A wide variety of games have been confirmed for the launch titles like Mario Kart World, and enhanced editions of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. However, it won't only be first-party Nintendo games that make up the Switch 2's library: a series of major releases will be ported to the console in its first year of launch.

Confirmed during the Nintendo Direct on April 2, 2025, games including Elden Ring, Street Fighter 6, Hades 2, Split Fiction, Hitman: World of Assassination, EA Sports FC, Hogwarts Legacy, and Yakuza 0 will all be playable on the Switch 2 sometime this year. Some of these games will also launch alongside the Switch 2 on June 5, giving its launch library some serious heft. Other major releases, like Borderlands 4, will be available on the Switch the same day they're out on PC and other home consoles like PlayStation and Xbox.

The Switch 2 Is Getting Several Major Releases

Already An Incredible Library

It's looking like the Switch 2 will have a pretty massive library in its first year of launch, thanks mainly to the addition of third-party games. That includes several major releases of this and the previous home console generation - things the original Switch couldn't handle, but will (hopefully) pose no problem for the upgraded Switch 2. If nothing else, it's a testament to the Switch 2’s hardware that it'll be able to run PS5 and Xbox Series X/S games like Elden Ring and EA Sports FC 24.

Perhaps more exciting, though, is the possibility of future games launching for the Switch 2, PC, PS5, and Xbox all on the same day. Sure, Yakuza 0 may be coming to the console ten years late, but the Switch 2 is getting Borderlands 4 on day one. That's a major development, and if more big, triple-A games come to the Switch 2 on launch, it'll certainly be one to watch out for in the home console market.

That's only helped by the Switch 2's unique features. With 4K via the TV dock, combined with the ability to take these games on the go, the Switch 2 has a serious leg up on more stationary home consoles.

It does have two familiar hurdles in front of it, though: the Switch 2 will need to compete in of performance, while still maintaining reasonable battery life. Sure, its screen is capable of displaying frame rates up to 120 FPS, but will it actually be able to run Elden Ring at a consistent 60 without burning through a full charge in half an hour? Only time will tell.

Will Yesterday’s Big Releases Really Help The Switch 2?

A Familiar Strategy

The Switch 2 gearing up to announce all these major releases is impressive, sure, but I'm not sure it'll help the console in the long run. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the Switch is clearly setting itself up here as a legitimate alternative to the PS5, Xbox X/S, and portable PCs like the Steam Deck by saying, "Look, I can run all these big games too!" It's a bold strategy, and will definitely build out the Switch 2's library.

But I already own Elden Ring, Yakuza 0, and Hitman: World of Assassination on other platforms. Absolutely nothing in this world could convince me to buy these games again on Switch 2, and I suspect I'm not alone in that regard. These games will give early adopters something to play once they get bored with Mario Kart World, but what then? They're not likely to sell as successfully as they did during their original runs.

This is actually something Nintendo has done before to not-so-great effect: the Wii U also got lots of ports of major console releases of yesteryear in its early days. Again, it made for a flashy game library in the early days, but these ports didn't sell particularly well. In time, major cross-platform releases began to skip the Wii U, leaving it in the dust. Of course, it's not the sole reason the Wii U flopped as hard as it did, but it didn't help.

If nothing else, the possibility of new triple-A releases coming to Switch 2 on day one is definitely the bigger reveal here. As long as it can keep up in of performance, that'll be a huge selling point for the console in due time. For now, we'll just have to wait and see how the first year of the Nintendo Switch 2's life pans out.