A limited-edition Switch 2 celebrating The Legend of Zelda‘s 40th anniversary, along with a separately sold matching Pro controller, has reportedly been leaked, and while I should be over the moon as a lifelong Zelda fan and die-hard Nintendo advocate, all I can think about is how much money this is going to cost me and whether it will actually be worth it in the long run. A recent Reddit post by user Enryx25 featured images of the console’s packaging, and they look pretty official, so now it’s just a waiting game until Nintendo either confirms or denies the leak. Don’t get me wrong—the console looks great, and I would love to have it sitting on my desk. However, I already have a Switch 2, and I’m more than happy with it, so purchasing a second one would need to be justified by an upgrade that is more than just cosmetic in nature.
I get that the 40th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda is a big deal, and believe me, I’m here to celebrate. This is a series that has followed me through life since before I had a bedroom to myself, so I’m all about recognizing what it has accomplished in the gaming industry over the last four decades. But if the leaked Zelda-themed Switch 2 truly is real, and it’s nothing but an objectively better-looking version of the console, it’ll be hard not to miss the OLED upgrade it could have been.
If the Leaked Zelda Switch 2 Is OLED, I’ll Buy It
Let me start by saying that I understand not everyone has a Switch 2 at the moment, and claiming I’ll only buy the leaked Zelda version if it’s OLED might sound like a spoiled take. At the same time, though, at the time of writing, the latest official sales figures for the Nintendo Switch 2 are 23.68 million units worldwide. That not only means the Switch 2 has already surpassed the GameCube’s lifetime 21.74 million units after only a little over a year on the market, but it also means a non-OLED Zelda-themed Switch 2 is asking potentially 23.7 million people to consider purchasing the exact same console again, despite its unique appearance.
Put the consoles in the correct order.
Now, I will say that if any franchise can handle that task, it’s The Legend of Zelda. It is one of the most popular franchises in video game history, and one of the most well-known beyond gaming’s four walls. And that will likely be even more true once the Legend of Zelda live-action movie premieres. It also helps that the Switch 2 is as popular as it is now, because that certainly wasn’t the case at launch with its lackluster, nearly non-existent lineup. However, none of that is going to make purchasing the same console again any easier if it doesn’t come with a substantial upgrade.
Consider the original Switch’s OLED model. Across Nintendo’s entire fiscal year ending in March 2024, it sold 9.32 million OLED units versus 3.86 million standard units. Obviously, the OLED model, at that point, was the more popular choice, and it makes sense why. A portion of those units were the special Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom edition, sure, but did people buy it because it looked cool? Or did they buy it for the OLED screen?
A non-OLED Zelda-themed Switch 2 is asking potentially 23.7 million people to consider purchasing the exact same console again, despite its unique appearance.
There’s no way of knowing for sure, as Nintendo hasn’t released specific sales figures for that, but it almost feels like an argument you don’t really need numbers for. There are undoubtedly collectors out there who either traded in their original Switch for credit towards the TotK OLED version or simply bought it to go alongside their standard Switch for the design alone. But I will say that I personally arrived at the decision to purchase an OLED Switch because I knew it would be an actual upgrade that I could see and feel when I use the console on a daily basis, rather than just a new Switch with a cooler plastic housing that happened to be themed after one of my favorite video game franchises.
Of course, I, a sample size of only one, am not the most accurate standard to measure sales figures against, but the logic is there. Sales for the Zelda: TotK edition Switch would likely have been drastically lower if it weren’t an OLED model. In the same way, it’s reasonable to expect that the rumored limited-edition Zelda Switch 2, if it doesn’t offer some kind of meaningful upgrade, won’t sell all that much, save for content creators who purchase it for one of their YouTube videos or Twitch streams.
The Leaked Zelda Switch 2 May Simply Be Arriving Too Soon
Something else worth considering is how much distance there was between the original Switch’s launch and its OLED model compared to the Switch 2’s launch and this leaked Zelda-themed edition. The Switch OLED already had an advantage because it arrived nearly 5 years after the console’s standard model launched, so even some of those who already owned a standard Switch (like myself) were more than willing to upgrade, especially with an edition of the model themed after The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Now, if the rumored Zelda-themed Switch 2 weren’t arriving until, say, 2028 or 2029, I might be inclined to purchase it, even without a hardware upgrade. But seeing as how this is reportedly in honor of The Legend of Zelda‘s 40th anniversary, which is this year, it wouldn’t make sense for Nintendo to wait a couple more years before releasing it. If it came bundled with the Ocarina of Time remake, then maybe I’d think about possibly considering it. Still, though, chances that I’d actually buy it are exceedingly low, because I can just purchase the game instead and have the exact same experience I’d be having on my plain-looking Switch 2.
And really, that’s where I keep landing with this thing. I want the leaked Zelda Switch 2 to be real, and I want an excuse to buy it, because there are very few things Nintendo could put on a piece of hardware that would tempt me more. But barely more than a year after buying my Switch 2, a prettier shell just isn’t enough to get me there. Give me an OLED screen, better battery life, or some other upgrade I can actually experience every time I turn the console on, and suddenly Nintendo has a much easier argument to make. Otherwise, as painful as it might be for the Zelda fan in me, I’ll probably admire this one from a distance—and keep playing Ocarina of Time on the Switch 2 I already own.
