for re-release. Although, an upgraded Breath of the Wild would probably sell as well as the original.

Following this report, VGC confirmed via its own sources that Nintendo was showing off the Switch 2 in secret. They claim that Nintendo also showed Epic’s The Matrix Awakens Unreal Engine 5 tech demo on the new Switch (see below). This demo is much more advanced than anything on the current Switch hardware, but those who saw it say the demo ran very well with Nvidia DLSS upscaling. This technology can take a lower-resolution image and upscale with AI to a higher resolution while maintaining sharpness. The demo also includes more realistic ray-traced lighting, which the current Switch cannot manage.

The Nintendo Switch runs on an Nvidia Tegra X1 chip, the same processor Nvidia has been stuffing in its TV boxes for the better part of a decade. It has not announced a true successor, instead producing chips for embedded and automotive systems. If the Switch 2 is using Nvidia's AI upscaling tech, that suggests it'll have a new, more powerful Tegra system-on-a-chip (SoC). VGC has confirmed with people in the know that the Switch 2 will continue the hybrid tradition of the Switch. A new and more efficient SoC could make handheld mode much more capable and power-efficient.

There's no official word on when we'll see a new Switch, but rumors indicate a debut in late 2024. If true, Nintendo will probably start talking about the console early next year.