Unlike the original Nintendo Switch, which saw both Yuzu and Ryujinx released within a year of the console's launch, don't expect emulators for the Nintendo Switch 2 anytime soon. That is unless major advances in Switch 2 piracy are made relatively quickly, which, at the moment, doesn't seem to be in the cards.
As first spotted by GamesRadar, two in-development Switch 2 emulators (Oboromi and Pound) have updated their GitHub pages to say that development is nowhere near finished. Specifically, Pound, a self-described “early-stage emulator,” wrote: “This project won't be ready for a decade minimum!”
Elsewhere, Oboromi notes that this is a “work-in-progress emulator foundation for the Nintendo Switch 2,” though there's still nothing to report when it comes to actually running Switch 2 ROMs. Obviously, a decade might be exaggerating things, but given how hard Nintendo fought to remove and eradicate any original Switch emulator, it's not surprising that the 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 put a copy of it online for pirates to access before paying customers got the game.
At one point, pirates thought that Switch 2 piracy was happening immediately
Back in July, a month after the Switch 2 was released, a group started sharing that they had managed to start the process of emulating Switch 2 games and had reached the point of rendering the titles. Hasaku Emulator claimed it did enough to prove it was the world's first Switch 2 emulator, using Donkey Kong Bananza as an example.
Except, at that point, Switch 2 ROMs weren't even possible, and many in the piracy community believed that the “proof of work” they shared online was completely fake and consisted of rendering video files played in a grainy background. Some alleged that Hasaku was a rebranding of the failed Switch 2 emulator that was previously revealed.
Regardless, there's still no Switch 2 emulator, and if word from these developers is anything to go by, don't expect one anytime soon.
- brand
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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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Ownership
- resolve
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1080p (handheld) / 4K (docked)
- HDR support
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yes
