Latest news with #Switches
Evening Standard
9 hours ago
- Evening Standard
Best retro game consoles
The new console will boast 256GB of memory – a considerable improvement on the earlier Switches (the first one only had 32GB), and which can be improved upon even further with microSD cards. The only downside was the battery. The new console takes three hours to charge and lasts between 2.5-6.5 hours, depending on what games it's playing. That's not a lot of charge at all – certainly less than the upgraded Switch OLED with its whopping 4.5-9 hours of battery life. Then again, processing power doesn't come cheap, and the Switch 2's awesome power comes thanks to a custom bit of kit from gaming giant NVIDIA. While no further details have been released in terms of what that means, the software is capable of playing massive games like Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy and even the new Hazelight game Split Fiction without breaking a sweat. This is a bigger beast than its predecessor, though it still weighs in at around the same, at about 500g. It feels great to hold, and comes in a lovely matte black colour. The Switch 2 has a much bigger 7.2-inch screen (compared to 6.2 inches), that displays games in 1080p, and (bonus) it's thinner than its predecessor, coming in at 1.4cm width. Oh yeah – and there's no OLED screen, as with the later Switch models. This is just LED for now, which essentially means slightly less crisp visuals. There is also a dock. While it looks roughly the same as earlier models, it's also bigger, and rightly so – when the Switch 2 is docked, it will be capable of outputting videos at a 4K resolution, and playing games at up to 120FPS. That's no joke – it's certainly much better than any of the current models, and explains why the new dock contains a fan to help the switch cool down faster.
Business Insider
4 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
The midnight launch event is back: Photos show lines around the world for the Nintendo Switch 2
Nintendo launched the Switch 2 at midnight on June 5, drawing crowds that waited overnight for the release. The company said it expects to sell 15 million units in the current fiscal year. Nintendo didn't increase the base cost of the console due to tariffs, but did boost the price of its accessories. The global midnight launch event for tech gadgets has largely fizzled in recent years. After all, you can preorder the latest iPhone from the comfort of your home and have it delivered to your doorstep on launch day. But with the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 game console, more than eight years after the original drove massive sales, the midnight queues at brick-and-mortar stores came roaring back. The Switch 2 launched globally on June 5, and people in many cities around the world lined up the day before for the chance to get their hands on the console as early as possible. The launch is expected to boost the bottom line for big-box retailers like Target and Best Buy. Nintendo said it expects to sell 15 million units in the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2026. Wall Street analysts believe that number could hit 20 million. Though Nintendo didn't increase the price of the base Switch 2 due to tariffs, it did boost the price of its accessories, including controllers. Scroll on for a look at the lines around the world. A line stretched down the block outside the Nintendo New York store. Shoppers could be seen wearing red Mario hats. Customers spilled into the parking lot outside a Best Buy in Pembroke Pines, Florida. Buyers started filling their bags at midnight. In San Francisco, waiting customers played games on their original Switches. Buyers in Paris sprawled out on the floor as they waited. Crowds in Paris waited into the night. Customers in Tokyo filled local electronics retailers. The packaging for the Switch 2 is similar to the original's — with Nintendo's red branding.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Yahoo
Nintendo Virtual Game Card Update Closes Switch Loophole
Once you update your Nintendo Switch to version 20.0.0 (which came out on April 29), you should see icons for two new features that will also be on the upcoming Switch 2: GameShare and Virtual Game Card. Nintendo's new sharing system promises to help people play simultaneously from a single game copy (provided one of the consoles is a Switch 2), but, as Ars Technica points out, this coincides with the end of a similar situation that worked with just Switches. So long as you bought the digital copy of a game, you could have, for example, two players playing together with that same digital copy simultaneously. The key was to have an internet connection (and the purchasing Nintendo account) on the secondary console, instead of the primary. That system didn't work with physical copies. According to Ars Technica, that capability is gone, along with the Nintendo FAQ info on the topic. GameShare and the Virtual Game Cards are now the law of the Switch and Switch 2 land. The GameShare feature is Nintendo's new way of letting you share a single game with other players. The other players don't need to be part of your family account, but you must have a Switch 2 and own the game. You then share the game with the other Switches via local wireless (the other player must be nearby). The potential problem here is that the game must be 'compatible' with GameShare, suggesting that not all games will be. That adds confusion for people when they buy games—they need to check to make sure they'll be able to share them. We'll see how this shakes out when the Switch 2 arrives, but we have a sinking feeling that some expensive, popular games won't support GameShare. We can always hope. As for the Virtual Game Cards, they represent the games you buy digitally. You can load/unload them to move them to another Switch. If you have family members who own Switches (and are part of your Nintendo Account family group), you can also lend your virtual game cards to them for up to 14 days. Once you lend the game, you can't play it until you have it back, so Nintendo included a way for you to retrieve the game from the borrower if you need it before the end of the 14-day lending period. Interestingly, your Switch or Switch 2 should also have an Online License setting now. If you have a second Switch/Switch 2, you can skip the load/unload shenanigans and play a game without its Virtual Game Card present—so long as you have an internet connection.
