Bandai Namco, EA and Bethesda are among the publishers who have games planned for Nintendo’s next console, according to a new leak.
There’s been much speculation around the games Nintendo has planned for its follow-up to the Switch, but the system’s success might hinge just as much on its third party support.
The Switch’s launch line-up was very limited, beyond Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, with Ubisoft’s Just Dance 2017, Skylanders: Imaginators from Activision, and Konami’s Super Bomberman R being the key third party titles.
If game publishers were hesitant to support the original Switch, following the failure of the Wii U, the Switch 2 looks to be a very different story – especially given a new leak which appears to list several companies that have games planned for the system.
The leak stems from French retailer Fnac, which has several pre-made product pages listed on its website. After online sleuths discovered pages alluding to a new Nintendo console and various bundles, other pages have been found that are related to third party publishers.
As listed on Reddit, there are pre-made listings referring to publishers EA, Square Enix, Bandai Namco, Bethesda, Take-Two, and Warner Bros. There are multiple listings for each publisher too, which suggests either various editions of one game or multiple titles from the same publisher.
No games are mentioned by name so, as you would expect, this has prompted a guessing game in online circles. One X user, Bouboune0, has narrowed down what certain titles could be, based on similarities in the EAN barcode numbers, suggesting Tekken 8, ‘FIFA’ (they presumably mean EA Sports FC), and Red Dead Redemption 1 or 2 (the sequel has already been rumoured as coming to Switch 2).
These all sound perfectly possible, especially as the original Red Dead Redemption recently came to the Switch. Meanwhile, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 was released on Wii U and EA Sports FC 25 is already on the current Switch.
If we were to throw in our own speculation, we’d be very surprised if Elden Ring isn’t on the way from Bandai Namco, Bethesda could be related to those reports of a Hi-Fi Rush port, while Square Enix might be planning to bring Final Fantasy 7 Remake – which was originally a PlayStation 4 game – to the new format.
The Warner Bros. listing, meanwhile, might relate to a previous leak hinting at Gotham Knights. There are prices listed too (€79.99), but it’s very likely these are just placeholders.
While there’s a chance this retailer has simply been overzealous in its preparation, it’s very likely the Switch 2 will have considerable third party support at launch. considering how successful the original console has been.
As for ports of existing games, reliable leaker John Harker has said ‘there’s a movement’ to get ‘scaled [Xbox] Series S versions’ on the Switch 2. This would track with a recent report which estimated the console’s power would be equivalent to a base PlayStation 4, but that it will be able to run Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 games, albeit not quite as well.
Nintendo has not confirmed anything about the Switch 2, aside from it being backwards compatible. The company did recently acknowledge leaks around the console, with many insiders expecting a reveal in late January.
As for when the console could possibly launch, accessory manufacturer Genki recently touted April as the likely release window.
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