Elden Ring Tarnished Edition launches on Nintendo Switch 2 on August 28, 2026, FromSoftware has announced. The additional content included in the Tarnished Edition will also be available to buy on other platforms on the same day via the Tarnished Pack DLC.
The $79.99 Tarnished Edition includes the base game, the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, new weapons, and the ability to customize Torrent, players’ faithful Spectral Steed, with armor skins. Also included are two new starting classes.
Publisher Bandai Namco said the new content will also be available to purchase for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, and PC via Steam. It hasn’t said how much the Tarnished Pack DLC will cost, but most expect a $5 price point.
Originally planned for a 2025 launch, the Switch 2 version of FromSoftware’s 2022 Game of the Year-winning fantasy RPG was delayed to this year to “allow time for performance adjustments.” Most took that to mean a focus on the technical concerns that were raised by those who played Tarnished Edition on Switch 2 in a pre-launch state.
This was something IGN had first-hand experience of, having called Elden Ring on Switch 2 “a disaster in handheld mode” after checking it out at gamescom last year. Performance was said to suffer in particular when exploring the world. We noted that “frame rate drops were significant when turning the camera whilst exploring outside of the tutorial area, and this, combined with a confusing button layout on Switch 2, made combat confusing and exploration fairly dispiriting.”
Fingers crossed those performance issues were ironed out for this August’s launch.
Elden Ring’s arrival on Switch 2 rounds out the possible platforms for the game, which has sold a huge 30 million copies worldwide, With the multiplayer spinoff Elden Ring: Nightreign now over a year old, fans are wondering what’s next from FromSoftware beyond this year’s Switch 2 exclusive The Duskbloods. Could Elden Ring 2 be in the works? In December 2024, Elden Ring director and FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki said the developer was not considering making Elden Ring 2, but wouldn’t shut down the possibility in the future. If not, there is an Elden Ring movie in the works.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
