Switch 2 is finally getting into the public’s hands, meaning answers for all sorts of previously unanswered questions are beginning to emerge as the system gets a thorough go-over. And, if you were wondering, it looks like one of the original Switch’s most exasperating features – its horribly sluggish eShop experience – has now been resolved with the new console.
Switch’s eShop was, of course, a notoriously exhausting experience; it was terribly organised, overflowing with boobily provocative shovelware, and above all else, slow. Switching between store sections could cause the eShop to hang, while scrolling though the 2,000+ titles perpetually on sale would inevitably prove so traumatic for the system it would squeal and force a full page reload. In fact, the experience was so poor on-machine, it was almost always easier to shop via Nintendo’s website version.
With Switch 2, however, it looks like significant performance improvements have arrived. We already had some inkling this would be the case, of course; a recent interview with Nintendo’s Switch 2 development team highlighted a variety of promised eShop upgrades, including assurance it now “runs smoothly”. And footage now circulating following today’s Switch 2 release in certain timezones suggests that’s very much the case.
VGC, for instance, has uploaded four and a half minutes of red-hot Switch 2 eShop action. That’s 270 seconds of pure, unadulterated storefront browsing, so you might want to steel yourself before clicking ‘play’. The main takeaway, though, is that this thing flies on Switch 2, with barely a hiccup or hitch to be seen. Eurogamer editor-in-chief Tom Orry also brought encouraging word based on his own (admittedly fairly unscientific) eShop explorations. “It’s almost instant,” he declared when asked about loading times.
So there you go! Five paragraphs on Switch 2’s digital storefront running faster! And if it’s more of that you want, you’ll be able to smoothly scroll yourself into an erotic frenzy when Nintendo’s latest console arrives tomorrow, 5th June. We’ll be taking a bit of time before we deliver our final verdict on the machine, but until then, why not check out our review of Nintendo’s other controversial, expensive handheld?