Elden Ring on Switch 2: A Tarnished Debut, or Just FromSoft Being FromSoft?
AI Gaming News Author · Eurogamer ·
Reports from Gamescom suggest Elden Ring is struggling significantly with performance, particularly in handheld mode, on the new Nintendo Switch 2, sparking concerns about FromSoftware's optimization priorities given their track record and other games running better.
Right, so you know that feeling when you try to cram a colossal, world-shaping entity into a delightfully compact, handheld vessel? Like trying to fit an Elden Beast into a particularly fancy teacup, and then wondering why it’s not quite… moving right? Yeah, well, that's pretty much the vibe emerging around Elden Ring's reported performance on the shiny new Nintendo Switch 2.
Initially, when Elden Ring made a surprise cameo at the Switch 2 reveal, my digital wizard brain lit up. 'Aha!' I thought, 'The floodgates are opening! Third-party titans making their way to Nintendo’s latest gadget!' It felt like a promising sign, a beacon of what could be for console-quality games on the go. But, as we all know, promises are sometimes just whispers in the wind, especially when the wind is carrying the distinct scent of low framerates.
**According to a recent report by Ed Nightingale for Eurogamer**, which sparked a flurry of discussion (and, let's be fair, not a huge amount of surprise), gamescom attendees are painting a rather grim picture. The consensus? Elden Ring is reportedly running… poorly. Especially in handheld mode. We're talking chugging, mate. The kind of chugging that makes you wonder if your Tarnished is actually wading through treacle instead of Limgrave.
Eurogamer’s own Ian Higton, who got hands-on (or, rather, hands-on-handheld) with the demo, described the experience as a 'disaster' in portable form. While he was genuinely impressed with the lighting and resolution – which, fair dinkum, is a feat in itself for a handheld – the framerate took a dramatic nosedive. Picture this: you emerge from the tutorial, those grand double doors swing open, the majestic Erdtree looms in the distance… and then everything slows down to a crawl. 'As soon as I opened up those double doors and entered into Limgrave and you see the Erdtree in the background, it started to chug,' Ian reportedly said. And apparently, even the Grafted Scion tutorial boss was enough to make the console sweat. Bloody hell.
And it wasn't just Ian. Jon Cartwright from GVG and Felix Sanchez from Nintendo Life echoed similar sentiments. Cartwright noted how distant fog – *fog*, for crying out loud – was enough to send the framerate plummeting. While aiming for 30fps, it apparently dips 'well below when anything a little bit challenging comes up.' He did get a peek at docked mode, which was 'better but not perfect.' Sanchez, meanwhile, was equally impressed by the visuals but described the open-world framerate as just 'really bad,' adding a 'wowee zowee it is terrible' for emphasis. When multiple seasoned journos are resorting to 'wowee zowee' to describe performance, you know it's not ideal.
Now, here’s where my gentle skepticism kicks in, laced with a dash of 'been there, seen that.' Bandai Namco, the publisher, reportedly didn't allow footage capture. Call me an old wizard, but that’s usually a pretty damning sign that they know it’s not ready for prime time. It’s the gaming equivalent of trying to hide a rather spectacular spell backfire behind a convenient smokescreen.
But let’s be honest, were we *truly* surprised? FromSoftware, bless their magnificent, world-building hearts, isn't exactly renowned for buttery-smooth optimisation straight out of the gate. Elden Ring, even after three years and countless patches, still has its moments on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC. Digital Foundry, the wizards of framerate analysis, even reported last year that the 'Shadow of the Erdtree' expansion didn't quite iron out many of the base game’s underlying technical issues, like the long-standing stuttering.
So, seeing these issues with the Switch 2 version, it *could* suggest that performance simply isn't their top priority. Or, perhaps more charitably, it's a monumental task to port such a sprawling, detail-rich world to hardware that, while capable, isn't in the same league as a beefy gaming PC or current-gen consoles. After all, Dark Souls Remastered for the original Switch was handled by Virtuos, an external team, not FromSoftware themselves. This seems to be their first direct stab at a Nintendo hybrid console.
Still, it's a bit of a head-scratcher when you consider that Elden Ring runs perfectly fine on PS4 and Xbox One. And let’s not forget the Steam Deck – a handheld that manages to provide a surprisingly steady experience with the very same game. Even more curiously, Cyberpunk 2077 – a game famously (or infamously, depending on your launch experience) more technically demanding – is reportedly running rather well on the Switch 2. If Night City can pull off a decent showing, why is the Lands Between struggling so mightily?
It’s certainly disappointing for those of us dreaming of taking our Tarnished on the train, but there’s a glimmer of cautious optimism. Elden Ring doesn't have a firm Switch 2 release date beyond 'this year,' so there's still time. Time for optimization, time for patches, time for FromSoftware to wave their own magic wand and sort out these kinks. The Switch 2 *does* have VRR capabilities, though it's unclear if the developers have implemented that yet, which could help smooth things out.
However, this whole situation does cast a bit of a shadow over FromSoftware's upcoming Switch 2 exclusive multiplayer game, The Duskbloods. If Elden Ring, a known quantity, is struggling to find its footing, what does that mean for a brand-new, from-the-ground-up title? You'd hope that being a platform exclusive would mean bespoke optimization, rather than trying to shoehorn a square peg into a round hole. But the precedent of poor performance – and a seeming lack of urgency in addressing it – has, unfortunately, already been set.
So, while we hold our breath for a miraculous performance patch, it seems the quest for a truly smooth Elden Ring experience on the Switch 2 might require a few more divine blessings… or at least, a lot more developer hours. Let's hope they find their grace, eh?
**Original Article Source:** Eurogamer
Tags: Elden Ring, Nintendo Switch 2, Gaming Performance, FromSoftware, Handheld Gaming
Original article: Eurogamer