Elden Ring launches on Nintendo Switch 2 on August 28, 2026, in two weeks. This Tarnished Edition has been carrying a year-long delay, triggered by a disastrous demo shown at Gamescom 2025 where the game ran as low as 15 frames per second in places. A year of work later, the question remains simple: is the performance problem actually fixed?
Elden Ring’s Switch 2 Delay, a Story of Performance
FromSoftware announces the Switch 2 port of Elden Ring sometime in 2025, aiming to release it before the end of the year. The initial plan bundles the base game and the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion into a single version, with no scaled-down version and no content removed.
At Gamescom 2025, the playable demo doesn’t live up to expectations. Journalists on site report frame rate drops as low as 15 frames per second in some open-world areas, along with noticeable visual instability. On October 23, 2025, the official Elden Ring account announces the delay on social media. The port moves off the 2025 calendar and into 2026, to allow time to work on « performance adjustments ».
The following months stay quiet on the official communication front, while part of the community fears the project might be scrapped altogether. According to several technical reports published since, the core issue comes from a CPU bottleneck on the console, insufficient to run Elden Ring’s engine in its original state. FromSoftware has to rework part of the engine to absorb the load, a task that takes several months longer than expected.
What’s Actually Included in Elden Ring Tarnished Edition
This edition bundles the base game and the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion into a single pack, priced at $79.99 according to the official listing published by Nintendo. The new content comes down to four additions.
- Two new starting classes: the Heavy Knight, built for endurance and physical resistance, and the Idus Knight, lighter and geared toward dexterity.
- Four new armor sets.
- Three customization skins for Torrent, the spectral steed.
- Two bonus gestures offered with pre-orders, unlocked later in-game.
The Heavy Knight starts at level 10 with a build geared toward physical resistance: 14 Vigor, 17 Endurance, and 15 Strength, a starting point suited to heavy armor and two-handed weapons. The Idus Knight, by contrast, leans into lightness and dexterity, with gear built for dodging rather than tanking hits.
This additional content, called the Tarnished Pack, isn’t exclusive to Switch 2. It will be sold separately for $4.99 on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC, for players who already own the game on those platforms and just want the new classes and armor without buying the whole game again.
The Technical Progress Shown Since the Delay
Nintendo Life, by Ollie Reynolds: the official Story Spotlight video released by Bandai Namco. An edited trailer is no substitute for a performance measurement.
Bandai Namco and FromSoftware haven’t communicated any official technical specifications for Elden Ring Tarnished Edition. No guaranteed resolution, no target frame rate on the product page. What we know comes only from hands-on sessions held at GDC in March 2026, where several outlets tested an advanced build of the port at the publisher’s booth.
The reports agree on one point: the frame rate has noticeably improved compared to the Gamescom 2025 demo. Polygon cites a range of 30 to 40 frames per second depending on the scene, with noticeable dips during rain sequences on horseback. RPG Site reports a 30 frames per second floor held more consistently, including during weather effects. GameSpot places performance in the same 30 to 40 frames per second range after several more months of optimization. On resolution, RPG Site describes handheld-mode output close to native 1080p, with no confirmed figure from the publisher.
These figures remain press impressions gathered at a booth, not official data locked into the game’s technical spec sheet. On August 11, 2026, Bandai Namco released a story-focused trailer, featuring combat sequences against familiar bosses and panoramas of the Lands Between. An edited promotional video can’t be used to judge real in-game performance: a trailer has never counted as a test.
What We Still Don’t Know Before August 28
Several questions remain unanswered two weeks out from the release of Elden Ring Tarnished Edition. Bandai Namco hasn’t published any official resolution or frame rate figures, in either docked or handheld mode. It’s unclear whether the stability seen at GDC holds up across the entire game, from the opening Limgrave through the densest areas of Shadow of the Erdtree.
Loading times, how online multiplayer handles invasions and Colosseum fights, and how the console behaves during long handheld sessions haven’t been detailed publicly either. The Switch 2’s battery life against such a demanding game also remains a complete unknown. Only independent tests carried out after launch will be able to settle these points, one by one.
A Packed August on Switch 2
Elden Ring’s release lands in a busy stretch for Nintendo’s console. On August 21, 2026, a week earlier, FromSoftware runs a network test for The Duskbloods, its other Switch 2 project. This eight-player competitive game is planned for later in the year, with no exact date announced yet. The studio is thus juggling two back-to-back Switch 2 releases, with very different expectations riding on each: a highly anticipated port on one side, an untested multiplayer gamble on the other.
August’s gaming calendar doesn’t stop there. gamescom 2026 takes over Cologne from August 26 to 30: Elden Ring’s release lands right in the middle of the show, amid announcements that could quickly overshadow the launch if the game runs poorly in the field. The industry has also been through a rough stretch, between studio closures and waves of layoffs that have marked recent months. A delayed port that finally launches in solid shape would be good news for player trust in publishers, in a climate where every botched launch makes noise immediately.
0 Commentaires
Aucun commentaire pour le moment. Soyez le premier à commenter !