FromSoftware have confirmed that Elden Ring Tarnished Edition will launch on Nintendo Switch 2 on 28 August 2026, ending months of speculation after the port was pulled from its original 2025 window. The announcement landed on the official Elden Ring X account on 4 June, and arrives alongside news that the same suite of new content will reach PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC the same day as a paid add-on called the Tarnish Pack.

Pre-orders for the Switch 2 edition are live at Amazon and Walmart at US$80, with the price reflecting a bundle of the base game, the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, and the freshly tailored Switch 2 content built around the Tarnished Edition release.

The August 28 Confirmation and What Tarnished Edition Includes

The Elden Ring X account framed the date with the line, “Your journey to the Erdtree begins here. Rise, Tarnished. Elden Ring Tarnished Edition is coming to Nintendo Switch 2 on August 28, 2026.” The single-line post closed a gap that had stretched from the original 2025 promise into a vaguer 2026 window after the project was delayed late last year, and is the first concrete date the publisher has put behind the port since that delay was acknowledged.

FromSoftware’s accompanying statement made the case for the Switch 2 cut as the most complete shape Elden Ring has taken on any platform. “Elden Ring Tarnished Edition is the ultimate way to experience the praised dark fantasy saga on the new Switch platform,” the statement reads. “Not only does it include everything from the original game and its major expansion, but it also brings tailored new content, such as classes, gear, skills, mount customization, and customization for the Spectral Steed, that enriches both new and returning players’ journeys.”

That tailored content covers two new Starting Classes for the character creator, additional armour sets, fresh weapons, new skills, and a set of cosmetic skins for Torrent, the Spectral Steed mount that ferries the Tarnished across the open world of the Lands Between. The base release also folds in Shadow of the Erdtree, the 2024 expansion that itself outscaled most full-priced releases that year on both content runtime and post-launch support windows.

The combination positions Tarnished Edition as a definitive cut of the game that arrives more than four years after the original February 2022 launch on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Tarnish Pack DLC Arrives Same Day on PS5, Xbox, and PC

The Switch 2 launch will not be a content island. The same day Tarnished Edition ships, FromSoftware will release the Tarnish Pack as a paid add-on for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC players, bundling the two new Starting Classes, the new armour, and the Torrent customisation options into a separate purchase for owners of the base game.

The simultaneous release closes off one of the obvious complaints that would have followed a Switch 2 exclusive content drop, where existing players on more powerful hardware would have been locked out of features tailored to a less powerful console. Pricing for the Tarnish Pack on existing platforms has not yet been disclosed, and FromSoftware has not confirmed whether the pack will eventually fold into a discounted bundle for owners of the base game and Shadow of the Erdtree.

For players who picked up Elden Ring during one of its frequent discount windows over the past four years, the Tarnish Pack offers a low-friction way to fold the new content into an existing save without paying for the full Tarnished Edition bundle again on Switch 2.

The Switch 2 Port’s Delayed Road to Release

Tarnished Edition was first revealed alongside the Switch 2 hardware showcase last year, with Bandai Namco at the time pencilling the port in for a 2025 launch. Early hands-on previews from press at that showcase flagged uneven performance, and the publisher pulled the release from the 2025 calendar shortly afterwards, citing the need for “performance adjustments” rather than committing to a fresh date.

The eight-month silence that followed lined up with broader scrutiny of Switch 2 third-party ports, where several engine-heavy titles arrived in inconsistent technical states across the back half of 2025. The 28 August date suggests FromSoftware has settled on a build of the game it is comfortable shipping, although the official statement stops short of detailing target frame rates or resolution behaviour on the docked and handheld profiles of Nintendo’s hybrid hardware.

The decision to bind a confirmed date to a Tarnish Pack same-day release on legacy platforms also signals scheduling certainty internally. Cross-platform DLC drops require lead time on certification across Sony, Microsoft, and Valve storefronts, which is unlikely to be locked in unless the Switch 2 build itself has hit a milestone the publisher is willing to ship against.

Elden Ring’s Sales Trajectory Going Into the Switch 2 Launch

The Switch 2 release lands with Elden Ring already sitting on more than 30 million lifetime copies sold since the original February 2022 launch across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Shadow of the Erdtree, the 2024 expansion, has added a further 10 million units of its own, putting the franchise well past 40 million combined unit movements before the Switch 2 cut even touches retail.

FromSoftware’s Elden Ring has set a benchmark for sustained sell-through that few contemporary single-player releases have matched. The Switch 2 port opens a fresh storefront for the title at a moment when the install base of the console is still climbing through its first year on the market, and the Tarnish Pack on legacy platforms gives existing owners a reason to revisit Limgrave on 28 August.

The handheld profile in particular changes the long-form proposition of Elden Ring as a portable experience for the first time, with a typical critical-path completion sitting well north of 60 hours and a completionist run pushing past 130 hours once Shadow of the Erdtree is folded in. That runtime fits the commute-and-couch pattern Nintendo’s hybrid hardware was designed around in a way the original generation of consoles could not match.

Pre-Orders, Price, and the Run-Up to Launch

The US$80 pre-order price at Amazon and Walmart reflects the inclusion of Shadow of the Erdtree, which has typically traded at US$40 standalone since its 2024 launch on legacy platforms. A standalone Tarnished Edition price for regions outside the United States has not been confirmed at the time of writing, and FromSoftware has not yet announced whether physical retail copies will ship globally on the same date as the digital release.

Bandai Namco is publishing the Switch 2 edition under the same arrangement it has held since the original 2022 release, and the Tarnish Pack add-on for legacy platforms will be distributed through the same first-party storefronts owners use today. No subscription or cloud-streaming variant of the Switch 2 build has been mentioned.

Tarnished Edition launches on Nintendo Switch 2 on 28 August 2026, the same day the Tarnish Pack DLC arrives on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.