In Cologne last month, Nintendo’s Gamescom public showroom let you play Pikmin 4 and Super Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. But behind the scenes, the company was hiding more things.
Developer presentations for Switch 2 were held behind closed doors, Eurogamer has learned, with partners offering technical demos of how well the system is designed to run.
The One Switch 2 demo is an upgraded version of the Switch launch title Zelda: Breath of the Wild, designed to hit the Switch 2’s larger target specs. (To be clear, this is just a tech demo. There’s no indication the game will be re-released .)
Nintendo has not publicly discussed its plans for the Switch’s inevitable successor, though its new hardware is widely expected to launch sometime in 2024. Word that it’s now being shown to third-party developers comes as details are starting to emerge about when We might be able to do that. Watch the system launch.
A recent report pegged the Switch 2’s arrival in the latter part of next year, with development kits now in the hands of some major partners. This is consistent with what Eurogamer has previously heard, though I understand Nintendo is keen to launch the system sooner if possible.
Nintendo has publicly announced a strong lineup of games to see the current Switch through the rest of 2023 and into the beginning of next year, with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, a remake of Super Mario RPG and the new WarioWare. It all comes this side of Christmas.
2024 will bring a new Princess Peach game and a port of Luigi’s Mansion 2. Meanwhile, the long-awaited Metroid Prime 4 still has a “TBA” release date.
Nintendo did not comment when reached for a response.