Elden Ring Nightreign's Absence On the Switch 2 Is a Double…

The Nintendo Switch 2 is shaping up to be a boon for Nintendo when it comes to third-party games. The first Switch, much like the Wii and Wii U before it, skipped a number of high-profile AAA games from the previous and current console generations, including Elden Ring, Cyberpunk, and Red Dead Redemption 2—even best-selling eighth-generation games, like GTA 5, were never made available on Nintendo's hybrid device.

But that's likely to change in the coming months and years, as Nintendo has confirmed that several heavy-hitters will be getting ported to the Switch 2. While the arrival of titles like Elden Ring is sure to please Nintendo fans, the absence of other flagship releases, most notably Elden Ring Nightreign, is a bit puzzling. After all, if the Switch 2 is good enough to run Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077, it should be more than capable of handling Nightreign. What's more is that the Switch 2 is getting its very own FromSoftware PvPvE game in the form of the console-exclusive The Duskbloods. While it may seem strange for Nintendo to offer the latter and not the former, it actually makes a good bit of sense. But whether this is beneficial for consumers remains to be seen.

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By Nick Rodriguez

The Pros and Cons of Elden Ring Nightreign Skipping the Switch 2

Switch 2 Loyalists Will Miss Out On 2025's Flagship FromSoftware Release

The average gamer can only afford one console at a time, so those who have chosen Nintendo as their de-facto gaming company may be disappointed to learn that they'll not be able to play Elden Ring Nightreign. It seems a bit like a half-victory: Elden Ring itself will finally be available for Nintendo fans, but the newer, cooperative spin-off of the game won't be. In other words, Switch 2 owners will still be behind the rest of the gaming community when it comes to FromSoftware games, just slightly less so.

Of course, there's a fairly plausible reason for this: Nintendo doesn't want Elden Ring Nightreign to cut into the success of The Duskbloods. Time will tell just how similar Duskbloods is to Nightreign, but they are both FromSoftware action games with a hefty dose of cooperative gameplay, so they will definitely have a lot of overlap in terms of target audience. Nintendo likely paid a pretty penny for the chance to publish Duskbloods exclusively on its next console, so it would make sense to avoid releasing another high-profile game that could cannibalize its sales.

Nightreign might come to the Switch 2 at a later date, but with The Duskbloods launching in 2026, that seems somewhat unlikely, assuming the above theory is accurate.

The Duskbloods Will Be Far More Active Without Nightreign's Interference

Multiplayer games live and die on the back of their playerbase, which is a big reason why so many of them fail: without enough players to connect with, there's no real way to engage with the game's core systems. This applies to both Nightreign and The Duskbloods as, despite allowing solo play, they seem to heavily lean on their cooperative elements, as these set them apart from previous FromSoftware titles.

With this in mind, The Duskbloods might actually be better off without Nightreign luring away its players. Switch 2 owners can rest assured that they'll have a wide range of Duskbloods players to fight with or against at any given time, as the game's community will naturally be more densely populated under the given circumstances. Of course, Elden Ring Nightreign could be considerably better than The Duskbloods, which would make this point somewhat moot, but the opposite could be true as well, so audiences will just have to wait and see.