Years of waiting are finally coming to an end (one more time). After a short reveal earlier this year, Nintendo is finally lifting the entire lid on the Switch 2 today. The company will host a Direct presentation entirely built around the console. While Nintendo has been tight-lipped on what exactly will be shown, you can expect it to give us a release date, price, and launch games at the very least. It’s sure to be one of the biggest live stream presentations of the year, so you won’t want to miss it — even if you aren’t planning on buying a Switch 2 right now.
Want to make sure you catch it when it airs? We’ve got you covered. Here are all the details for today’s Nintendo Switch 2 Direct, including when it airs, when you can watch it, and what you can expect to see during it. And if you can’t watch it live, we’re recapping it all live as it happens.
When is the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct?
You don’t have to wait much longer. The Nintendo Switch 2 Direct will air today, April 2. It kicks off at 6am PT / 9am ET. Nintendo has yet to say just how long it’ll be, but its 2017 Nintendo Switch reveal lasted just over an hour. You can likely expect about the same here.
Where to watch the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct
As is the case with every Nintendo Direct, you’ll be able to stream it on Nintendo’s official YouTube channel. You can even watch it through this article if you’d like from the video embedded above. We also expect that Nintendo will embed the stream into its own website if you feel like watching it there instead.
How long is the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct?
Nintendo revealed that the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct will last approximately 60 minutes. That’s longer than your typical Direct, though still a compact show. The runtime lines up with 2017’s Switch reveal, which ran for about one hour and six minutes total.
If you want more, Nintendo will host a series of Treehouse streams the following days, which will feature gameplay demos for newly announced games. One will take place on April 3 and last four hours, while the other will happen on April 4 and run for three hours. Both streams will begin at 7am PT / 10am ET on their respective days and be available to watch through Nintendo’s YouTube channel.
What to expect from the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct
Don’t go into this assuming it’ll be another teaser: This is going to be a full blowout. If it’s anything like the Nintendo Switch reveal stream in 2017, you can expect an overload of information that covers everything from hardware to online service tweaks to games. The most fundamental thing we’ll likely get here is a price and release date. The 2017 showcase revealed that the Switch would be coming out just two months from then, so it’s likely we get a similar timeline here. That would put Switch 2 at a June release, which lines up with rumors. Price is a total mystery, though, as it’s unclear if President Donald Trump’s recent tariffs will impact the system. If the price seems much higher than you’d expect from a Nintendo console usually, you might be able to deduce why.
We’ll likely learn a whole lot more than that, too. We still don’t know the Switch 2’s specs, so we could here them here. If it’s capable of outputting in 4K, Nintendo will want to champion that. We’re likely to get a lot more detail on how the “mouse-con” controllers work. Also possible is an update on how Switch Online will work this time around, though Nintendo may skip that if it’s largely the exact same service as what we saw on Switch. There’s only going to be so much time here, so you likely won’t see Nintendo wasting too much explaining things that haven’t changed.
Of course, the biggest attraction here is the games. We know next to nothing about what’s coming to Switch 2 and this is Nintendo’s moment to change that. Mario Kart 9 is sure to play a big role in the stream, but you can expect some major surprises. A new 3D Mario game feels likely considering how long it’s been since Super Mario Odyssey. If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on some kind of Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing games too. Expect a few third-party games in the mix too, as that was a big part of Nintendo’s 2017 stream. Less likely to show up are any of the games revealed in Nintendo’s Switch-focused stream that aired last week. That means we aren’t likely to see Metroid Prime 4: Beyond or Pokémon Legends: Z-A, unless Nintendo was saving those release dates for this stream. Don’t expect to see Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream or Rhythm Heaven Groove either.
If you want a more in depth list of predictions, we’ve listed out five things we expect from the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct (and three things we don’t).
