Switch 2's reveal: what have we learned about its next-gen potential?

DF Direct Weekly arrives early – but with good cause. With Nintendo revealing the Switch 2, the Digital Foundry team spends a good hour discussing what we’ve learned from the two minute teaser and, equally, what is still to be revealed. The key question I’ve been thinking about is this: did we see a proper generational leap from the Mario Kart demo we saw compared to the existing Switch’s Mario Kart 8 Deluxe? In fact, did we see any hint of the advanced Nvidia technologies that have commanded so much of the Switch 2 discourse? I’d argue not.

What the teaser did do was to confirm the multitude of hardware-based leaks we’ve seen over the last couple of months. Yes, Switch 2 will be significantly larger than its predecessor. The joycons do appear to attach magnetically to the main unit. There are strong hints that while the IR facilities from Switch 1 are gone, some kind of sensor allows for its successor to use its controllers like mice. Top and bottom USB-C connectors are also confirmed, opening the door to a range of external peripherals that could be mounted to the top of the machine. As well as the bigger form factor, ventilation seems to have been improved to handle the heat generated by the T239 processor.

Backwards compatibility of both physical and digital Switch titles is also confirmed – presented with caveats suggesting that not all games will work. My gut feeling here is that outside of a few outliers, software compatibility won’t be a problem – it’s more likely to be games using Switch 1’s unique hardware features that will have issues. Will games naturally run faster on Switch 2 than they do on the older model? I’d suggest that producing entirely accurate emulation of the older console would be more difficult than simply running them flat-out by running older games through the new hardware, similar to the way PS5 and Xbox Series back compat functions.

DF Direct Weekly #197 – Nintendo Switch 2 Reaction – New Hardware, Mario Kart 9, Back Compat + More! Watch on YouTube0:00:00 Introduction0:01:12 Switch 2 hardware0:16:42 New Mario Kart analysis0:28:32 Only partial backwards compatibility?0:36:44 Rumoured Switch 2 clock speeds0:47:52 Supporter Q1: Can Switch 2 use transformer model DLSS?0:50:32 Supporter Q2: Can DLSS salvage Switch 2’s output on 4K screens?0:52:19 Supporter Q3: Will Nintendo release performance patches for Switch 1 games on Switch 2?0:58:21 Final Switch 2 thoughts and impressions

For those keeping track of the hardware leaks and general discourse, nothing I’ve mentioned so far will be ‘new’ as such – but the reveal of what we can assume to be a new Mario Kart game certainly is. There are clear enhancements here over what we saw in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – but with the huge caveat that all we can really discuss is a very short video clip that may or may not be representative of the wider game. Even so, the nature of the track itself was interesting: we see wider terrain with a relatively detail-rich shot panning back to show a considerable draw distance – which may well hint at a different approach for the game itself.