The Tarnished Edition of Elden Ring was supposed to be one of the titles that showed off the ambition of the Nintendo Switch 2, an open-world behemoth that would run seamlessly on Nintendo's newest console, joining the ranks of Cyberpunk 2077 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake in games that you probably never thought you'd see on a Nintendo console.
However, the complexities of optimising Elden Ring for the Switch 2 threatened to overwhelm Bandai Namco and FromSoftware as the version available to Gamescom 2025 visitors was slammed for poor performance. The port was subsequently delayed, and Bandai Namco went radio silent regarding the Tarnished Edition for just under six months.
Now, the port has resurfaced at the ongoing Game Developers' Conference in San Francisco. According to previews, Elden Ring Tarnished Edition runs significantly better than it did last year, so there may be some hope for a release in the near future.
Giovanni Colantonio of Polygon writes, "...the new build seems much more stable than what FromSoftware publicly showcased last summer. The image quality, for instance, is surprisingly strong in both docked and handheld mode. I didn't notice any egregiously low-res or blurry textures, even in handheld mode. [...]...
