Nintendo announced on Tuesday that Nintendo Switch software “will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch,” according to a post from the Nintendo X corporate account. The post, attributed to Shuntaro Furukawa, Nintendo’s president, also confirmed that Nintendo Switch Online will be offered on the modern console .
There was no mention of compatibility with Joy-Con controllers or other Switch hardware accessories, although it has been reported before.
The post said Nintendo announced the Switch 2’s backward compatibility during its corporate governance briefing, a semi-annual investor meeting where the company reports on its sales and roadmap.
Presentation i.e publicly availablealso concerns whether players’ Nintendo Accounts will work on the modern console: “We believe it is important for Nintendo’s future to use a Nintendo Account and continue the strong relationship we have built with over 100 million users playing annually on Nintendo Switch to its successor.” ” The report further explained that “in addition to being able to exploit their current Nintendo Switch software, consumers will be able to choose their next purchase from a wide range of titles released for Nintendo Switch.”
According to previous leaks, Switch 2 will reportedly have a card slot. However, the news does not confirm that the new Switch will be able to play physical Switch games. The message from Nintendo reads: “Further information about the Nintendo Switch successor, including its compatibility with Nintendo Switch, will be announced at a later date.”
Backward compatibility was considered a key feature of the Switch 2. Although rumors circulated, doubts remained as to whether Nintendo would be able to take advantage of it if the new machine’s chip architecture was completely different or if third-party publishers objected. The Switch itself was not backwards compatible with any previous Nintendo console, and Nintendo made money by re-releasing earlier games on the Switch, such as sales 63 million copies Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
However, consumer expectations around backward compatibility have changed since Steam normalized the idea of a persistent digital game library that works across multiple devices. In particular, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are fully backwards compatible with their predecessors – something that cannot be achieved with PS4 and Xbox One. In this situation, a console without backwards compatibility would be a difficult sell for Nintendo, especially considering that it was sold over 140 million Switches.
Other notable revelations from Tuesday’s presentation include a report that the Pikmin, Kirby, Metroid and Xenoblade Chronicles series have seen “dramatic increases in sales on Nintendo Switch” compared to sales of titles in those series on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.
Correction (November 6): A previous version of this story indicated that Nintendo had announced backward compatibility with the Switch’s hardware and software. Although previously reported, Nintendo has not confirmed hardware compatibility.
