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A platform-wide achievement system has been ruled out for Nintendo Switch 2, but that doesn’t mean they won’t feature in individual games.

Achievements in video games have been a thing for decades, with Microsoft making them something that every game on the Xbox 360 had to have. Sony quickly copied the idea on the PlayStation 3 but, predictably, Nintendo did not.

Achievements, trophies, and other similar systems have persisted ever since but while there’s been a handful of Nintendo games that feature achievements (Metroid Prime 3 on the Wii was one of the first) they’ve never been present for every game on a console.

When the Switch 1 launched, some were dismayed to see it lack any sort of achievement system for games. There was hope this would be rectified for the Switch 2, but Nintendo has already made it clear that won’t be happening.

In an interview with Polygon, Bill Trinen, Nintendo of America’s vice president of player and product experience, was asked if the Switch 2 will feature system-wide achievements.

Not only did Trinen answer with a blunt ‘No,’ he didn’t give a reason as to why. Frustrating, but also typical for Nintendo. The implication is simply that they don’t like them and/or they don’t like using other people’s ideas (not they haven’t in the past).

The omission of achievements might feel a bit surprising when the Switch 2 has caught up to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X in other areas. It can support 4K visuals, run certain games up to 120 frames per second, and comes with a traditional online chat feature.

That said, Nintendo still isn’t opposed to adding achievements to individual games. For example, early Mario Kart World footage shows that it has some kind of challenge checklist for when you’re roaming around the open world.

The Nintendo Switch 2 Editions of The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild and its sequel, Tears Of The Kingdom, will also have achievements in the form of medals for reaching certain milestones, though these won’t be in the games themselves.

The achievements are locked to an accompanying Zelda Notes service included with the Nintendo Switch Online app (which is set to be renamed the Nintendo Switch App in May). Other Zelda Notes features include navigation guidance and the ability to share items with other players.

While this is bound to disappoint certain gamers, it’s the least of peoples’ concerns with the Switch 2. There are much stronger points of contention, such as the high price of games and the lack of proper physical versions for Switch 2 Edition games.

Not to mention there are concerns the console itself will instantly increase in price thanks to new tariffs imposed by Donald Trump, which have already prompted Nintendo to delay when pre-orders open up in the US.

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The big Nintendo Switch 2 Direct was as frustrating as it was exciting, thanks to some odd announcements and a serious lack of communication.

Last week’s Nintendo Direct for the Nintendo Switch 2 should’ve been an exciting time for gamers everywhere. And to a degree it was, with Nintendo and its partners announcing a wide range of new titles for various audiences.

We were able to go hands-on with the console ourselves, and the likes of Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza are more than enough to warrant an early purchase – with the former set to be the perfect Switch 2 killer app.

But even the most devout fans have to acknowledge that the Direct was not all sunshine and rainbows. There were several bizarre and infuriating decisions made, and the aftermath has proved more volatile than anyone could have expected.

While we don’t want to diminish peoples’ hype for the Switch 2 (our glowing previews should show we’re still eager for its release), it’d be wrong not to acknowledge the fumbles that may wind up tarnishing the console’s early days.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour costs money

Of all the games we experienced during our hands-on session with the Switch 2, the only one that left us baffled was the glorified interactive instruction manual known as Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour.

The mini-games and tech demos it contains are far too simple for their own good and the sterile and un-Nintendo-like presentation ensures it gets very boring, very quickly. We can’t imagine any child spending more than a few minutes on it.

It wouldn’t be so bad if this was a free title that came pre-installed on the console, but Nintendo wants you to spend money on it. Its Japanese price of 990 yen would make it about £5 or so, but according to an IGN interview it’ll cost $9.99 in the U.S., which is akin to £8. Whatever the price ends up being, it’ll still be too much.

It’s especially shocking when Astro’s Playroom for the PlayStation 5 exists. That too is essentially a tech demo, meant to introduce you to a new console and controller, but it’s dressed up as a charming spectacle, full of cute robots and references to PlayStation’s history. Most importantly, it is completely free.

No physical Switch 2 Editions

The handful of Switch 1 games confirmed to be getting Switch 2 remasters all have something to encourage fans to upgrade, be it Super Mario Party Jamboree’s extra modes or Breath Of The Wild’s improved visuals.

Newcomers are getting the short end of the stick though, when it comes to acquiring these games physically. Nintendo pointedly didn’t mention this during the showcase, but the physical versions of the Switch 2 Edition games aren’t physical at all. Instead, they’re Switch 1 games that come with a download code for the upgrade.

Nintendo hasn’t shared official prices for Switch 2 Edition games yet, but US retailer Walmart has them going for $70 or $80, depending on the game, which is around the same price as a brand new Switch 2 exclusive (which we’ll get to later). In the UK, that’d be about £55 to £62, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Nintendo scaled the price up.

As such, it’d be cheaper to track down Switch 1 copies of games and pay for the upgrade separately (whose price is also unconfirmed but is thought to be around £10 for simple upgrades like Zelda and £20 for games like Super Mario Party, that have new content).

There’s also the fact that these Switch 2 Editions being effectively digital makes them very difficult to preserve for future posterity and impossible to sell second-hand.

Lack of new first party franchises

While the likes of Mario Kart and Donkey Kong are getting big new entries for Switch 2, we had hoped to see Nintendo announce an entirely new IP for the console’s first year.

The Wii U had Splatoon, which quickly became a massive success and while the Switch 1’s new IP, ARMS, wasn’t as successful, it was still an enjoyable and wholly original take on the fighting game genre.

The Switch 2, however, appears to be relying entirely on familiar faces, old classics, and overdue ports of big name third party games, like Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077. There’s no sign of Nintendo taking a chance on giving the Switch 2 its Splatoon moment.

There is wheelchair basketball game Drag X Drive, but while we did enjoy its demonstration of the mouse controls, it’s clearly lacking the same vibrancy as Splatoon and ARMS and appears to be very low budget.

Its presentation is shockingly drab for a Nintendo game and feels more like a tech demo than a serious attempt at a new ongoing franchise.

Fortunately, this is the one thing Nintendo can eventually rectify. There’s every possibility Nintendo does have a secret new IP up its sleeves. It did run a secret online playtest for something codenamed Rockstock, that involves mechs and collecting resources to cultivate planets. Which is something many expected to be announced during the Direct.

The Duskbloods buries its multiplayer lede

Nintendo landing its very own FromSoftware game, The Duskbloods, was one of the biggest surprises of the Direct, with a very enticing trailer that seemed to imply a spiritual sequel to Bloodborne.

However, it’s not that at all. It’s an online-only PvPvE multiplayer game. Nothing in the trailer indicates this is the case and Nintendo didn’t even confirm the detail until after the showcase wrapped up.

That’s a pretty important detail to leave out and from the way the trailer was cut it seems obvious that Nintendo and/or FromSoftware were happy for everyone to imagine it was a primarily single-player game.

The Duskbloods is due in 2026, but this year will see the launch of Elden Ring Nightreign, which,is also a multiplayer game.

Studio president Hidetaka Miyazaki may be aware of the optics since, an interview with Nintendo, he felt the need to assure fans that the studio will keep making single-player games in the future.

Game prices

While some have been complaining about the price of the Switch 2 console, the price tag of £395.99 is largely what was excepted and hasn’t proven very controversial. What has though is the price of the games.

So far, Nintendo has only confirmed prices for two of its first party games (which is worthy of a complaint in itself). Mario Kart World will cost £74.99 physically and £66.99 digitally, while Donkey Kong Bananza will cost £66.99 physically and £58.99 digitally.

This is aggravating for a lot of reasons. For starters, compared to Sony and Microsoft, Nintendo and the Switch 1 have spent the last several years as the more affordable alternative. With this leap in game prices, it loses that angle entirely (unless those rumours about GTA 6 ushering in a new era of £100 games is true).

Additionally, the digital versions being cheaper than the physical ones is clearly meant to encourage customers to purchase the former, which will only hasten the demise of physical games entirely.

And as if that wasn’t enough, Nintendo pushing Mario Kart World for over £70 will incentivise other companies to do the same; especially if the game still sells well. Sony was one of the first to push £70 as the standard for its exclusives, with companies like EA and Activision quickly following, but Nintendo could end up making £70+ even more commonplace.

Nintendo’s pricing decisions are only making gaming more expensive and stand to price a lot of people out of their favourite hobby.

Is Nintendo off its game?

Given all the unforced errors and awkward communications, it seems as if Nintendo has been strangely underprepared for the Switch 2 reveal – as if it hadn’t had several years of unparalleled success in which to prepare for it, which is worryingly reminiscent of the transition from the Wii to Wii U.

Many had hoped the Switch 2 would bring some light to a tumultuous, and increasingly depressing, games industry, burdened by ever increasing prices, constant lay-offs, and diminishing creative freedom. The Switch 2 reveal hasn’t been a disaster but any hopes that last week’s Direct would signal a positive new era for the industry have quickly been dashed.

Its decision to hide the prices of the console and games during the showcase could be dismissed as Nintendo being Nintendo, but it feels more like they knew there’d be backlash and they were cowardly trying to delay it by an extra few hours.

Being upfront and honest wouldn’t have softened the blow, but it would’ve made it easier for Nintendo to defend. Especially as the hardware bundle with Mario Kart, which means the game itself costs only £34, is a really good deal but it’s existence has been largely lost in the confusion and anger.

Nintendo’s communication with its audience has been rather awful in general. By not sharing clear pricing details during the showcase, it forced everyone to scramble around for information, making it very easy for misassumptions and incorrect claims to spread. Even now, there’s no official UK prices for Switch 2 Edition games or their upgrade packs.

We’re also confused as to why Nintendo stuck to its April 2 date for the showcase, when Donald Trump planned to announce his new tariffs the same day. It’s because of those tariffs that Nintendo has had to delay Switch 2 pre-orders in the U.S., which in turn has people fearing the console will only get more expensive as a result.

Nintendo was well aware the tariffs were coming, and that it stood to be impacted by them, yet it blundered ahead anyway and created even more bad press for itself – when it could have gone in far more prepared by simply waiting a couple more days.

It’s too soon to tell if any of these issues will hurt Nintendo or the Switch 2 in the long term. But at a time when Sony is struggling to release new exclusives and Microsoft is fixated on AI generated games, any hope that Nintendo would prove to be the adult in the room have quickly evaporated.

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Nintendo has confirmed the Switch 2 does not have Hall Effect joysticks, which means Joy-Con drift is still a danger.

The biggest technical problem for the Nintendo Switch at launch was Joy-Con drift, where the joysticks would move on their own without any input.

The issue spiralled into lawsuits and prompted Nintendo to offer free repairs, and while early rumours suggested the Switch 2 wouldn’t have the same problem, it seems the most reliable technology for avoiding the issue is not, in fact, being used.

Many hoped the Switch 2 would rectify the issue by having Hall Effect joysticks, which detect inputs through magnets instead of physical contact between components. However, Nintendo has confirmed this isn’t the case.

Nintendo of America’s Nate Bihldorff confirmed the Switch 2 Joy-Cons do not have Hall Effect sticks, in an interview with Nintendo Life.

‘Well, the Joy-Con 2’s controllers have been designed from the ground up,’ Bihldorff said. ‘They’re not Hall Effect sticks, but they feel really good.’

Since the Switch 2 Direct, Nintendo has been very vague about how exactly the joysticks have been improved, aside from them being larger in size.

In a press briefing last week, Nintendo were asked whether the Switch 2 has Hall Effect sticks, but they dodged the question.

‘As you may have witnessed and felt, the new Joy-Con 2 controllers for the Nintendo Switch 2 have been really designed from the ground up from scratch and they’ve been designed to have bigger movements and also a smoother movement,’ said Tetsuya Sasaki, general manager of Nintendo’s hardware development division.

When asked separately by VGC if they had taken measures to avoid Joy-Con drift, a Nintendo spokesperson gave a similarly vague response: ‘The control sticks for Joy-Con 2 controllers have been redesigned and have improved in areas such as durability.’

Now we know the Switch 2 Joy-Cons do not have Hall Effect sticks, it raises the possibility of Joy-Con drift being an issue with the next system.

There’s nothing unique about the original Switch suffering from Joy-Con drift, as the PlayStation and Xbox controllers are also prone to the issue. In fact, no first party controller uses Hall Effect technology – no doubt because it’s expensive.

The Joy-Cons are more prone to the issue though, because they have so much tech squeezed into such a small area. Presumably, the Joy-Con 2 controllers being bigger is one of the ways Nintendo aims to avoid the problem, but if there are other specific safeguards they’re not currently willing to explain them.

It’s another bum note in what’s becoming an awkward time for Nintendo, with the price of games causing controversy and US tariffs playing havoc with pre-orders.

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US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs have had a significant impact on Japanese game companies, with Nintendo, Sony, and Sega all seeing sizeable drops in stock.

The impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs against US imports has been a concern ever since he took office in January, but we’re now starting to see its effects in real time.

Trump’s initial tariffs were primarily focused against China, but as announced last week, he also introduced a ‘baseline’ 10% tariff on all imports to the US, while countries like China, Japan, and Vietnam – which he calls the ‘worst offenders’ in charging taxes on US goods – will be given additional custom tariff rates.

The 24% tariff on Japan has sparked a widespread drop in share price across the country’s video game companies, including the likes of Nintendo and Sony.

As noted by analyst Dr Serkan Toto on X, Nintendo’s shares dropped by 7.35%. This comes after the company delayed Switch 2 pre-orders in the US due to the newly announced tariff rates, as it looks to ‘assess the potential impact’ and ‘evolving market conditions’.

Other companies affected include Sony (-10.16%), Bandai Namco (-7.03%), Konami (-3.93%), Sega (-6.57%), Koei Tecmo (-5.83%), Capcom (-7.13%), and Square Enix (-5.23%).

‘The mobile game companies do even worse,’ Toto added.

As reported by Bloomberg, Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said his government is preparing for negotiations with the US, to potentially reduce the impact of the tariffs, but warned it may take some time.

‘When we negotiate with the US we want to present a package,’ Ishiba said. ‘That will take some time, but we will make it a success.’

According to The Financial Times last month, Nintendo already shifted production away from China, in anticipation of Trump’s proposed tariffs, with the majority of Nintendo’s hardware imports into the US now coming from Vietnam and Cambodia.

However, Vietnam and Cambodia, were hit with 46% and 49% tariffs, respectively, in Trump’s latest round of import taxes, which are set to go into effect on April 9.

These were announced on the same day as the Switch 2 Direct on April 2, which caused Nintendo to immediately delay US pre-orders (no, we don’t know why they didn’t just wait a day to find out first).

Following the Direct, Nintendo announced the Switch 2 will cost £395.99 in the UK and $449.99 in the US. A bundle version with Mario Kart World costs £429.99 and $499.99. It’s widely expected that price will now have to be increased.

Could Trump’s tariffs impact the PS5 price?

These tariffs could also affect the price of the PlayStation 5, but Sony has taken several preventative measures to counter any sudden tariff hikes by the US government.

As noted in Sony’s financial report from February, the company duplicated supply chains and began ‘stockpiling a certain level of strategic inventory in the US’ to counter any proposed tariffs.

According to reports, Nintendo has also done this with the Switch 2, with ‘hundreds of thousands’ of devices sent from Vietnam to the US since the start of 2025.

This means the price of PlayStation 5 consoles in the US likely won’t be impacted in the short term, due to the stockpile, but once that runs out, it’s possible Sony will have to announce a price rise.

The majority of PlayStation 5 consoles are manufactured in China (which is subject to 54% tariffs), along with Japan (24% tariff).

By the same logic, Nintendo may stick with the originally announced Switch 2 price in the US and then change it later, but whether they do that probably depends on whether they think stock will last until the all-important Christmas gift-buying season.

As outlined by Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, Sony might consider various options if these tariffs persist, including shifting the production of US units to Japan to avoid the higher tariff in China, or raising the prices of accessories and games to make up for the cost.

‘The firm would need to evaluate how these tariffs impact current profit margins and how much they would need to increase hardware prices for the consumer,’ Ahmad wrote on X. ‘There could also be a potential impact on accessories and game pricing depending on how Sony wants to pass on costs.

‘The good news is that the initial stockpiling + Japan manufacturing + PlayStation 5 being mid to late gen at this point (profitable on per unit basis) + PS5 Pro likely priced at $700 in anticipation of some potential tariff impact, means that even with a price increase, the increase may not be as significant as it would be for new tech products.’

Clearly the Switch 2 is a new tech product though, which means Nintendo is likely to be in considerably more trouble, if the tariffs remain.

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