The Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition on Switch 2 has awful performance, according to the press who played the demo at Gamescom 2025. Players are now pushing for the Nintendo port to get delayed, given how badly its performance reportedly is.
Elden Ring Switch 2 Port Suffers Major Performance Issues
Gamescom 2025 is currently underway, and one of the games being demoed at this year’s event is Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition for the Nintendo Switch 2. However, excitement for the game quickly turned into panic after reports claimed the port had major performance issues. Multiple reports coming out of Gamescom claim Elden Ring runs extremely poorly in Switch 2’s handheld mode.
Videos by VICE
According to those who demoed the Tarnished Edition, it has consistently low FPS dips. During heavy action, the game’s frames are also reportedly slow to a crawl. It’s not just technical issues that some took issue with, either. Some outlets have said the Elden Ring Switch 2 edition has a poor button layout and menu systems, making combat confusing. Basically, it sounds like the much-anticipated port has a lot of problems.
This is such a shame, because playing Elden Ring on my Asus ROG Ally X is probably one of my favorite gaming experiences I’ve ever had. I actually think the FromSoftware RPG really shines in portable play. But based on the Gamescom demo impressions, it seems like Elden Ring is struggling to overcome the limitations of the Switch 2 hardware. However, some fans are not buying that excuse and are pointing the finger at FromSoftware.
Fans Want Tarnished Edition Delayed
Many players reacted to the news about Elden Ring Switch 2’s performance issues with disappointment. A common consensus was fear that the Nintendo port would miss its 2025 release window and be delayed into 2026. Although some argued that it would be a good thing if the game were really in such a bad state. However, some fans of the RPG were critical of FromSoftware.
“I’m absolutely not surprised that this runs like garbage. FromSoftware doesn’t do optimisation well. It’ll be glitchy with poor performance on launch. Eventually, it’ll be playable a few patches later, months after release,” a user on Reddit wrote. Another user agreed, writing, “Yeah, they have a long ass record of badly optimised games.” One frustrated commenter vented, “At this point, if it’s really that bad, just delay it and try to fix performance.”
This isn’t the first time FromSoftware has come under fire for performance issues. When Elden Ring Nightreign launched in May, many fans were critical of the game’s performance and online matchmaking. Specifically, users complained about it having FPS dips during boss battles. However, it seems like the issues with Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition go much deeper.
It will be interesting to see if it gets pushed back or if it will just launch with these issues. It should also be pointed out that we don’t know what its performance is like in docked mode.
