Nintendo To Release Alternate Switch 2 In Europe That Lets User Change The Battery

As recently as the Wii U Nintendo made products in which the internal battery could be replaced without much fuss. Most of them had doors where only one screw was needed to open a compartment and swap one spent battery for another. With the Switch, they did a 180 and made battery swapping virtually impossible. The battery in a Switch or a Switch 2 is surrounded by delicate electronics, is held in place with glue, and — oh yeah — if you handle it in slightly the wrong way it’ll self-destruct. Not kidding about that last one.

There will soon be a region of the world in which Nintendo will not be allowed to do this. The European Union has passed something called the Right To Repair Law that makes it illegal for companies to produce products the consumer cannot repair on their own. This means, among other things, that Nintendo can’t sell the model of Switch 2 they’ve been selling over there.

Nintendo hasn’t made any big announcements about a different EU Switch 2 model, but they have updated their “Compliance with EU Directives and Regulations” section of their website to point out that a revised version of the hardware will be released by February 18, 2027 — the day Right To Repair goes into effect.

So the obvious question is…will this change be global or just apply to that one region of the world? No one knows yet. It would cost more to produce two different models at the same time, and you’d think avoiding extra costs would be a priority for Nintendo right now. Would you buy the Switch 2 again if battery replacement was added? We’ll see what we get.