Today’s the day. This afternoon, Nintendo will air a Switch 2 dedicated Direct broadcast from which we expect a release date and price for the new console, as well as a look at some of its upcoming games. And as ever, we’ll be watching, reporting and reacting to the broadcast live, as it happens, right here.
Set your Alarmo clocks for 2pm BST / 3pm CEST / 9am EDT / 6am PDT. The show is expected to be an hour long.
Nintendo, remember, has already unveiled the form factor of Switch 2, which surprise surprise, looks a lot like the existing Switch, only bigger. Lurking within, though, are significant changes, such as Joy-Con that magnetically snap to the side of the machine, USB-C ports, a mysterious C button, rumoured mouse-like Joy-Con functionality, and, of course, more powerful innards. But as Digital Foundry noted, while forensically picking over the Switch 2 details, we’re still not sure exactly how powerful it is. Questions remain. Will they be answered today?
The previous reveal also gave us a glimpse of a new Mario Kart game, which notably teased the possibility of 24-player races. Will we see more of that game today? And what of Nintendo’s other first-party games for Switch 2 – are there any, and if there are, which ones will they be? Big, legacy franchises, or smaller things? I also wonder what kind of third-party support Nintendo has attracted for Switch 2.
But the biggest questions are of course price and release date. How soon will the console come out? There’s a widely held belief Switch 2 is imminent, though the console’s public hands-on tour runs until June. Is that when it will finally arrive? And how much will it cost? There’s talk of a $400 price point, which puts it $100 above what Switch 1 launched at, and talk of $70 games. But will these figures be born out?
There’s lots to discover, and we’ll be building up to the reveal throughout the day here. Excited?
Good morning! Are you feeling aflutter with excitement? The time is nearly here. I suppose more to the point: will you be immediately pre-ordering one if, as Rogueywon points out, the opportunity immediately opens following the Direct?