Nintendo Direct: Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is a Paid Tutorial Game

Among today’s game announcements was a curiosity in the form of Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. It’s a game that serves as both a tutorial highlighting the various functions and uses of the Nintendo Switch 2 hardware, as well as a series of minigames, tech demos, and other interactions. Here’s what was shown, which you can see at the 17:40 mark in the broadcast:

It’s an interesting move to charge for this software. If it will help players understand how to use the features of the system more fully, as well as show off what the new tech in Switch 2 is capable of, it feels like making this a pack-in would have been a better decision. Some might be inclined to compare Welcome Tour to PlayStation 5 and how Sony packed in Astro’s Playroom for that console. That title was a fairly robust single-player platformer that served as a celebration of PlayStation as well as a demonstration of the capabilities of the DualSense controller. Surely Nintendo could offer something similar to its fans, especially with the $449.99 price tag attached to Switch 2?

To be fair, we don’t totally know what Welcome Tour will entail, so maybe it’s more than fair to ask players to buy it. We’ll all find out together when Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour launches on June 5 alongside the console.

Source: Nintendo Direct: Nintendo Switch 2 Broadcast 04.02.25