Nintendo Switch 2 power revealed by Microsoft court document

The elusive Nintendo Switch 2 is seemingly leaking out more day by day, and Microsoft court documents have revealed the power target for the console.

The FTC vs. Microsoft case has unveiled a lot of information that was previously only rumored. The latest comes from a report by The Verge, which details emails preceding a meeting between Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, to Nintendo CEO Shuntaro Furukawa.

In the court documents, several attachments are alluded to, which include a file named “NG Switch Draft.pdf”, seemingly in relation to the Nintendo Switch 2, the Kyoto-based giant’s next console. While the file remains heavily redacted, The Verge also reports that there is an additional allusion to “Gen8” platforms, or the PS4 and Xbox One. The text from the document reads:

“Given the closer alignment to Gen8 platforms in terms of performance and our previous offerings on PS4 / Xbox One, it is reasonable to assume we could make something compelling for the NG Switch as well. It would be helpful to secure early access to development hardware prototypes and prove that out nice and early.“

This means that you can expect the Nintendo Switch 2 to perform in games similar to the Xbox One or PS4. Interestingly, the email is also dated to the 14th of December, 2022, meaning that other key development partners may have also been briefed on the Nintendo Switch 2 at a similar time.

Switch 2 gains traction for 2024 release

The rumor mill was running at full speed after Gamescom 2023, where several reports claim to have seen Nintendo Switch 2 hardware demos, such as The Legend of Zelda running in 4K, or The Matrix Awakens tech demo running on targeted hardware with DLSS.

Further leaks also claim that the Nintendo Switch 2 will also be running on Nvidia’s Ampere architecture, the same as the RTX 30-series. Furthermore, another leaker has also claimed that the Switch 2 SOC, widely believed to be the Nvidia T239 will feature 1280 CUDA cores, which is around the same number as the popular GTX 1060, but on a more advanced processing node. To directly compare to desktop PC hardware, the RTX 3050 has 2560 CUDA cores.

Various rumors also claim that the Nintendo Switch 2 would also use the T254 chip, which is allegedly based on Nvidia’s next-gen Blackwell architecture, but reliable Nvidia leaker Kopite7Kimi states that this is not the case and that the new hardware will be based on T239, instead. It’s more likely that Nintendo finalized the chip with Nvidia several years before its release, much like it did with its Tegra X1 integration in the current-gen console.

We’re still waiting to hear anything official from Nintendo regarding the console, which we’re expecting to land in 2024.