Elden Ring slammed for “poor performance” on Switch 2 at Gamescom

Bandai Namco banned Elden Ring Switch gameplay capture at Gamescom

Nintendo had a big presence at Gamescom 2025, showcasing the power of the new Switch 2 console by playing the newest 3rd-party AAA releases. Among these games were Borderlands 4 and Elden Ring. Both of which reportedly ran poorly on Nintendo’s new Switch 2 console.

Nintendo Life reported that Elden Ring’s Switch 2 version ran “really bad” and that Bandai Namco didn’t allow attendees to capture footage of the game running. The game was reportedly “like playing Ocarina of Time”, with framerate drops below 15 FPS on occasion.

While it is probable that both of these games will run better on Nintendo’s Switch 2 with further optimisation, these early impressions are not good for Nintendo’s new console. Clearly, some developers are having trouble downsizing their games to Nintendo’s handheld hardware.

Nintendo’s Switch 2 console may be incredibly powerful compared to Switch 1. Regardless, it is underpowered compared to Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. Porting games to Switch 2 is not a simple process. To make matters worse, the rollout of Switch 2 development kits has been slow. Performance issues on Switch 2 are unsurprising, especially for games still in development. Regardless, it isn’t a good sign when two big AAA game releases are shown at an event like Gamescom with unstable framerates.

You can join the discussion on Elden Ring and its disappointing Switch 2 performance on the OC3D Forums.