Nintendo Switch 2 Developers Discuss The Console's Tech and Iwata's Lasting Legacy on its Development

Editor’s note: This interrogation was conducted connected April 3, 2025, anterior to Nintendo’s announcement astir delaying Switch 2 pre-orders successful the United States owed to the imaginable interaction of tariffs. Parts of this interrogation were edited for clarity.

After getting hands-on with Nintendo Switch 2 astatine past week’s uncover successful New York, IGN spoke with the hardware leads spearheading the improvement of Nintendo’s newest console. Kouchi Kawamoto and Takuhiro Dohta from Nintendo’s Entertainment Planning and Development Department, on with Tetusya Sasaki from Nintendo’s Technology Development Division, talked to IGN’s Brian Altano astir the exertion down Switch 2, the classical Nintendo handhelds that person inspired them and the interaction erstwhile Nintendo president Satoru Iwata’s bequest had connected the improvement of the console.

IGN: Can you speech astir the SOC strategy connected a spot the Nintendo Switch 2 was running? Is it Nvidia Tegra? If not, tin you uncover which graphics architecture it's based on?

Nintendo: I deliberation you'll find a batch of the details successful NVIDIA's accusation that they've shared.

IGN: One of the notes successful the nonstop suggested to deed 4K successful dock mode, upscaling whitethorn beryllium required. What benignant of upscaling is this strategy using? Is it utilizing AI upscaling?

Nintendo: I deliberation astir apt the main benignant of easiest upscaling to usage is the DLSS that Nvidia provides. So from that standpoint, I conjecture you could accidental this AI.

Nintendo: That said, we're readying connected providing different options of upscaling done bundle and truthful ranging from thing that uses AI to thing that's not. I deliberation you'll spot that arsenic clip passes. And lastly, I'll adhd that adjacent though determination is upscaling, there's besides the enactment to not upscale and conscionable output natively. So that's besides an enactment that developers tin use.

IGN: What astir ray tracing? Is that thing that your squad experimented with?

Nintendo: Just similar DLSS, that's erstwhile we're benignant of making the graphics of a game. We see ray tracing arsenic conscionable different instrumentality to bash that – it's not that we're going to effort to usage ray tracing connected everything, but truly trying to fig retired what types of graphics, what types of screens, what types of situations are champion suited for ray tracing, and past trying to use that. That's the attack we took erstwhile we did each of our researching and experimenting.

IGN: We saw that the power 2 supports 3rd enactment cameras. What astir third-party mice?

Nintendo: You're talking astir USB mice, things similar that?

IGN: Yeah, not the animal!

Nintendo: [Laughs] It truly depends connected the crippled bundle with the structure. So if that bundle supports third-party USB mice, yes.

IGN: I person a six-year-old daughter. She took my Switch and I don't get to play it anymore. She besides has dropped it a batch and it's okay. What person you done with Switch 2 to marque definite that it tin past a kid dropping it connected the level oregon dropping it down the stairs?

Nintendo: Nintendo has made precise sturdy devices done the ages and I judge that this clip astir arsenic well, we've made thing that volition beryllium sturdy.

Nintendo: Yeah, you tin driblet it a small bit. I don’t urge it though!

IGN: I besides person a Steam Deck and I similar it, but the instrumentality gets precise large erstwhile I'm playing precocious extremity games. It's astir distracting. What did Nintendo bash to marque definite that that was taken into relationship erstwhile designing the hardware for Switch 2?

Nintendo: When a instrumentality is large it truly does impact one's gameplay, truthful that is decidedly thing we had successful the backmost of our caput during the improvement of the Nintendo Switch 2. The strategy is made to accommodate depending connected the processing capableness truthful I'm benignant of funny to perceive from the others present what their acquisition has been like.

Nintendo: When I was playing it it's not like, “Wow, there's a instrumentality successful there”. It hasn’t truly gotten to the constituent where, adjacent done improvement of the hardware, it has bothered maine successful immoderate way.

Nintendo: The hardware squad enactment rather a batch of effort into making definite the airflow was smooth. So a batch is coming successful but there's a batch coming out, and arsenic specified the instrumentality sound isn't excessively significant.

IGN: Nintendo invented the directional pad and it's been important for video games for my full life. What did your squad bash to guarantee that the Dpad connected the Switch 2 was large for warring games, puzzle games, platformers, each that amusive stuff?

Nintendo: You whitethorn deliberation that each clip you spot the directional pad that it's conscionable the aforesaid fastener being reused, but the information is we bash marque tiny adjustments and adhd tiny changes each time. I person radical – our improvement and crippled improvement teams – effort them retired erstwhile we marque a caller one.

Nintendo: This is simply a much elaborate constituent but for the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller directional buttons, we made it truthful that it's adjacent much hard to person mistaken input. Of course, it doesn't wholly destruct that anticipation but it should trim it.

IGN: I'm a large instrumentality of Nintendo handheld systems and ever person been since the archetypal Game Boy. What are each of your idiosyncratic favourite classical Nintendo handhelds?

Nintendo: I person fond memories for each of the systems that person travel retired but for maine personally, I deliberation the archetypal Game Boy truly has a peculiar spot successful my heart. Part of the crushed for that is that since past there's evidently caller systems that came out, similar the Game Boy Advance for example. But I conscionable distinctly retrieve my parent with the archetypal Game Boy playing Tetris, and that’s conscionable burned into my memory.

IGN: Some of you worked with the legendary Satoru Iwata. Is determination immoderate circumstantial portion of his bequest that inspired the Nintendo Switch 2 design?

Nintendo: There are assorted aspects but what comes to caput archetypal is the magnet connector. We primitively didn't follow it for the Nintendo Switch due to the fact that it wasn't arsenic unafraid arsenic we would've liked. However, we enactment a batch of effort into this facet and that has travel to fruition.

Nintendo: It was Mr. Iwata's concerns astir the magnets that meant it didn't travel to fruition [for the archetypal Switch]. So being capable to really code each of the issues and make thing that astir apt would've met his standards is moving and meaningful.

IGN: I emotion it. I deliberation I took the JoyCon connected and disconnected 20 times yesterday!

Nintendo: I really person a question for you. You saw the footage of the JoyCon 2 snapping connected and off. Was the content you got from that footage antithetic from really snapping it connected and off?

IGN: Yes. I thought it was going to beryllium similar a refrigerator magnet and it was going to beryllium wobbly escaped and alternatively it conscionable goes ‘snap’ and clicks in. And I was like, “Oh, that feels truly nice.”

Nintendo: I'm precise relieved to perceive that!

IGN: Yeah, they told maine I had to halt doing it!

Brian Altano has been playing Mario Kart for 30+ years, and it's brainsick that 10 of those years were spent with Mario Kart 8. We haven't seen Battle Mode for Mario Kart World yet, but he's inactive holding retired anticipation that Block Fort tin travel back. Bring backmost Block Fort!