Nintendo Switch Is Region-Free Nintendo Confirms

After much speculation, Nintendo has confirmed that the Nintendo Switch is region-free. This was stated by Nintendo President Tatusmi Kimishima at Nintendo's event today.

What this means is, like the PS4, PS4 Pro, and Xbox One S, the Nintendo Switch may not need a stepdown transformer or another adapter if you buy it in a country like the US, but plan to use it in another country, for example, India. Prior to this, Nintendo announced that the Nintendo Switch will cost $299 and has a March 3 release date.

Nintendo Switch Price and Release Date Announced

It might also mean Switch games, unlike games for the the GameCube, Wii, and Wii U, could be region-free as well — so what you buy in a country that supports the NTSC U/C standard would work fine in other nations that use the PAL format like India, and vice versa. This however seems unlikely given that Nintendo made it tough to make Miitomo account if you weren't in a country where it launched.

This was inferred after users from popular gaming forum NeoGAF digged deeper into the Nintendo Switch's FCC filings.

“AC Adapter input: AC 100 – 240 V, 50 / 60 Hz, 1 A is a power brick with worldwide compatibility. This heavily points towards the console being region-free,” suggests NeoGAF user Thraktor. Incidentally, the Wii U had the same specifications.

Other interesting slivers of information parsed from this FCC filing include support for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi, including 802.11ac MIMO, Bluetooth 4.0, as well as having been tested in and confirmed to work in temperatures of 5 degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit) to 35 degrees C (95 degrees Fahrenheit). And there should be support for USB Type-C charging too.

We discuss everything we know about the Nintendo Switch on Transition, our new podcast on gaming and pop culture. You can subscribe to it via RSS or just listen to this episode by hitting the play button below.