Fire Ring on Switch 2 is incredible news, but with a big risk

Fire Ringa game widely considered to be among the best of all time, is officially coming to the Nintendo Switch 2 on August 28, 2026. However, it's been an unexpectedly bumpy road so far, as FromSoftware originally intended to release The Ring of Fire Tarnished Edition in 2025, shortly after the launch of the Switch 2 itself.

Revealed as one of the Switch 2's top third-party titles, The Ring of Fire Tarnished Edition was meant to be an early system seller. When it was revealed, everything was astonishing: the first Nintendo Switch probably couldn't have been run Fire Ringbut this was the new and improved next generation, a device that could probably run Cyberpunk 2077 of all games. But faith in the project was undermined after Gamescom 2025, an industry event where FromSoftware hosted exclusive hands-on previews for select members of the press. The developer did not allow independent video recording, but the written and spoken first impressions all told the same story: the preview was a display of terrible performance, which cast serious doubts on the readiness of Fire Ring port, which led to the delay until 2026.

A bad Elden Ring Port would be a bad look for the Nintendo Switch 2

If you're a loyal Nintendo Switch user, it would be natural to feel like you've repeatedly gotten the short end of the stick. Despite being positioned as a genuine alternative to the PlayStation and Xbox, the Switch consistently proved to be a weak device in terms of actual processing power. Sure, you can technically play games like The Witcher 3 and The legacy of Hogwarts on the Nintendo Switch, but these versions are compromised to the point that some players may simply find them unpleasant.

Things are certainly improved with the Nintendo Switch 2, which can run third-party games such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Resident Evil Requiem surprisingly good. But still, the Switch 2's performance falls noticeably behind the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles: it has slower CPU and GPU clock speeds, significantly less system RAM and VRAM, fewer reserved CPU cores, and so on. Again, it's better than the original Switch, and its specs aren't even terrible compared to those of too many mid-range PCs, but it's certainly still third in the console power race.

Switch 2 should take Elden Ring Tarnished Edition as a chance to prove itself

If we compare console specifications, it might be good to remember that Fire Ring originally launched as a cross-gen title, meaning it runs on Xbox One and PS4. On paper and in practice, the Nintendo Switch 2 seems to outperform these last-gen consoles, so it should definitely offer a more high-performance version in comparison. This is not a very high bar to clear—Fire Ring performs quite poorly on last-gen systems, often falling well below 30FPS in open areas — so Nintendo and FromSoft should make sure they can clear it without asking.

Of all the Switch 2 ports to get right, Ring of Fire is particularly important

fire ring tarnished edition switch 2 screenshot
fire ring tarnished edition switch 2 screenshot

The gaming industry moves quite quickly, and in the wake of cultural phenomena such as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33it can be easy to forget the significance of something like this Fire Ring. But make no mistake, Fire Ring is arguably the standout open world game of this generation. In my humble opinion, it's far more important to the gaming medium than any of the Game of the Year winners that followed it. That's a very subjective statement, of course, but I predict that time will prove correct.

That's my point anyway Fire Ring is a landmark game release, and even if someone hasn't played it, they probably should have access to it. A console that hosts an obviously or significantly inferior version of such a game runs the risk of being seen as inferior itself. The device becomes an obstacle to a player's enjoyment of an iconic, historically important title. Games like Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Resident Evil Requiemand Batman: Arkham Knight all have impressive Switch 2 ports, but none of these are Fire Ring. In other words, Fire Rings failure on the Switch 2 could be worth the success of several games.

There's hope for Elden Rings Switch 2 port yet

I put a lot of pressure on The Ring of Fire Tarnished Editionbut that should not be confused with absolute pessimism: I think the port can still turn out well in the end, for the simple reason that FromSoftware has been down this road before. For all its strengths, FromSoft doesn't have the best track record in terms of hardware optimization – anyone who played Fire Ring at launch will tell you. Also Blood borne was poorly optimized when released exclusively for PS4, with a rough average framerate and excruciatingly long load times that were eventually fixed in patches.

It's not worth speculating why FromSoftware has struggled with optimization in the past, but in the case of Fire Ringit should be said that the developer eventually fixed most of the performance issues. Really, Fire Ring on PC today is a consistently smoother and more reliable experience than it was in 2022. It's possible that, with the delay to 2026, The Ring of Fire Tarnished Edition getting their issues fixed before launch instead of after. I certainly won't complain about that.

Fire Ring is arguably the standout open world game of this generation.

The Ring of Fire Tarnished Edition may come with some visual or technical compromises, but there's no reason to think it can't be a worthy version of the FromSoft classic. Shameful edition will mark the next chapter in the FromSoftware-Nintendo collaboration, which is admittedly rare, so it would be a shame if it were marred by exceptionally poor performance or other technical issues. We hope the one-year delay was good for the port, as it will probably be seen as something of a technical preview for Duskbloods.