Nintendo has confirmed that the yet-to-be-announced Switch 2 will be backward-compatible with original Switch games and will feature Nintendo Switch Online.
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa shared the news during the company’s Corporate Management Policy Briefing, revealing a bit more about the successor to 2017’s Nintendo Switch.
“This is Furukawa,” Nintendo wrote on X/Twitter. “At today’s Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch. Nintendo Switch Online will be available on the successor to Nintendo Switch as well. Further information about the successor to Nintendo Switch, including its compatibility with Nintendo Switch, will be announced at a later date.”
We have a ton left to learn about this new Switch as we are still waiting for its actual announcement, which Nintendo has previously said will happen by the end of March 2025.
The Current State of the Nintendo Switch
Nintendo also shared more about sales of the current Switch and its software, including that it was cutting the sales projection of its current hardware for the financial year ending March 2025 from 13.5 million units to 12.5 million units.
Nintendo had a 17% revenue drop and a 69% profit drop versus the same quarter from its last financial year, and it sold 4.72 million Switch units in the six months ending September 30. That latter figure is down from the 6.84 million units sold during the same period last year.
On the software side from April to September 2024, Nintendo said The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom sales have reached 2.58 million, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s have jumped up 2.31 million, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door’s have climbed to 1.94 million, and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD’s have scared to 1.57 million.
Nintendo has experienced moments throughout its history where it’s had to rely exclusively on first-party content to get by, but thankfully, things improved during the Switch generation – with many major third-party publishers showing their support for the hybrid device.
Switch Online will also be available on the “successor”.
Although Nintendo isn’t ready to reveal the ‘Switch 2’ just yet, the company’s president Shuntaro Furukawa has confirmed some big news during the latest corporate management policy briefing.
Nintendo Switch software will be playable on this “successor” system. Along with this, it’s also been confirmed Switch Online will be available on Nintendo’s next-generation hardware. Here’s the translated message shared on Nintendo’s Japanese social accounts:
The new smartphone app ‘Nintendo Music’ has been available for almost a week now and it appears we’ve already got the first update about how it’s performing.
According to Sensor Tower, this new app for “active” Switch Online subscribers is estimated to have been downloaded by 265,000 smartphone users within the first day and went on to surpass 1.2 million downloads in just four days. Around 40 percent of these app downloads were in the US and about 15 percent of the downloads were in Japan.
When we already have a theme park simulator as good as Planet Coaster, it can be tricky to imagine what a sequel might add. And Planet Coaster 2, most of the time, does feel pretty similar to the first one. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing since I really liked the original. Adding water rides is exciting and refreshing, and even deeper visual customization is downright impressive, while equally daunting in how the options are presented. But this is still much more of a park decorating sim than a park management one.
Where the recent Frontier games (Planet Coaster and Planet Zoo) have really excelled is in the nearly ridiculous amount of visual customization options available. Hundreds of modular pieces that can be recolored, resized, rotated, and overlapped allow you to create just about anything you can imagine. The terrain editor is more powerful than ever here, and the tools for carving my dreams into the landscape are pretty intuitive. It does feel a bit like being thrown into the deep end, though. I get decision paralysis from the sheer amount of choice, and risk getting bogged down in making each little decoration perfect.
I don’t find that level of fiddliness to be as enjoyable as designing rides or running a park, but the pre-made decor doesn’t quite fill the gap to where I feel like I can skip that step and still get the theming I want. Plopping down an unadorned ride feels boring, and the pre-decorated ones don’t have quite enough variety. What I really found myself longing for was something in-between the extremes of fussing over every handrail and accepting unthemed or pre-themed attractions. But thanks to Steam Workshop integration – always a great addition – I’m sure the community will have me covered after the true detail masters have more time to tinker.
Where I do really like that fine control is when I’m building rides, and the coaster editor is more powerful and easier to use than ever. Creating banks, corkscrews, spirals, loops, and bends of all sizes feels intuitive and almost effortless thanks to the great UI. The option to automatically finish a track with one click when you’re getting close to the end works really well this time around, too, and allowed me to skip the hassle of fishing for the right angle to bring everyone safely into the station.
Sandbox mode presents a beautiful canvas for almost anything I can dream up.
Despite how much I enjoy the act of building my ideal park, the original Planet Coaster was neither challenging nor interesting as a management tycoon game, and that has unfortunately not changed. Even after messing with the difficulty settings, of which there are several, I found it almost mindlessly simple to generate infinite money with a small number of flat rides and a high entry fee. You can now sell what are basically Disney’s Fast Passes as another income stream, in addition to charging extra for a pool pass on water rides. There are deeper systems for guest preferences and even things like sunburn in sunny climates, which is all neat in theory. But when I’m making so much money that I can basically ignore all of it, why would I care? Power management is also new, but why am I building generators in a theme park game? What theme park supplies its own electricity?
Staff management is still mostly hands-off, with some nice new quality-of-life features like being able to select from three different preset pay levels instead of typing in the numbers yourself. The annoying thing this time is that, unless I was entirely missing some core feature, the ride maintenance system seems to be broken currently. No matter how many mechanics I hired – at one point I had one per ride, plus a couple extra to cover breaks – I was constantly getting notifications about rides being in poor condition or breaking down. Once they had broken down, my staff was pretty quick to address the issue. But I’m not sure what they were doing the rest of the time. Am I supposed to manually dispatch them every time a ride drops below a certain repair level? Because they don’t seem to pay attention to that until it’s too late.
I couldn’t really get my head around the scheduling screen, and the in-game tutorials are not much help. In fact, they seem to start from a point of assuming you already know how to play Planet Coaster, skipping over a lot of the basics.
Thankfully, the sandbox mode is still the star of the show for me, presenting a beautiful canvas on which to realize almost anything I can dream up. The underwhelming management layer doesn’t detract from the joy of laying out everything with ease and total freedom, building whole attractions from scratch, and getting to ride my custom coasters in glorious first-person. All of the reasons I already loved the first Planet Coaster are not only alive and well here, they have all been improved in some way. So if I sound a bit down on this sequel, it’s only because I don’t feel the need to go back over every single thing that was already great about this series, but you can check out my review of the first Planet Coaster for a refresher.
Customizable pools, flumes, splash rides, and even water coasters open up the opportunity to create totally new kinds of parks, which kept me from feeling like I was playing the same game again but a little bit prettier. I do wish the pool editor would simply let me paint a shape rather than fiddling with polygons and a somewhat iffy rounding tool. But getting the shapes I wanted was really just a matter of time.
There’s also a career mode that features a handful of increasingly complex scenarios and challenges to master. It does an okay job of introducing some new concepts, like those water rides, but I still think it’s missing some major steps to onboard someone who might be new to the series. Also the dialogue is just… ugh. I think I would rather listen to cats dancing on stainless steel sheeting than these painful little skits that wouldn’t pass muster in most modern childrens’ cartoons.
Water rides kept it from feeling like I was playing the same game.
What I did like about these scenarios, similar to those in the first game, was that they show off the kinds of things you can do with the tools available to you, serving as a source of inspiration for my own parks. I was never going to stick with them once I’d earned enough stars to move on (it’s just not as fun to finish something someone else already started than it is to build from the ground up), but I definitely stole a lot of cool ideas.
Performance is also very respectable. Even at 4K, I was getting 60+ fps on my RTX 4070 Super most of the time, though a bit below that in the absolute most elaborate parks. I was able to do really silly stuff like recreating the Erdtree from Elden Ring using what must have been hundreds and hundreds of golden pyrotechnics, and the level-of-detail swapping refused to let my shenanigans, however ridiculous, banish my park to slideshow territory.
Enshrouded has received what developers Keen Games are calling the survival game’s “most sizable” update yet, sizable being an appropriate word for mountains. Expect a new playable area, the Alabaneve Summits, with its own enemies, resources, non-threatening wildlife and quests. The maximum character level has risen to 35! There are new townsfolk to find and place in your poorly built houses! You can tame animals, and make them live in poorly built houses too! You can get hypothermia!
Stardew Valley 1.6 added a hidden experimental multiplayer feature to the mobile version of the game, developer Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone has revealed.
In a blog post, Barone said the feature is hidden because it may have some bugs or issues, and the nature of the mobile platform “could make a multiplayer session frustrating.”
“Mobile multiplayer works pretty much the same as on other platforms, except there is no farm ‘discovery’ capability,” Barone explained. “You can only connect via IP. You can, however, join a PC-hosted farm from a mobile device via IP.”
The ideal “mobile multiplayer” scenario, Barone added, would be to connect to a PC-hosted farm from a high-end mobile device on a local network (using wi-fi, unless you have some way to connect your mobile device to ethernet). “This would be the best-case scenario,” Barone said, before warning against trying to connect or host using a cell phone network.
“The worst case scenario would be if someone were to host a game from a low-performance phone, on a cell network (you would probably have to create a mobile wi-fi hotspot for others to connect to locally), and they were on a train or something, going through tunnels,” Barone went on.
“And then the host is also getting calls, causing the app to be interrupted repeatedly. This would result in a potentially frustrating multiplayer experience.
“However, if you want to try these things out, there’s nothing stopping you… Just be aware that there are inherent connectivity issues that can arise when attempting to host a multiplayer game from a mobile device.”
Stardew Valley 1.6 finally released on console and mobile this week, eight months after the update launched on PC. It did so alongside another big update that changed the hugely popular farm and life sim further.
Unlocking the mobile version’s hidden multiplayer feature requires inputting a riff on the Konami Code (the famous series of inputs used to unlock cheats in Konami games).
As Barone explained in the blog post, on the title screen, players will notice that the Stardew Valley logo has four groups of leaves attached to it. Tap the leaves in this order: ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → then press the ? button in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Exit the ? menu and you’ll have a co-op button on the title screen.
The free 1.6 update, which sparked a fresh 10/10 Stardew Valley review from IGN, launched on PC in March. Barone initially expected the console and mobile ports of 1.6 would be released a month later.
Barone has apologized to disgruntled fans and promised not to return to work on his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, until Stardew 1.6 is finalized. Haunted Chocolatier, revealed in 2021, doesn’t have a release window.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
I’ve spent quite a lot of today trying to figure out why, exactly, some of the monsters in the Monster Hunter Wilds beta looked like bundles of copulating pyramids slathered in crocodile gravy. Nic clued me in on this reddit thread earlier, which cites unnamed Chinese players who’ve allegedly data-mined the beta’s monster models, and learned that they are extremely large, encompassing hundreds of thousands of polygons.
If every monster in Monster Hunter Wilds were that fancy all of the time, your computer would become a volcano. As such, the game resorts to loading-on-demand systems to ensure that you only see those gorgeous details when the monsters are close by and, as the case may be, angrily sitting on you. When they’re further afield, the flourishes fall away to free up memory and processing power. The popular Redditor explanation for the presence of monsters that look like Henry Moore sculpture is basically that the LOD systems are being forgetful, and neglecting to load the additional polygons at proximity.
Publisher Clear River Games and developer City Connection have today announced that the arcade shoot ’em up Under Defeat will be flying onto Switch on 5th December.
Originally released in arcades in 2005 by G.rev, this shmup will see you taking to the skies to defend a world in all-out war. You’ll take command of a heavily armoured ‘copter and shoot down any foes unlucky enough to stumble into your path with Under Defeat’s unique shot-tilting mechanic — a way to take on enemies from all angles.
We’ve come so far, and there’s still so much ahead of us. Apex Legends From the Rift rewinds the clock with the new nostalgic LTM Launch Royale, takes you to the original World’s Edge, revives Lifeline to new limits, and rekindles that first drop feeling from season one. It all starts November 5, 2024, including support for PlayStation 5 Pro when the console launches November 7.
Let’s launch royale
It’s 2019, Apex Legends has just launched, Kings Canyon is the wild frontier, and battle royales were never the same. This new LTM drops you right into that original experience, complete with original everything: weapons, Legends, abilities, ruleset, and map. Conquer Launch Royale Challenges to unlock Legends and earn rewards like Apex Packs and more.
Evo Armor and Ability Upgrades? Nope, not here. Just a blast from the past for those who were here on day zero and a brand-new experience for those who missed out. There’s never been a better time to jump in and see where Legends were born.
Lifeline revived
“We’re in this together. Memba that.”
Lifeline’s habit of getting caught up in chaotic events may have caught up with her, but she’s always got your back. It’s the Ajay Che you know and love, now fully revived, recharged, and ready to drop directly into the action with her aggressive new kit:
Combat Glide: Hold Jump mid-air to use to D.O.C. to briefly glide, and deploy D.O.C. to revive teammates, leaving Lifeline free to defend.
D.O.C. Heal Drone: D.O.C. heals nearby allies. D.O.C. can be assigned to follow allies once deployed.
D.O.C. Halo: throw D.O.C. to activate Halo Shield System. All players inside use Health & Shield consumables faster.
Good support never surrenders to the sidelines. And this Lifeline? She’s not just saving lives—she’s fighting her way to the Champions Podium.
Rift Relics
Forming from the unstable Rift in the sky, Rift Relics disrupt our reality to bring enviable items from seemingly nowhere. Pick up the EPG-1 Launcher with splash damage and rocket-jumping capabilities, and unleash exotic Hop-Ups like Lifesteal, which heals with every hit. If survival is more your gameplan, then lookout for the new survival item: Boost Kits.
Rift Relics will spontaneously appear across many rounds in each match. But be quick. They’re easy to spot for allies and enemies alike. Whoever gets there first will reap the rewards by destroying the Rift Relic and have their presence announced to the surrounding area. Then it’s all fun and games until the Ring starts—objects from the rift may be more stable than they appear.
Support Class Perks
Our next class gets a set of perks. Legends in the Support class will now have their own duo of perks to select from to amplify their areas of expertise: Heal Expert and Revive Expert. There are no bad choices here—just go with your gut and heal it later.
Heal Expert
Move at full walk speed while healing
Healing amount from small meds is doubled
Revive Expert
25% faster revives and grant health regen on a successful revive
Banner Crafting and ally Death Boxes now spawn a Mobile Respawn Beacon (which Support Legends will be able to spot inside)
Support Legends will maintain access to their extended supply bins, but some updates will be made to their upgrades, and banner crafting will now be accessible to all Legends.
New universal melee: Raptor’s Claw
Up the ante with the new Raptor’s Claw. This universal melee cosmetic can be used by any and all Legends to add some flare while you’re taking down the enemy. Grab the latest addition to your collection in the Void Mercenary Store until January 7, 2025. After acquiring this karambit-style weapon, you can then unlock the Crystal Chamber Death Box, as well as 5 other deadly variants and their matching Death Boxes.
Play Apex Legends for free* now on PS5 and PS4, now with support for PlayStation 5 Pro when the console launches November 7.
*Applicable platform account and platform subscription (sold separately) may be required. A persistent internet connection and EA account required. Age restrictions apply. Includes in-game purchases.
