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Discussion > Video GamesJan 17, 2025 8:00 am CT

What are your thoughts on the Switch 2 announcement?

Well it’s finally happened: the Switch 2 has been announced! While the announcement trailer only showed off a little bit of the new console — we now get to wait with bated breath for the Direct on April 2 — it’s nice to see confirmation of something that had been largely anticipated. If you’re one who’s been following the leaks for the past several weeks the biggest surprise might be that there weren’t any surprises! Magnetic joy-cons that can also function as mice, the new button below the home button, even the font and style of the “2” were all aspects revealed by leakers and insiders (much to Nintendo’s chagrin).

That’s not to say the announcement was wholly anti-climactic. A planned release date of 2025 was not a given, especially after the delay in the announcement. The next Super Mario Kart game looks to be a launch title and sharp-eyed viewers noted that it appears we’ll be able to race 24 players at a time! The new button has also turned into a mystery; leaks referred to it as the “c” button but if there’s supposed to be an icon revealing its function it was hidden for the announcement. This of course inspires speculation as to its purpose with voice chat being a leading theory (the “c” stands for “chat” in this scenario), but there’s also been guesses ranging the gamut from target-locking to — for the more cynical — a button that launches the e-shop.

The best part was the confirmation that the console’s backward compatibility would be for both digital and physical games currently for the Switch. While it had previously been confirmed that backwards compatibility was going to happen, the lack of specifics as to whether physical games would be also work on the system caused the more anxious fans of console (me, I’m talking about me) to be worried. So it was a relief to know that the games I have in physical form will work just as well in the new console as they do in the current one.

The truly lacking aspect of the announcement was the game reveals. While the hardware update was a large part of the announcement this wasn’t a situation like when the original Switch was announced and there was a brand new portable/hybrid technology to show off. It would’ve been nice to see what the upgraded hardware can actually do for games — perhaps with a screen comparison? I guess it gives us something to look forward to on April 4 unless more leaks arrive in the interim.

But what did you think about the announcement? Did you see enough to make you interested in getting one, or do you need to see more games first? And what do you think that mystery button will do?

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