Epic Games has officially announced Fortnite to the Switch 2. Epic did reveal last month that they were making a native port of the game to the new console, but they held back on sharing what the Switch 2 version will have until now.
To quote Epic, the Switch 2 version will have these features:
- 60 FPS!
- Higher resolution (2176×1224 docked, 1600×900 undocked)
- Greater view distances (See more things in the distance!)
- Higher-quality textures, higher-quality shadows, and higher-quality water rendering (nice water)
- Clothing physics enabled
- The Replay system is here — relive your best Battle Royale matches from another perspective!
- Capture video clips using the Capture button
- GameChat* supported — stream your Fortnite gameplay with up to three other friends
- full “desktop” renderer, high-detail geometry, distance field ambient occlusion in docked mode, shadow casting point lights, high-quality effects
As expected, Fortnite is getting a considerable upgrade on the Switch 2, and they may have maximized optimization by going with a native port instead of a simple Switch 2 upgrade. But there’s a question about mouse mode that they didn’t quite explain.
Mouse mode is coming in June 7 as part of patch 36.00. Since everyone has to download the game from scratch for the Switch 2, why do they still have a few days later to get mouse mode too? But it seems they made sure to set it up the best way for players.
You will be able to set either the left or right Joy-Con as a mouse, and the primary click button will move to ZL or ZR respectively. But if you are using the left Joy-Con as a mouse, you will still have to manually set Swap Movement Thumbstick so that movement is mapped to the right Joy-Con’s analog stick.
From now until March 31, 2026, players who log on to Fortnite on the Switch 2 can get a free Wishing Star Emote. Some fans hint that this emote is a small reference to Kirby, but we wouldn’t bet any V-Bucks on that. The emote could become available for sale after March 31, 2026.
Speaking of logging in, if you already play Fortnite on the Switch, you will have to do a system transfer from your Switch to the Switch 2 and then delete Fortnite on your Switch before downloading the game on the Switch 2. You may be curious to see what happens if you don’t follow these instructions, but we assume most players just want to avoid any potential hassle and will just get to playing.
GameChat is a potential game changer for friends playing together, especially with AI Darth Vader just waiting in-game. We’re sure everyone can’t wait to get to GameChat with Darth Vader on their Switch 2s, possibly even on the go.
