Nintendo’s Switch 2 has to keep its promise to Genshin Impact fans

Genshin Impact was originally announced for the Switch in 2020, and fans have been patiently waiting for its release ever since. However, with the Switch 2 release looming ever closer, both HoYoverse and Nintendo now have the perfect opportunity to address this long-forgotten promise.

To say Genshin Impact is still popular would be an understatement. HoYoverse’s free-to-play gacha game continues to pull in millions of players, while the game is estimated to bring in a whopping $1.6 billion per year on average via mobile alone.

While HoYoverse’s new titles Honkai Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero have also proven popular, for many, Genshin Impact remains at the top of the gacha iceberg. Since its 2020 release, Genshin Impact has undergone five major version updates, which have introduced vast region expansion, 93 playable characters, and a plethora of exciting events for players to delve into.

There’s even been two graphical overhauls to the game, which have only made Genshin Impact look even better on current-gen systems. Despite all of these exciting developments, Nintendo Switch players have had to watch patiently from the sidelines, but the Switch 2 could change this.

Genshin needs to release on Switch 2

Back on January 14, 2020, HoYoverse revealed their official Genshin Impact Switch trailer. Despite being released five years ago and having close the three million views, the trailer remains on Genshin’s official YouTube channel. It’s a ghost of the past and a constant reminder of what could have been.

While HoYoverse has remained radio silent when it comes to Genshin Impact’s nonexistent Switch release, they did famously note that the game was still in development. During a 2022 interview with GoNintendo, Xin Yang, Hoyoverse’s global PR specialist, famously gave the following statement:

“The Switch version is still in development, and we will release more information as we progress further along.”

As you can imagine, this was met with a lot of excitement from the Nintendo community, with many hopeful that they too would finally be able to start their adventure through Teyvat. However, just like with the trailer, this excitement quickly faded with each year that passed.

While the details surrounding the in-development cycle of Genshin’s missing Switch release have never come to light, the developers likely came into some issues working with the current Switch hardware – an area that hopefully won’t be a problem with the Switch 2’s beefier system specs.

Reuters sources have confirmed that the Switch 2 runs on a custom Nvidia chip, while its Ampere-based GPU would reportedly allow the Switch 2 to access modern rendering techniques like DLSS 2 super-resolution and DLSS 3.5 ray reconstruction.

As we reported in our Switch 2 leaks hub, the added DLSS would allow Nintendo to push the Switch 2 further than expected. This could potentially mean that 4K gaming is even possible thanks to Nvidia’s super-resolution AI algorithms.

In theory, the Switch 2 should be able to run Genshin Impact without a problem. We’ll hopefully hear more about the Switch 2 and its long-awaited Genshin release soon, and, if leaks are to be believed, then we won’t have to wait much longer.