The Nintendo Switch 2 is officially announced, and it launches on June 5, 2025 for $450, or for $500 with the Mario Kart World bundle.
Nintendo’s latest console looks similar to its predecessor in many ways, but with a sleeker design and greatly improved functionality. Take the Joy-Cons: not only are they marked with colorful highlights around the base, but their overall size has increased. The SR/SL buttons have gotten bigger, too, and you can even flip the Joy-Con on its side to use like a mouse. The right Joy-Con has the much-discussed C button for controlling the new GameChat function. That includes muting/unmuting the built-in microphone, sharing your screen with friends, and a whole lot more. Oh, and did we mention they attach magnetically now? The slide-rail system from the original Switch is gone, replaced by a much more intuitive method.
And that’s just the start of the improvements. The Nintendo Switch 2 itself boasts a 7.9-inch display (a big leap from the original’s 6.9) that runs at 1080p in handheld mode, but can reach up to 4K resolution while docked. That’s right: the Nintendo Switch 2 can finally show off games in extremely high resolution and maintain higher frame rates. It also supports HDR, too, although that’s a per-game feature; it’s up to developers whether their title will support more advanced display options or not. While docked, the Switch 2 can run games at 4K/60fps, but it can reach up to 120fps at lower resolutions. It also has spatial 3D audio support for a more immersive gaming experience.
As for storage, the Switch 2 has 256GB of internal storage — a whopping eight times that of the original Switch platform. Unfortunately, architecture changes mean that memory cards for the original Switch won’t be compatible with the Switch 2. The new console uses microSD Express cards for faster read/write speeds and better performance, but this also means shorter load times in larger games (like Cyberpunk 2077, available at launch.)
The dock also has a built-in fan to help keep games cool and maintain more stable performance.
The Nintendo Switch 2 now has two USB-C ports: one on the bottom and one on the top. While this makes it easier to charge while playing in tabletop mode, it also allows players to attach accessories like the newly-announced Nintendo Switch 2 camera for streaming video in game chat. No other accessories have been announced yet, but there’s no doubt both Nintendo and numerous third-parties will come up with interesting options for better gameplay.
The Nintendo Switch 2 supports backward compatibility with select Nintendo Switch games and cartridges, and players will have the ability to transfer save data from a Nintendo Switch system to the new console. There’s also a slew of older Nintendo Switch titles that will be receiving Nintendo Switch 2 upgrades at launch, including beloved titles like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. On top of that, the GameShare feature allows multiple people to play with a single copy of a game, but only select titles.
There doesn’t seem to be a consensus on game pricing yet, but Mario Kart World has a retail price of $80, while Donkey Kong Bonanza is currently listed at $70. That points to game pricing on-par with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series.
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The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.