Nvidia boss says Switch 2 chip is the evolution of Iwata’s vision

With the Switch 2 merely days away, Nvidia boss Jensen Huang has taken the opportunity to detail the innards housed in the portable console in a new Creator’s Voice video from Nintendo. Much of it is what you’d expect to hear: According to Huang, the computer chips inside the Switch 2 are a technical marvel, allowing it to be the most powerful portable console ever. On a more sentimental note, though, Huang discussed what it was like working with the late Satoru Iwata, Nintendo’s beloved former president.

“I still remember the day Iwata-san shared his dream with us,” Huang said of the first Nintendo Switch. “He wanted to create something no one had seen before. A console powerful enough for big, cinematic games — but small enough to take anywhere. It sounded impossible. But that vision became the original Nintendo Switch. We lost Iwata-san before the launch, but his clarity, his purpose, it still inspires our work every day. Together, we poured everything into that system.”

Huang goes on to say that Nvidia spent the equivalent of 500 engineer years to develop the tech that powers the Nintendo Switch, all to make Iwata’s vision a reality. Now, he says, the Switch 2 takes things to the next level through advances like AI processors that sharpen, enhance, and animate gameplay in real time.

“Switch 2 is more than a new console,” Huang says. “It’s a new chapter, worthy of Iwata-san’s vision.”

The acknowledgement of Iwata is appreciated by Nintendo fans, who still remember the visionary fondly. Iwata oversaw the release of iconic Nintendo hardware like the DS and the Wii. This alone would be enough to cement his legacy, but Iwata’s impact on Nintendo is much more personal than that. Fans got to know him through Nintendo Directs, where he spoke to the camera directly about Nintendo’s latest and greatest. He’s the also reason we get behind-the-scenes developer breakdowns on the biggest Nintendo games, which is extraordinary when you consider how secretive Nintendo can otherwise be.

“I love the fact they’re still honoring Iwata, that actually made my day,” reads the top-voted comment on YouTube. “Legends never die,” another fan says.