Just a day before the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, the company has officially opened up its digital storefront – the eShop – for the console. While the eShop isn’t yet open to the wider public as of yet, members of the press and others who got early access to the console can now make use of the eShop to redeem game codes, according to VideoGamer. This also includes the copy of Mario Kart World that is available as part of a bundle with the Switch 2.
It is also worth noting that most games for the Switch 2 still can’t be bought and played as of yet, since they have official release dates of June 5 and beyond. The launch of the eShop does mean that the day one update for the Switch 2 is now live, which means that those that have their hands on the console can now use it.
The Nintendo Switch 2 will be launching tomorrow, with Mario Kart World, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, and Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition being among its launch titles. There are also Switch 2 Edition upgrades for Switch games, including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The upgrades bring with them a host of general performance improvements. Some games are even getting new content.
Interestingly, Nintendo has also released updates for several of its first-party Switch games, making them playable on the Switch 2. The updates will also likely bring in some performance improvements to the titles, owing to the fact that the Switch 2’s hardware is quite a bit more powerful than what we got in the Switch. Check out our coverage of the updates for more details.
When it comes to horsepower, developer CD Projekt RED has spoken about how the Switch 2’s faster storage and more RAM, coupled with Nvidia’s DLSS technology, makes the console surpass the previous generation of consoles – the PS4 and Xbox One – by quite a bit. Studio’s VP of technology, Charles Tremblay, also spoke about the challenges in bringing Cyberpunk 2077 over to the Switch 2.
“Cyberpunk is built for x86 with old PC architecture,” Tremblay explained. “So this from the beginning was completely different. Lots of changes had to be done at the engine level, all the shaders [are in a] different language. We had to convert everything, some HLSL to GLSL. [The Switch 2 uses] a very, very different architecture.”
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa had previously said during an earnings report that the company is expecting to sell 15 million units of the new console. According to Furukawa, the forecasts are relatively conservative owing to the fact that the console and its games are more expensive than the original Switch.
Industry analysis firm DFC Intelligence, on the other hand, believes that the Switch 2’s launch might be the biggest one that the industry has seen so far. According to the firm, this is because GTA 6 has been pushed back to next year, along with all of the new console sales that the game’s release would have brought with it.
