Following a recent Corporate Management Policy Briefing, Nintendo shared an exciting update via Twitter, confirming that games made for the Nintendo Switch will be playable on its upcoming successor, which many are currently dubbing the Switch 2.
In this briefing, which you can read on Nintendo’s website, the company delves into its current standing in the console market. Notably, they have pushed an impressive 146 million units of the Nintendo Switch Family, and remarkably, more software has been enjoyed on the Switch than any other Nintendo hardware. The 59-page document is packed with deep dives into sales figures and historical analyses. It also reassures fans that services like Nintendo Switch Online will remain intact as we transition to the Switch 2.
If you’re well-acquainted with the way Sony and Microsoft handle backward compatibility, this announcement from Nintendo probably doesn’t shock you. The Microsoft Xbox line is renowned for its stellar backward compatibility, offering features like FPS Boost and Resolution Boost for games from previous generations. On the other hand, Sony’s PlayStation has had a somewhat uneven track record. While the PS5 supports PS4 titles almost flawlessly and offers a selection of games from earlier consoles through emulation, the PS3 era remains accessible only via cloud streaming on newer consoles, which has left some gamers a bit irked.
Historically, Nintendo fans have enjoyed reliable backward compatibility—that is, until the Switch era. Nintendo’s previous console, the Wii U, could run discs from both the Wii and the GameCube, and its Virtual Console plugged nearly all the other gaps in Nintendo’s storied game library. Meanwhile, the Nintendo 3DS allowed for DS games to be played, even though it didn’t support older Game Boy Advance titles.
The Nintendo Switch marked a departure from this legacy. By combining its handheld and home console approaches and switching from PowerPC to Arm CPU cores, Nintendo did away with backward compatibility entirely. But now, it seems that the Switch’s popularity and its user-friendly Nvidia-powered hardware have convinced Nintendo to maintain this trajectory. As a result, current Switch owners can breathe easy knowing their games will transition to the Switch 2 when it hits the shelves.
This decision to maintain compatibility might also pave the way for games that struggled with performance issues on original hardware—such as the much-talked-about Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom—to shine above 60 FPS. Of course, this leap forward might make Nintendo more vigilant in their fight against emulation software, as seen in past cases like the Dolphin emulator for GameCube and Wii games. Yet, this change suggests unhindered Switch emulators could potentially extend this compatibility to the Switch 2.
