A totally different and disconcerting design for the Nintendo Switch 2? Recent images raise questions about the possible look of the next console.
The end of 2023 is approaching and as it is, we will probably not see the Nintendo Switch 2 before 2024. A deadline that has already been mentioned. The console could be made official and presented at the beginning of the year, for a launch a few months later. Big N would like there not to be too big a gap between the announcement and the release. What will it look like? Clues may have just come out… or not!
The look of the Nintendo Switch 2 revealed?
Did the Japanese manufacturer accidentally reveal the design of the Nintendo Switch 2? This is the new question of the week after the discovery of a patent published this month. The document presents a portable device with four buttons, but only one joystick on the front, and two triggers. This device has a jack, a slot for cartridges, a USB-C port on the side and the power and volume keys are positioned differently from the current Switch.
So is this really a first, not final, look at the Nintendo Switch 2? It’s going to be very hard to believe it. If the tablet design could still be retained by Big N, it is impossible to implement a single stick and two triggers instead of four. This would be heresy from an ergonomic point of view, and it would automatically prevent the machine from having big multiplatform games. On the other hand, why not imagine abandoning Joy-Con like the Switch Lite? Yes, it undermines the basic concept, but since the Lite has denied it for its part…
The controllers have posed various problems for the Japanese firm. First, the size wasn’t really to everyone’s taste. Then, the Joy-Cons were far from being benchmarks in terms of precision and responsiveness, and the famous Drift didn’t help matters. But that is an evil that we find at PlayStation and Xbox. These drawings may concern the Nintendo Switch 2, but clearly not a completed version of the console. A simple sketch to illustrate the overall shape of the central part? Possible. As it is possible that this ultimately has nothing to do with the highly anticipated future machine.
Update on console leaks
According to rumors, the Nintendo Switch 2 could count on an Nvidia chip to be compatible with the manufacturer’s DLSS and advanced ray-tracing. By using this AI upscaling technique, the manufacturer could run games in 4K at least in sedentary mode. According to rumors, Big N internally calls its platform the “next generation Nintendo Switch”. A name which suggests that, contrary to the images above, the console should be usable in portable mode and at home via a dock.
The Nintendo Switch 2 would receive all the next big games like Monster Hunter 6 (or MH World 2) for example. This is what insider Tom Henderson said. I’m really excited about the Nintendo Switch 2 and its technology. We’ll see a lot more “planned release on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC and Switch 2” in the next 12-18 months”. The storage space on the machine would be 512 GB, a very clear improvement compared to the previous model and its 32 GB.
Even more surprising, and here we have to take out the necessary tweezers, the Nintendo Switch 2 could be available in two versions at different prices. We are talking about 449 dollars for an edition compatible with game cartridges, and 400 dollars for a variant dedicated to dematerialized. Some people don’t particularly believe in this scenario, but the Japanese firm has already proven that it can follow certain trends. As for the release, the window for the second half of 2024 is circulating, with a date: September 24. If the estimate for the launch is credible, we will remain very cautious about the exact day. Finally, autonomy would not be there according to another rumor.