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 there to be emulators for the Nintendo Switch 2 anytime soon. That is unless major progress in piracy of the Switch 2 is made relatively quickly, which currently doesn't seem to be in the cards.
As first spotted by GamesRadar, two Switch 2 emulators in development (Oboromi and Pound) have updated their GitHub pages to note that development is nowhere near complete. Specifically, Pound, a self-described “early-stage emulator,” wrote: “THIS PROJECT WILL NOT BE COMPLETED FOR AT LEAST A DECADE!”
Elsewhere, Oboromi notes that it's a “work-in-progress emulator base for the Nintendo Switch 2,” though there's nothing yet to report when it comes to actually running the Switch 2 ROM. Obviously, a decade might be overstating things, but considering how hard Nintendo fought to remove and eradicate all original Switch emulators, it's not that surprising that pirates have yet to make a serious dent in being able to develop one for the Switch 2.
That said, that still hasn't stopped bad actors from continuing to dump ROMs of recent releases, including Pokemon Legends: ZA, which managed to have a copy of it online for pirates to access before paying customers had even received the game.
At one point, Pirates believed that Switch 2 Piracy was happening instantly
Back in July, just a little over a month after the Switch 2 was released, a group started sharing that they had successfully begun the process of emulating Switch 2 games and had reached the point of rendering titles. The Hassaku emulator claimed that it had done significant work and used Donkey Kong Bananza as its example to prove that it had become the world's first Switch 2 emulator.
Except that at the time, Switch 2 ROMs weren't even possible, and many in the pirate community believed that the “proof of work” they had shared online was completely fake with the supposed rendering as video files played on a grainy background. Some even went so far as to claim that Hassaku was the rebranding of a failed Switch 2 emulator previously exposed.
Be that as it may, there's still no Switch 2 emulator, and if these developers' words are anything to go by, don't expect one anytime soon.
- Stamp
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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
