It's been more than a year since FromSoftware and Nintendo surprised everyone with the announcement of Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition, a Nintendo Switch 2 specific version of the award-winning open world action RPG that was revealed alongside the console itself. The game was supposed to launch in 2025, but got delayed to 2026 because the developers needed more time to optimize its performance on the weaker system.
Now, though, it may be very close to launch, at least according to Canadian retailer PNP Games, which has listed it for an "estimated ship date" of July 10. For the record, that day is going to be a Friday. There's always a chance it's just a placeholder, though. On the other hand, if it's correct we are likely to hear about it very soon.
Hopefully, FromSoftware was able to fix the aforementioned performance issues. Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition was playable at Gamescom 2025 and those who played it couldn't help but note that the frame rate often crashed to 20 or even 15 frames per second, making the game's challenging combat nearly unplayable. The frame rate issues were observed even in relatively contained indoor spaces with few characters on screen, ruling out crowded open-world areas as the sole culprit. Handheld mode was capped at a maximum of 30 FPS, with frequent drops below that threshold.
The root cause is likely CPU-bound rather than GPU-bound, according to analysis from Digital Foundry. Elden Ring is notoriously demanding on the CPU; the PC version was plagued by microstuttering for the same reason. The Series S itself already struggles to hold 60 FPS in Elden Ring. By contrast, GPU-heavy titles like Cyberpunk 2077 run quite well on Switch 2, underscoring that this is a CPU bottleneck specific to FromSoftware's aging engine. Whether these issues will be resolved before the game's launch remains to be seen.
Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition on Nintendo Switch 2 includes the following items:
- Full base game, originally released in February 2022
- The Shadow of the Erdtree expansion (originally released in June 2024)
- 2 new starting classes: the Knight/Knightess of Ides and a character currently referred to as the Heavy Warrior
- 4 new armor sets, two of which are tied to the new starting classes and two obtainable during the adventure
- New weapons and Ashes of War
- 3 Torrent cosmetic customization options (appearance, adornments, saddle)
- The armor set of Lucatiel of Mirrah from Dark Souls II, bridging the lore of the two titles
All new content introduced in the Tarnished Edition will also be made available on PS4, PS5, Xbox, and PC via a separate downloadable "Tarnished Pack". It is expected to be a paid DLC at a modest price point, though exact pricing hasn't been confirmed. Purely cosmetic items like the Torrent skins and the Mirrah Set are expected to be sold in a separate bundle.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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