Unlike the original Nintendo Switch, which saw both Yuzu and Ryujinx released within a year or so of the console's launch, don't expect emulators for the Nintendo Switch 2 anytime soon. That is, unless major advances in piracy of the Switch 2 are made relatively quickly, which doesn't seem to be the case at this point.
As first spotted by GamesRadar, two Switch 2 emulators in development (Oboromi and Pound) have updated their GitHub pages to note that development is far from complete. Specifically, Pound, a self-described “early-stage emulator,” wrote: “THIS PROJECT WILL NOT BE READY FOR AT LEAST A DECADE!”
Elsewhere, Oboromi notes that it's a “Nintendo Switch 2 emulator base in development,” though there's nothing to report yet in terms of it actually running a Switch 2 ROM. Obviously, a decade might be overstating things, but given how hard Nintendo fought to gut and eradicate any original Switch emulator, it's not that surprising that pirates have yet to make a serious dent in being able to develop one for Switch 2.
That said, it still hasn't stopped bad actors from continuing to dump ROMs of recent releases, including Pokemon Legends: ZA, which managed to have a pirated copy of it online before paying customers even got their hands on the game.
At one point, Pirates thought the Switch 2 piracy was happening right away
In July, just over a month after the Switch 2 release, the group began sharing that they had managed to start the process of emulating Switch 2 games and had reached the point of rendering titles. Emulator Hassaku claimed to have done a considerable job and used Donkey Kong Bananza as an example to prove that it has become the world's first Switch 2 emulator.
Except that Switch 2 ROMs weren't even possible at the time, and many in the piracy community believed that the “proof of work” they shared online was completely bogus, with the supposed render being video files playing on a grainy background. Some even went so far as to claim that Hassaku was a rebranding of the failed Switch 2 emulator that was revealed earlier.
Be that as it may, there's still no Switch 2 emulator, and if the word from these developers is anything to go by, don't expect one anytime soon.
- Mark
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Nintendo
- Original release date
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June 5, 2025
- Original MSRP (USD)
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$449.99
- Operating system
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Proprietary
- Resolution
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1080p (handheld) / 4K (docked)
- HDR support
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Yes
