Is the Price Tag Justified?

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Look, we all knew this was coming. Nintendo has been playing coy about the Switch’s successor for months, but today they finally ripped off the band-aid: the Nintendo Switch 2 is real, it’s expensive, and it’s coming to demolish your wallet on June 5th, 2025.

Let’s cut right to the chase – the Switch 2 will set you back $449.99, or $499.99 if you want the bundle with Mario Kart World.

The specs aren’t completely disappointing. The 1080p handheld resolution is a massive upgrade from the original Switch’s eye-straining 720p screen, and the promise of 4K/120fps output in docked mode is impressive – if developers actually utilize it.

But Nintendo has a track record of announcing fancy features that end up being used in exactly three games before being forgotten and abandoned by developers.

And yeah, that price tag is a tough pill to swallow, especially considering Nintendo’s history of underpowered hardware. And let’s be honest – that 7.9-inch LCD screen? In 2025? Where’s the OLED, Nintendo? Samsung’s been putting OLED screens in phones smaller than my wallet since 2010.

The most surprising thing here isn’t the hardware – it’s that Nintendo finally discovered the internet exists

After years of treating online features like some sort of forbidden dark magic, they’re actually implementing proper voice chat with a dedicated “C” button on the Joy-Con 2.

No more phone app shenanigans, no more friend codes (well, okay, those are still here because Nintendo gonna Nintendo), just press a button and talk. Welcome to 2012, Nintendo!

Those new Joy-Cons are genuinely interesting, though. The magnetic attachment system means no more worn-out rails (a plague that affected literally every Switch owner), and the mouse functionality is clever.

Sure, it sounds gimmicky as hell, but so did the Wii’s motion controls before they revolutionized gaming. Or maybe it’ll be another Wii U touchscreen – forever relegated to map displays and inventory management.

Nintendo Switch 2 Technical Specifications

The launch lineup is where things get seriously interesting. Mario Kart World with 24-player races could be amazing or a complete disaster – anyone remember Mario Kart Tour‘s multiplayer launch?

But the real shocker is The Duskbloods, a FromSoftware exclusive nobody saw coming. Hidetaka Miyazaki making a game for Nintendo is like Gordon Ramsay opening a restaurant in Chuck E. Cheese – it will either be brilliant or horrifically mismatched.

GameShare is probably the most consumer-friendly feature Nintendo’s ever introduced, letting you temporarily share digital games with friends.

Of course, they had to balance this out by making the system only compatible with microSD Express cards, which currently cost more than my monthly coffee budget.

The backwards compatibility situation is a mixed bag

Yes, you can play your old Switch games, but there’s a catch. According to Nintendo, “some Nintendo Switch games may not be supported on or fully compatible with Nintendo Switch 2.”

Essentially, what the company is saying here is that “we’ll tell you which games don’t work after you’ve already bought the console.”

Should you buy the Nintendo Switch 2?

At $450, the Switch 2 is positioning itself as a premium console, not just a quirky Nintendo device. That’s a bold move when the PS5 Pro and Xbox Series X are pushing cutting-edge graphics with massive game libraries.

Sure, Nintendo has always done its own thing, but when Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition is being promised as a launch title, they’re clearly trying to play in the big leagues. Whether the hardware can actually deliver remains to be seen.

It’s not perfect, it’s definitely not cheap, but let’s be real – it’s probably going to sell out instantly anyway because it’s got Zelda and Mario.

Nintendo could probably release a cardboard box with a Mario sticker on it, and we’d all still line up to buy it. At least this time, they’re giving us proper hardware to justify the price tag.

The Nintendo Switch 2 launches worldwide on June 5th, 2025, with pre-orders opening April 9th.

What’s your take on the Switch 2? Worth the $450 price tag, or should Nintendo have packed more features for that price? Share your thoughts below or join the discussion on Twitter or Facebook.

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Kevin is KnowTechie’s founder and executive editor. With over 15 years of blogging experience in the tech industry, Kevin has transformed what was once a passion project into a full-blown tech news publication. Shoot him an email at kevin@knowtechie.com.