Gaming - Page 167

With the Nintendo Switch 2 launching with 256GB of internal storage, which will also be notably faster than the 32GB found in the original non-OLED edition, many have been wondering if it will be enough to store a bunch of games on day one, delaying the need to rush out and buy a pricey microSD Express card with 512GB or 1TB of expanded storage.

With the Japanese My Nintendo Store now listing Switch 2 games, it's also listing each game's installation size. The good news is that first-party Nintendo games look pretty conservative in their storage requirements, with Mario Kart World being the biggest launch-window game from Nintendo. Its 23.4GB size would only take up roughly 10% of the 256GB available - not counting system files.

Donkey Kong Bananza, the latest game from the talented Super Mario Odyssey team, weighs in at only 10GG - half the size of the flagship Mario Kart World. Nintendo's My Nintendo Store lists the storage requirements for a couple of enhanced Nintendo Switch 2 Edition titles and the classic GameCube games pack for Nintendo Switch Online.

Bungie, the developers of Halo and the Destiny franchise, have confirmed that it will be unveiling its next big game this week. It's a team-based extraction shooter called Marathon.

The developer and publisher of the esteemed Halo and Destiny franchises released a Save the Date trailer for Marathon, which showcases a vibrant artistic visual design through a remote alien planet. According to the game's Steam listing, players will become a Runner in this upcoming sci-fi PvP extraction shooter that also has a mix of PvE.

Keeping to the Steam listing, the description for the title states a massive ghost ship is hovering in low orbit over a lost colony on the planet Tau Ceti IV, where 30,000 souls have mysteriously gone missing without a trace.

The Switch 2 could have cost as low as $350 if it weren't for U.S. tariffs, two analysts have said.

Nintendo recently made an unprecedented decision to delay the pre-orders of its new video games machine in the United States. Nintendo says that Switch 2 pre-orders were pushed back because of tariff concerns. It's assumed that Nintendo will raise the price of the Switch 2 commensurate with the potential impact of tariffs on hardware profit margins, meaning the Switch 2 could end up costing more than its $450 launch price.

Analysts have said the Switch 2's high $450 price tag was influenced by uncertain economic risk and disruption that the Trump Administration's tariffs could inflict on Nintendo's business, which relies on a carefully-controlled global trade network. If it weren't for tariffs, the Switch 2 could have been $100 cheaper than its announced price.

Although FromSoftware's next two games emphasize multiplayer, Hidetaka Miyazaki wants you to know that the team hasn't given up on singleplayer games.

Elden Ring: Nightreign and the newly announced Switch 2 exclusive Duskbloods might be different in scope--Nightreign is a 3-player PVE-only game and Duskbloods is PvPvE for maximum chaos--but they share something big in common: Multiplayer. Online modes give devs opportunities to sell content, microtransactions, and even platform-level subscriptions like Switch Online and PlayStation Plus/Xbox Game Pass, all of which are needed to play these games.

FromSoftware isn't about to go all-in on live service games, though. In a recent Nintendo Creator's Voice article, director Hidetaka Miyazaki confirms that more singleplayer-focused games are on the way.

You may have had your hopes raised by the recent rumor that the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion remake might just land this week - well, yesterday, and clearly it didn't - but don't give up on the game's supposedly imminent arrival just yet.

Another leaker on X, Nate the Hate, was questioned about the non-release of the Oblivion remake and clarified that they "never claimed it would release this week," to which a follow-up question was asked about whether they still believed it would be out in April.

As you can see in the above post (which Wccftech highlighted), the reply to that was yes, it will be, at least as things stand (which does still leave a little room for doubt, admittedly).

Nintendo has clarified that Switch 2 pre-orders will not begin on April 9 as planned.

Switch 2 pre-orders have been delayed as Nintendo weighs the impact of international trade tariffs.

"Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions. Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged," Nintendo said in a new statement to Gamespot.

Ahead of the big Nintendo Switch 2 reveal, many hoped the company would equip it with an OLED display or at least offer a premium version with OLED technology. For those who have experienced gaming on an original Switch, Steam Deck, or PC with an OLED display, you'll understand why there's hype for a Switch 2 OLED; it's one of those "one you try it" pieces of technology that's hard to come back from.

That said, there is good news - the Nintendo Switch's 7.9-inch 1080p LCD is an impressive display. With an IPS panel that will deliver excellent color and clarity, HDR10 support for a wide color gamut, and VRR up to 120 Hz, it's a massive leap forward for Nintendo. Even better, the HDR and VRR are handled by NVIDIA G-SYNC, which is widely considered the gold standard for variable refresh-rate technology.

As part of NVIDIA's post about the NVIDIA GPU and technologies inside the Switch 2, it makes special mention of NVIDIA G-SYNC and HDR, which leads us to believe that the Switch 2's display will include a dedicated G-SYNC chip.

Why is the Nintendo Switch $450? In short: Nintendo is charging you extra because of risks, principally from tariffs.

The Switch 2 will release on June 5 for $450, complete with the first-ever $80 Switch game. Fans are still dealing with sticker shock and are demanding Nintendo lower the price, but that's not likely to happen. The Switch 2's high MSRP is Nintendo's way of trying to navigate an unprecedented global market while protecting its hardware profit margins in the process.

IGN spoke to a group of industry specialists and analysts, asking why the Switch 2 costs so much. The consensus is Nintendo is responding to the uncertain effect of tariffs with the only thing it can really control: Price.

We all thought it would be the release of Rockstar's beyond-anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 that would see game prices upwards of $100, but it is Nintendo with the price of its just-announced Mario Kart World for its next-gen Switch 2 that could do it.

Nintendo provided some more details for Mario Kart World, exclusive to its new Switch 2 gaming handheld and priced at $80 for the digital version, and a huge $90 for the physical version of the game. Now that the world has swallowed that $90 tiny little physical copy of the game, the world of not just $100 but even more, has opened up for Rockstar and GTA 6.

It was only a month ago that Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter discussed GTA 6 and its rumored $100 pricing, where he said: "We think the company has plans to sell the game at a previously unheard of price point, and suspect that management can offer consumers an incentive to pay $100 or more per unit by rewarding them with a large amount of in-game currency to be spent in GTA Online".

"With 1,000 engineer-years of effort across every element - from system and chip design to a custom GPU, application programming interfaces (APIs), and world-class development tools - the Nintendo Switch 2 brings major upgrades," NVIDIA's Muni Anda writes in a new blog post about the new console.

The Nintendo Switch 2 features a custom NVIDIA GPU that includes RT Cores and Tensor Cores, as seen in its GeForce RTX range. The original Nintendo Switch hardware was based on older NVIDIA architecture from before the RT and AI era of gaming, so the Switch 2 will benefit significantly from DLSS AI upscaling - and it is probably the main reason a game like Metroid Prime 4 can run at a smooth 4K 60 FPS when docked.

When comparing the CPU and GPU inside the Switch 2 to the original, NVIDIA says it offers "10X the graphics performance," extending to the development side with "better physics and optimized APIs for faster, more efficient game creation."

Although full specs on the chip and its capabilities have yet to be confirmed, NVIDIA has confirmed that the Nintendo Switch 2 includes an NVIDIA GPU with "RT Cores and Tensor Cores" to support AI enhancements like DLSS and real-time ray-tracing. Nintendo's official technical specs for the new console simply list a "Custom processor made by NVIDIA" for the CPU and GPU.

Either way, it's a massive improvement over the original switch, which included a custom NVIDIA Tegra X1 chip based on the pre-GeForce RTX 'Maxwell' architecture - a chip also used in NVIDIA's Shield devices. With RT Cores and Tensor Cores (the exact CUDA Core counts and clock speeds are still TBC), the Switch 2's GPU architecture, according to leaks, is based on NVIDIA's Ampere architecture from the GeForce RTX 30 Series.

"The new RT Cores bring real-time ray tracing, delivering lifelike lighting, reflections, and shadows for more immersive worlds," Muni Anda, Vice President of Software Engineering at NVIDIA, writes. "Tensor Cores power AI-driven features like Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), boosting resolution for sharper details without sacrificing image quality."

Nintendo's new Switch 2 will make one of the biggest upgrades to any gameplay experience by reducing loading times.

The Switch isn't known for being a fast device. Whether you're trying to play a demanding game on the Tegra X1 SoC or loading an in-game zone, the Switch is sometimes pretty sluggish. But the new-and-improved Switch 2 supercharges data speeds with new flash storage, helping cut out those interruption points.

The Switch 2 isn't as fast as the PlayStation 5's custom PCIe 4.0 SSD but it does make a significant improvement over the storage found in the base Switch, which is a single Toshiba THGBMHG8C2LBAIL 32 GB eMMC NAND Flash chip with a maximum data rate of 400MB/sec. The Switch 2 uses UFS storage instead of the Switch 1's eMMC, which is faster than the original, but Nintendo hasn't revealed specifics on the storage outside of a whopping 256GB capacity and confirmation that the storage uses UFS.

With $80 and sometimes even $90 games, Nintendo fans are still reeling with Switch 2 sticker shock...but not all publishers will raise prices of their games. And we now have an idea of how high-end games will run on the Switch 2 hardware.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is coming on June 5 for $450 with a ton of games prepared for launch. The Switch 2's new chip allows it to run more demanding games, helping push Nintendo's successor closer to the more powerful Steam Deck PC handhelds. Publishers who didn't bring their games to Switch 1 over performance concerns now have a chance to sell their game on a Nintendo handheld.

Cyberpunk 2077 is one such game, and now CD Projekt has spoken up to get ahead of some of the static around Switch 2 game prices. According to Jan Rosner, who oversees distribution, licensing and partnerships for the Polish developer, Cyberpunk 2077 won't cost $80 on Switch 2 and the full game will be on the Switch 2 game cartridge.

Digital Foundry may not have had any luck spotting proof of DLSS in the Switch 2 Direct, but Nintendo has confirmed the Switch 2 does indeed utilize NVIDIA's upscaling tech.

The Switch 2 does indeed use NVIDIA's proprietary DLSS technology to facilitate gaming in 4K resolution and 1080p 120FPS, Nintendo Switch 2 director confirmed at a recent press event in New York. It was also confirmed that the Switch 2's new chipset, which is believed to be based on NVIDIA's newer Orin Tegra line, supports raytracing.

"We use DLSS upscaling technology and that's something that we need to use as we develop games," Dohta said, speaking of the Switch 2's hardware, as noted by IGN's Wesley Yin-Poole.

At a developer roundtable with some creators of the Nintendo Switch 2 the press asked some questions that has gained us some more knowledge about the hardware inside Nintendo's latest console.

Producer Kouichi Kawamoto, technical director Tetsuya Sasaki, and director Takuhiro Dohta answered a few questions from the press about the new console, with one of those questions being in regard to the Switch 2's battery life. According to Nintendo's official specification sheet for the console, the battery for the Switch 2 is a 5220 mAh battery that's expected to last anywhere between 2 and 6.5 hours on a single full charge.

As pointed out by the press, that is quite a discrepancy, and according to the Nintendo officials, that is a "rough estimate" as many variables can severely impact battery life.

Nintendo has officially showcased the successor to the Nintendo Switch, and now that the Switch 2-focussed Direct is complete and we know what to expect, companies are beginning to showcase additional products to pair with the new system. One of those products is additional storage, which is a little different with the Switch 2 compared to the original Switch.

It has been confirmed that the Nintendo Switch 2 will only support microSD Express cards, which offer SSD-like speeds with up to 985MB/sec -- a huge jump from the 104MB/sec on the regular microSD cards. However, regular microSD cards are still compatible with the Switch 2 but are only limited to storing screenshots and videos, and are incompatible for saving and loading games.

Express cards are indicated by the "EX" located on the face of the card; no EX means no Express, and if that's the case, you will likely need to upgrade if you intend on taking advantage of the additional storage slot in the Nintendo Switch 2. So, what should you upgrade to?

Grand Theft Auto V might soon be available to those who've signed up for Microsoft's PC Game Pass, or that's the word from the grapevine.

GTA V has come to Xbox Game Pass in the past, but as you can see above, apparently it's returning there, but also being made available via the PC Game Pass. (Or at least as far as we can tell this is the first time, although a few folks are arguing that isn't the case).

At any rate, this was flagged up by a rumor peddler on X, Ben (VideotechUK), and apparently Rockstar is informing various community pages of this fact via an email that's doing the rounds.

FromSoftware, the developer of the critically acclaimed Elden Ring and Dark Souls franchise, will be releasing The Duskbloods, a new multiplayer game exclusively releasing on the Nintendo Switch 2.

The Duskbloods was announced during the recent Nintendo Switch 2-focussed Direct where Nintendo finally gave a close-up look at the new console, which is scheduled to launch on June 5. The Duskbloods is helmed by legendary game director Hidetaka Miyazakai, and while not many details were revealed during the trailer, we have learned the game will be a player-versus-player-versus-environment, or PvPvE experience.

FromSoftware recently unveiled Elden Ring: Nightreign, a multiplayer-focused spin-off of the critically acclaimed Elden Ring. Now, with the announcement of The Duskbloods, it's solidified the developer's new embracement of multiplayer-focused games. FromSoftware earned its stars and stripes with single-player-focused titles that only had very limited multiplayer experiences.

Nintendo is taking scalpers head on with the release of the Nintendo Switch 2, and as the company teased many months ago, it has a plan in place to mitigate scalping as much as possible. We now know what that plan is.

Nintendo just wrapped up its Switch 2-dedicated Direct, where we got a close-up look at the highly anticipated console, the new Mario Kart game launching alongside it, and an official release date/price. The Nintendo Switch 2 will release on June 5, and the base console will be priced at $449, with the Mario Kart World bundle being $499.

As with every major console release, gamers are quick to raise concerns about scalping, or the practice of people buying the console at retail price and reselling it for a profit. However, Nintendo's plan to prevent this as much as possible involves mass stock, which it has already secured and shipped to the US, and several new plans.

Nintendo has officially given us a close-up look at the Nintendo Switch 2 in a recent Switch 2-dedicated Direct where the company showcased a ton of new content for the upcoming console, along with all of its features. However, what has been discovered on Nintendo's website is likely making physical game collectors scream.

In a customer support article published shortly after the conclusion of the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct, Nintendo detailed its new approach to physical game cartridges, and while the approach is mostly the same, gamers will need to take into account one new addition - Game-Key cards.

As explained in the support post, some Nintendo Switch 2 games, despite being purchased physically with a game cartridge, won't actually be on that cartridge at all, and instead, the cartridge serves as a key to download the full game.