You’ve seen the "impossible" ports. You saw The Witcher 3—a game that basically required a blood sacrifice to fit onto a tiny plastic cartridge—run surprisingly well on the Nintendo Switch. Then Doom Eternal showed up, followed by No Man’s Sky. It made sense to ask the question. Is a Cyberpunk 2077 Nintendo Switch version actually possible, or are we just dreaming of chrome-plated electric sheep?
Honestly? It isn't happening.
CD Projekt Red has been pretty blunt about this over the years. While the studio pulled off a literal miracle with The Witcher 3 (lovingly dubbed "The Switcher"), Night City is a completely different beast. It’s not just about the size of the world. It’s the verticality, the sheer density of NPCs, and an engine that was famously pushed so far past its breaking point that the base PS4 and Xbox One versions launched in a state that can only be described as "catastrophic."
If a console with ten times the horsepower of a Switch couldn't handle the crowded streets of Watson at launch, your Joy-Cons would probably melt before you even finished the character creator.
The Technical Wall: Why Night City Breaks the Switch
The REDengine 4 is a monster. When CDPR built Cyberpunk 2077, they designed it for high-end PCs and the then-upcoming "next-gen" consoles. The game relies heavily on fast streaming—moving data from your hard drive to your RAM at blistering speeds. The Nintendo Switch uses eMMC flash memory and microSD cards. Even the fastest SD card on the market can’t compete with the NVMe SSDs found in a PS5 or a modern gaming rig.
Think about the architecture. The Switch uses a Tegra X1 chip. That’s mobile technology from 2015.
To get Night City running on that hardware, you wouldn't just be "lowering the settings." You would be deleting the city. You’d have to remove 90% of the cars, turn the crowd density to zero, and likely replace the complex lighting system with something that looks like a PS2 game. John Linneman from Digital Foundry has touched on these technical hurdles before, noting that while some games scale down beautifully, others are built on foundations that simply require a certain "floor" of processing power that the Switch doesn't meet.
The Phantom Liberty Factor
The final nail in the coffin for any hope of a Cyberpunk 2077 Nintendo Switch port came with the Phantom Liberty expansion. With that release, CD Projekt Red officially dropped support for the PS4 and Xbox One. They realized that to make the game what it was always meant to be, they had to leave the older hardware behind. If they can't make the game work on a PS4 Pro, the Switch—which is significantly less powerful than a base PS4—doesn't stand a chance.
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What About Cloud Gaming?
Now, there is a "but."
Nintendo has a history of bringing "Cloud Versions" to the Switch for games that can't run locally. We saw this with Control, Hitman 3, and Resident Evil Village. Technically, CDPR could partner with a provider to stream the game to your Switch.
But they haven't.
There are a few reasons why. First, the infrastructure for cloud gaming on Switch is... let's say "spotty" at best. It requires a flawless internet connection, and even then, the latency makes fast-paced combat feel like you're playing underwater. Second, CDPR seems to have moved on. They are currently neck-deep in "Project Orion" (the Cyberpunk sequel) and the next Witcher saga, which is being built in Unreal Engine 5. Spending resources on a cloud port for a handheld that is nearing the end of its life cycle just doesn't make business sense.
Real Alternatives You Can Actually Play on Switch Right Now
If you are itching for that high-tech, low-life aesthetic, you aren't totally out of luck. You can't play Cyberpunk 2077 Nintendo Switch edition, but you can get pretty close with these titles that actually run natively and look great.
Ghostrunner
This is probably the closest you’ll get to the "vibe" of Night City. It’s a first-person parkour action game where you play as a cyborg ninja. It’s fast, it’s punishing, and the neon-soaked towers feel very familiar. It runs surprisingly well on Switch after a few patches, though it's definitely softer than the PC version.
Cloudpunk
Instead of shooting people in the face, you’re a delivery driver in a rain-slicked cyberpunk city called Nivalis. It’s all about the atmosphere. You fly your hovercar between massive skyscrapers and talk to weirdos. It’s less "action RPG" and more "mood piece," but it scratches that itch for a living, breathing cyberpunk world.
Citizen Sleeper
If you cared more about the roleplaying and the "punk" themes of Cyberpunk 2077 than the combat, play this. It’s a tabletop-inspired RPG set on a decaying space station. The writing is top-tier, and it explores themes of capitalism, body autonomy, and survival better than most AAA games. Plus, it runs perfectly on Switch because it’s mostly text and beautiful art.
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The Ascent
This is a top-down twin-stick shooter, but the environmental detail is staggering. It’s got the gritty, crowded, "everything is broken" feel of Night City down to a science. The Switch port is a bit of a miracle, though the text can be tiny in handheld mode.
The Steam Deck Elephant in the Room
If you really, truly want to play Cyberpunk 2077 on a handheld, you have to look outside the Nintendo ecosystem. The Steam Deck changed everything.
Valve’s handheld can run the game natively at a mix of low and medium settings, often hitting a stable 30 to 40 FPS. It even has a specific "Steam Deck" graphics preset in the game's menu. It’s the experience everyone wanted from a Cyberpunk 2077 Nintendo Switch port. It's portable, it’s the full game, and it includes all the updates like the 2.0 overhaul and the police system fixes.
For many, the Steam Deck has become the "Pro" version of the Switch they always wanted. If you’re a die-hard Nintendo fan, it’s a tough pill to swallow, but it’s the only way to take V on the bus with you.
Looking Ahead: Switch 2 and Beyond
The rumors about the "Switch 2" (or whatever Nintendo calls their next console) are everywhere. Leak after leak suggests it will have significantly more RAM and potentially utilize NVIDIA’s DLSS technology.
If the next Nintendo console has the power of, say, an Xbox Series S, then a port becomes a real conversation. We’ve seen games like Hogwarts Legacy prove that developers are willing to go to extreme lengths to get their games on Nintendo hardware because the install base is just too huge to ignore.
Would CDPR go back and port a years-old game to new Nintendo hardware? Maybe. They like money. But at this point, it’s more likely they’d focus on making their future games compatible with whatever Nintendo puts out next.
Actionable Steps for Handheld Fans
Don't wait for a port that isn't coming. If you want the Cyberpunk experience today, here is the move:
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- Check out Citizen Sleeper or Ghostrunner on the eShop if you need a cyberpunk fix specifically on your Switch hardware.
- Investigate the Steam Deck or ROG Ally if portable AAA gaming is your priority. Cyberpunk 2077 is frequently on sale for $30 or less on Steam.
- Use Remote Play. If you already own the game on PS5 or PC, you can use apps like Chiaki or Steam Link to stream the game to your Switch if you have a modded console or a good tablet/phone setup. It’s not a native port, but it’s the best way to see those neon lights on a small screen.
The dream of a native Cyberpunk 2077 Nintendo Switch release is essentially dead, buried under the weight of hardware limitations and the forward march of technology. Night City is just too big for the little console that could. But between the robust indie scene on the eShop and the rise of powerful handheld PCs, you have more ways to be a mercenary in the dark future than ever before. Over and out, choomba.