Kena Lands on Switch 2 Five Years After PS5 Launch

When Kena: Bridge of Spirits launched in September 2021, it was one of those rare debut titles that made people stop and ask how a first-time studio pulled it off. Ember Lab, previously an animation house, released a game that looked like a Pixar short and played like a confident action-adventure with actual teeth. Now, in Spring 2026, it's coming to Nintendo Switch 2, and the timing makes the whole story feel a bit circular.

Ember Lab confirmed the port on X, alongside a new trailer showing the game running on Nintendo's new hardware. The Switch 2 version ships feature-complete: the base game plus the Anniversary DLC, which adds Charmstones, Spirit Guide Trials, and additional Kena outfits, along with the New Game+ mode that throws redesigned, harder combat encounters at returning players. There's no stripped-down version here; Ember Lab is putting the full package on the platform.

"We're incredibly excited to bring Kena's journey to a whole new audience, giving players the chance to experience her story at home or on the go with Nintendo Switch 2," said Josh Grier, COO at Ember Lab. For a studio that started by making short-form YouTube videos, that line about a "whole new audience" carries more weight than your typical port announcement.

A Nintendo Love Letter, Finally Returned

The detail that makes this port genuinely interesting is what Ember Lab was doing before it ever made a game. In 2016, the studio produced "Terrible Fate", a short film tribute to The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask that has since racked up over 15 million views. The love for Nintendo was always there, baked into the studio's DNA. Getting Kena onto a Nintendo console isn't just a business decision; it's the completion of something that started a decade ago with a fan project.

Kena originally launched on PlayStation under a timed console exclusivity deal, then arrived on PC via Steam in September 2022, and eventually reached Xbox in August 2024. The Switch 2 port is the last major platform gap to close. The game scored an 81 on Metacritic for PS5 and an 83 on PC, and it won Best Independent Game and Best Debut Indie Game at The Game Awards 2021. Five years on, those numbers still represent a genuinely good game that a large chunk of Nintendo-only players have never touched.

Ember Lab is also deep in development on Kena: Scars of Kosmora, a sequel set for PS5 and PC this year. Ember Lab has again partnered with PlayStation Studios on that one, which almost certainly means another period of console exclusivity before any potential Switch 2 version enters the conversation. For now, Spring 2026 is the window, and the original adventure is the offer. If you've been waiting for a reason to revisit a PS5 launch-era highlight on different hardware, this is it.

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