Nearly eight years after the release of one of the bestselling consoles of all time, Nintendo has announced its successor.
The company on Thursday unveiled the Switch 2, an upgraded version of its massively successful hybrid console, but shared little in the way of details outside of a two-minute teaser posted online.
What Nintendo did unveil is that the Switch 2 will release by the end of this year — and Toronto will be among the first cities in the world to get its hands on the new product.
Nintendo Switch 2 experience comes to Toronto
Nintendo is hosting Switch 2 “experience events” in 15 cities around the world, including Toronto. The city will be the fifth in the world to host the event, after New York, Los Angeles, Paris and London. (Dallas, Milan and Berlin will also host the event on the same weekend as Toronto.)
The experience will run from April 25 to 27 at the Enercare Centre.
Nintendo hosted a similar experience in 2017 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
How do I get tickets?
Registration for tickets will open on Friday at 3 p.m. and run until midnight on Jan. 26. After registration closes, Nintendo will run a “randomly selected drawing” to give away the tickets. The drawing is free to enter, but you must have a Nintendo Account to register.
You’ll be able to select how many tickets you’d like and what session you’d like to attend.
You must be at least 18 years old to register.
What do we know about the Switch 2?
Nintendo shared little in its Switch 2 teaser, but the device screen and Joycons appear to be larger than the previous iteration. The device also features a wide kickstand, an upgrade from the first Switch, which had only a narrow, flimsy kickstand that earned complaints for being fragile and unstable.
The Joycons, another source of frustration for original Switch users, appear to connect magnetically with the console, instead of sliding in, as they did on the 2017 version.
The Switch 2 will feature games exclusive to the console, including what appears to be a new version of Mario Kart. Nintendo hasn’t released a new version of its flagship racing game since 2014, when Mario Kart 8 released on the Wii U. (An updated version of the same game, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, released on the Switch in 2017.)
The console will be backwards compatible with the Switch, although some games may not be supported on the Switch 2.
Nintendo will share more details about the new console on April 2.
