The Nintendo Switch 2's full unveiling on April 2 has confirmed one of its most exciting new features: mouse functionality. You can indeed use the console's new Joy-Con controllers like a computer mouse, opening up possibilities for point-and-click adventures and strategy games to be an even better experience on the system.

In an overview of the Switch 2 hardware, Nintendo confirmed that both the left and right Joy-Cons on the system, which are also bigger and more ergonomic than their predecessors, can be turned on their side and used like a computer mouse. The Direct didn't expand too much on the mouse functionality, other than noting that mouse controls will only be available in certain games.

Nintendo later demonstrated a wheelchair-sports-inspired game called Drag x Drive designed to make the most of the unique dual-mouse controls, but it will be interesting to see how many developers make use of the unique control scheme. From everything Nintendo has shown so far, the Joy-Con 2's mouse mode doesn't look as comfortable to use for long stretches of gaming as a conventional mouse, but it could have interesting uses in porting PC games to the Switch 2.

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Many Nintendo Switch games will be getting upgraded editions on the Switch 2. These new versions of old games will include new features using the Switch 2's hardware upgrades, like mouse controls and game chat. They may also upgrade visuals and add new content.

For example, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will get 4K visuals and 60fps while the Switch is docked. You can also use the Switch 2's mouse controls to aim Samus' weapon. The Pokémon Legends: Z-A upgrade will have higher resolution and frame rate. Kirby and the Forgotten Land will get new levels and new powers, in addition to more technical features. The Nintendo Switch 2 versions of both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom will get technical upgrades and a new smartphone app.

Super Mario Party: Jamboree got the most extensive preview. The Nintendo Switch 2 upgrade will let you play minigames with mouse controls, audio recognition, and the camera peripheral (which is sold separately). For example, you'll control a microphone car with your voice and spray paint BO-MB with the Joy-Con. The upgrade also adds new ways to party. In the Bowser Live mode, you will use the camera peripheral footage as your avatar for minigames. In the Carnival Coaster mode, you control a roller coaster with the mouse controls, fire at enemies as you ride, and play mode-specific minigames.

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As part of the Nintendo Direct, Nintendo finally announced the release date and price for the Nintendo Switch 2. The system will launch on June 5. The system will be sold on its own, as well as in a bundle with the newly revealed Mario Kart World. A price was not shared as part of the Direct, but a US price was shared in a press release afterward: $450 for the system or $500 for the MK World bundle. Preorders begin in North America on April 9. In the UK, it'll cost 395 GBP, while in Europe it'll cost 430 EUR.

A June release for the Switch 2 was previously reported. For comparison, the original Switch launched in March 2017, priced at $300.

As it just so happens, today, April 2, was also the day that US President Donald Trump's new set of tariffs are going into effect. Trump already established a 10% tariff on Chinese exports back in February, later doubling that to 20% in March. Nintendo historically produced some of its products in China, leading some to wonder if the Switch 2 would be impacted.

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Announced during the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a digital-only game that takes place on an enlarged Switch 2. The game is launching as a paid game on June 5, the same day the Nintendo Switch 2 launches.

The game consists of walking around on the surface of a giant Nintendo Switch 2, reading small information signs about the console and playing small demos that show off features of the console, like a golf minigame using the mouse feature and a maracas-shaking demo. The information stands explain not only what features like mouse controls do, but also provide small demonstrations of how that looks in action.

Explore the new system through tech demos, minigames, and quizzes with Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, a paid downloadable launch title for #NintendoSwitch2. #NintendoDirect pic.twitter.com/doZVYS0wjV

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) April 2, 2025

It's not clear how much depth these minigames and tech demos will offer from the trailer, but there seems to be a small handful of different games. These take advantage of both the new mouse controls and also motion controls, using the detached Joy-Cons.

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Nintendo has shared concrete details about the Switch 2 hardware in its latest Nintendo Direct, including support for HDR, 4K resolution while docked, 120fps in supported titles when not in 4K, and magnetic Joy-Con controllers.

The Switch 2 LCD screen is larger than its predecessor at 7.9 inches, but the device overall is the same thickness as the original Switch. The screen itself is an upgrade and will run at 1080p in handheld mode and features an improved, adjustable kickstand and two USB-C ports--one on the top of the console and one on the bottom. When docked, the Switch 2 will be able to run at 4K (but will be fixed to 60fps). When not running in 4K, certain titles will support framerates of up to 120fps. The dock itself is also receiving an upgrade in the form of a built-in fan to keep the console cool.

It's not just the screen and dock that are receiving upgrades. The Switch 2 Joy-Con controllers (fittingly called Joy-Con 2) will attach to the console magnetically, with a release button on the back of the controllers that will allow for easy detachment. Each Joy-Con 2 will additionally have larger control sticks and bigger SL and SR buttons for more comfort when playing with a single Joy-Con horizontally.

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During the Nintendo Switch 2 broadcast today, the console manufacturer showed off a new feature: GameShare. Players will be able to join up and play together locally using just one copy of a compatible game. Even titles that require multiple screens can be played if one player owns a compatible game.

GameShare will be functional across systems, meaning you can join up with local friends whether you own a Switch 2 or its predecessor, the Switch. GameShare also supports the new GameChat feature, which allows players to communicate via voice chat. The feature is launched by the new C button.

GameShare-compatible titles

Shown among the titles coming to GameShare are Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Super Mario 3D World, Club House Games, Super Mario Odyssey, Big Brain Academy, and more.

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Nintendo revealed exclusive Switch 2 versions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom for the new console in its April 2025 Nintendo Direct. These versions are largely similar to the originals but feature enhanced resolution, increased frame rate, and HDR for more vibrant images. In addition, a new service with in-game tracking and social features will be available for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom Switch 2 owners.

Zelda Notes in Nintendo Switch app for Switch 2 editions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom

Zelda Notes, an upcoming feature for the Nintendo Switch app, can help players find points of interest and share QR codes of creations (like those in Tears of the Kingdom) to other players so then recreate them in their own games. It can locate undiscovered Shrines and Korok Seeds, and guide players with specific directions using voice navigation. As seen in the preview trailer, you can access voice memories, photo editing, item and auto-build sharing, and daily bonuses using Zelda Notes. You don't need a Nintendo Online Subscription to use Zelda Notes, but you do need a smart device that can download the Nintendo Switch app.

The Switch 2 verions of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were only two of the many reveals in the April 2025 Direct, which you can read about in our Nintendo Switch 2 Direct hub.

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After being glimpsed during the Switch 2 reveal, Nintendo formally announced Mario Kart 9 during this week's Switch 2 Direct livestream--the game is officially called Mario Kart World. This new look at the kart-racing game showed off several of the familiar faces who'll be hitting the track, including everyone's favorite plumber Mario, several members of the Mushroom Kingdom, and other racers like Donkey Kong.

Mario Kart World is a launch title for Nintendo Switch 2. Nintendo will share more details on Mario Kart World during a special Nintendo Direct on April 17. Switch 2 will be sold on its own at launch, but a bundle with Mario Kart World will also be available. According to Nintendo's website, World will be priced at $80, a notable increase in price for a new game.

Mario Kart World looks like a major step up from Mario Kart 8. It features support for up 24 racers, which is the most in franchise history. There are also appear to be new vehicles, including jet skis and jets, while players can now grind on rails and flip across walls. Mario Kart World also includes time-of-day and weather conditions that change throughout races. Players are free to drive off-road "virtually everywhere," Nintendo said during the presentation.

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2024 was a brutal year for the video game industry, with thousands of jobs lost due to massive layoffs. So far, that trend has continued in 2025 with recent layoffs at Eidos Montreal and Striking Distance Studios. Now, Shams Jorjani--the CEO of Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios--is speaking out about the mass layoffs and calling for accountability from the CEOs who make those decisions.

"I wish that our industry hadn't shed almost… 30, 40, 50,000 jobs over the past two years," said Jorjani during an interview with The Game Business. "A lot of people at the top were making very unsound business decisions, and there's very little accountability on their part. Who among these executives is stepping down? Or slashing their salaries? What's happening is that regular developers are paying the cost of that. That's a terrible way to run our industry."

Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani blasts lack of accountability for bad decision making in the video game industry:
"Who among these executives is stepping down? Or slashing their salaries?" https://t.co/uadE4A65kt pic.twitter.com/gtJbzzLOCe

— AmericanTruckSongs9 (@ethangach) April 1, 2025

Jorjani went on to explain that he isn't against seeing studios expand, but he argues that growth should be responsibly paced for the long-term health of the business and the employees who work there. He added that his "first priority is to make sure that people [at Arrowhead] have jobs for many years." During the same interview, Jorjani noted that the turnaround of Helldivers 2 was inspired by No Man's Sky's comeback story.

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As part of the Nintendo Direct today, Nintendo opened the floodgates in terms of news and announcements about the Switch 2. Included in the presentation was confirmation of what the Switch 2's mysterious C button actually does.

The Switch 2's C button activates a social hub called GameChat, in which up to four people can link up via voice chat and play together. GameChat also allows for screen sharing, even if everyone is playing a different game. If a Nintendo Switch 2 Camera is connected, each player can also appear in the corner of the shared screen.

Some of the earliest official images of the Switch 2 Joy-Cons showed a blank button sitting below the Home button, prompting many rumors and theories about it. Later, new art for the Switch 2 showed the C button in all its glory.

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Roblox, the massive gaming platform that mostly caters to younger gamers, has announced the launch of "Rewarded Video" ads, an ad format that allows users to opt in to watching ads in exchange for in-game rewards or currency.

This style of advertising is already common in mobile gaming and other mobile apps with microtransactions, where watching an ad is often offered as an alternative to paying premium currencies. Now, this feature is coming to Roblox--and by extension, to the millions of user-created "experiences" hosted on it platforms.

These ads will appear as an opt-in choice for users, who can choose to watch an ad up to 30 seconds in length to get a certain reward. In an example shared on Roblox's corporate blog, players can choose to purchase a house with in-game currency, or to rent it for a single session for free by watching an ad.

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Helldivers 2 has been out for over a year now, and it's been "one heck of a roller coaster year," as described by Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Shams Jorjani. In a new interview with The Game Business, Jorjani explained how Helldivers 2 recovered from an overwhelmingly negative Steam user score--and how No Man's Sky provided the template.

Helldivers 2 has seen massive highs and lows in its first year of release, from becoming the fastest-selling PlayStation game ever to being review-bombed almost to oblivion by angry fans. When it came to recovering from the lows, Jorjani looked to another legendary video game comeback.

"We went down to like 30 [percent positive] in [Steam's] user score, and usually that's the death knell for a game, but we came back from that," he recounted. "Then we fumbled with balancing and the focus for the game, and that sent us all the way down to 19%, I think was the lowest. Games that get 19% user score do not generally recover."

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Another Switch 2 C button tease has arrived courtesy of the Nintendo Today app, on the eve of the big Switch 2 Direct. While we still don't know what the mystery button does, we now know what sound it will make when it's pressed.

In a brief clip shared on Nintendo Today, the C button--a mysterious input that sits below the home button and is simply labelled "C"--is shown to make a cute noise when pressed. The clip is followed by a reminder that the Switch 2 Direct is happening today (in some time zones), when we will presumably find out for sure what the new button does.

Nintendo revealed the sound of the new "c" button on Nintendo Today. https://t.co/Owzei5hNBH pic.twitter.com/dNobPm5TEu

— Stealth (@Stealth40k) April 1, 2025

The sound in the video is a classic piece of quirky Nintendo sound design, with some comparing it to the distinctive Mii sound effects. The reveal has renewed speculation over the button's function, with the Mii comparison leading some fans to guess that the C could stand for "connect" or "community," and would enable social features for the console.

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After what seemed to be the final Nintendo Direct focused on the Nintendo Switch last week, the debut of the Nintendo Switch 2 will come via a Nintendo Direct of its own later this week. Back in January, when the Switch 2 teaser trailer was released, Nintendo confirmed the full reveal would be Wednesday, April 2 at 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET.

This Nintendo Direct will focus solely on the Nintendo Switch 2, though Nintendo has not confirmed any specific details that will be shown. Rumors and speculation expect new features--including the supposed mouse functionality of the console's Joy-Con controllers--as well as release date and price.

How to watch the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct

The Nintendo Switch 2 Direct will be available to stream on Nintendo's official YouTube (embedded above) and Twitch channels. GameSpot's sister site Giant Bomb will also be reacting to the livestream as it happens on both the GameSpot (YouTube, Twitch) and Giant Bomb (YouTube, Twitch) channels as well.

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The Legend of Zelda Manga - Legendary Edition Box Set

$73 (was $125)

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The collector's box set of the original Zelda manga series is on sale for over $50 off at Amazon. Normally $125, The Legend of Zelda Legendary Edition Box Set is discounted to just $73 right now. The collection comes with the full series across five premium books, a very cool treasure chest display case, and an exclusive poster. With Amazon's deal, you're only spending five bucks more on the superior Legendary Edition Box Set than you would on the standard trade paperback box set.

The Legendary Edition Box Set is one of two superb Zelda manga box set deals you can score right now; Amazon also has the 11-volume Twilight Princess Box Set for $73, down from $130. The 2,040-page reimagining of the hit Nintendo Wii and GameCube game released in box set format last September.

The Legend of Zelda Manga - Legendary Edition Box Set $73 (was $125)

The original Zelda manga received 10 volumes throughout its run. Each Legendary Edition book contains two volumes in one. The manga puts its own spin on six games in Nintendo's iconic series, including Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Oracle of Ages/Seasons, The Minish Cap, Phantom Hourglass, and Four Swords.

All told, the Legendary Edition spans 1,910 pages across the five books. These deluxe editions offer noticeable improvements compared to the standard trade paperback editions of the original Zelda manga. All five books have exclusive covers and a few full-color art pieces. The build quality and presentation is noticeably better thanks to the use of higher-quality paper, thicker covers, and more durable bindings.

The Legend of Zelda Manga Box Sets:

• The Legend of Zelda Manga - Legendary Edition Box Set -- $73 ($125)
• The Legend of Zelda Manga - Standard Box Set -- $68 ($105)
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Complete Box Set -- $73 ($130)

See at Amazon The Legend of Zelda Manga - Legendary Editions

If you don't want to commit to the whole set, you can buy each of the Legendary Editions individually. Each book carries a $20 MSRP, though you can save at least a few bucks on all of them, including The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a two-part adaptation of the N64 classic that's on sale for $15 in Legendary Edition format.

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Nightdive Studios, a company known for efforts in updating and preserving outdated video games, has revealed that it would like to start remastering games from the PS3 and Xbox 360 era.

In an interview with VGC, studio head Stephen Kick and director of business development Larry Kuperman said that they want to look at games that were only released on PS3 and Xbox 360 for potential remasters. When taking into consideration which games that could be remastered, Kuperman said that there are many factors that come into play.

These include things like having access to the game's source code and original assets, as well as examining what consoles the game currently lives on. Games that are exclusive to one console, for example, might be more in need of a refresh. This is what makes tackling PS3 and Xbox 360 era titles such an exciting prospect.

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After two years of contract negotiations with parent company Microsoft, ZeniMax Workers United members have voted in overwhelming favor to authorize a strike. The union announced the news earlier today via a press release shared by Communications Workers of America, writing, "We’re not afraid to use our union power to ensure that we can keep making great games. All of us want to be working. We hope that Microsoft will allow us to do so with dignity and fairness to all by securing a first contract with our union.”

First reported by The Verge, the news comes after more than two years of contract negotiations between ZeniMax Workers United and Microsoft. Since the union's formation back in 2023, members have been actively pushing Microsoft for better wages, workplace improvements, and to address "key concerns, including a lack of remote work options and the company’s replacement of in-house quality-assurance work with outsourced labor without notifying the union." Last November, members of the union walked off the job in a one-day strike, to "call out the company for lack of progress at the bargaining table." Though the most recent vote does not mean union workers have officially gone on strike, it gives the organization permission to call for one, should contract negotiations further break down.

"Despite being one of the world's largest corporations, we've had to continuously fight for what should be bare minimum. Paying your employees a livable wage as a multi-trillion dollar company is the least they could be doing; however when addressed at the bargaining table, Microsoft acts as though we're asking for too much," ZeniMax Workers United member and associate QA tester Aubrey Litchfield wrote in the press release. "Our in-house contractors have been working on minimal wages with no benefits, including no paid sick time. Workers are choosing not to start families because of the uncertainty of finances. We've released multiple titles while working fully remote. When will enough be enough?"

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Atomic Batteries are highly important objects that you can add to your inventory in Atomfall. You might not know what they're used for early on in the game, but soon enough, you'll wish you knew all the methods to find them throughout the Quarantine Zone.

In the guide below, we'll go over all of the methods you can utilize to find Atomic Batteries in Atomfall and the different ways they're used during your journey.

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• Where to get Atomic Batteries in Atomfall

Where to get Atomic Batteries in Atomfall

Surprisingly, there are several different ways you can acquire an Atomic Battery in Atomfall. Despite the survival game being stingy on supplies for most of your adventure, you can accumulate quite a large number of Atomic Batteries if you know where to search.

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The April 2025 lineup of PC games for Humble Choice subscribers has been revealed, and this month, there's a fun selection of retro classics, spooky sailing, and a chance to take on sci-fi cinema's perfect organisms.

Sign up for Humble Choice

If you haven't checked it out yet, Humble Choice is a $12 monthly subscription service that offers a monthly batch of PC games that are yours to keep forever, even if you decide to cancel your membership. Other perks of this membership include exclusive discounts at the Humble store and access to the Humble Vault--an additional rotating library of games that's only available to members.

Humble Choice April 2025 Games

• 1000xResist
• Aliens: Dark Descent
• Distant Worlds 2
• Diplomacy Is Not An Option
• Dredge
• Nomad Survival
• Nova Lands
• Tomb Raider I-III Remastered

One of the highlights in this month's Humble Choice bundle is Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, a remastered collection of Lara Croft's original adventures. Covering the first three games released between 1996-1998, the collection added new features like a camera lock-on option, hundreds of achievements, health bars for bosses, and the ability to switch between the original graphics and the updated visuals.

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A new event is coming to Destiny 2 as part of the final arc of Episode Heresy: Rite of the Nine. This limited-time event will bring with it tons of new challenges, the return of some fan-favorite loot, and even a new social space. Here are all the details you need to know about Rite of the Nine and how it will work.

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• When does Rite of the Nine come out?

When does Rite of the Nine come out?

Rite of the Nine doesn't have an exact release date as of yet, but it will be launching sometime after the start of Episode Heresy Act III, which is now live, having launched on April 1, 2025. This will be a limited-time event that likely will last until the launch of the new expansion of Destiny 2, currently only known as "Project Apollo" from Bungie's 2025-2026 roadmap. But the specific end date is unconfirmed.

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