Nintendo announced Tuesday that Nintendo Switch software “will also be playable on the successor to the Nintendo Switch,” according to a post on the Nintendo Company The post, written by Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa, confirmed that Nintendo Switch Online will also be available on the new console.
According to previous leaks, the Switch 2 will reportedly feature a card slot. However, the tweet did not confirm whether the new Switch would be able to play actual Switch games. It’s also unclear whether players will be able to use the Nintendo Account system to import their digital libraries to the new console. Nintendo said, “Detailed information about the Nintendo Switch sequel, including compatibility with Nintendo Switch, will be announced at a later date.”
Backward compatibility was considered a make-or-break feature for the Switch 2. Although the rumors were strong, doubts remained about whether Nintendo could pull it off if the new device had a very different chip architecture or if third-party publishers objected. The Switch itself was not backwards compatible with previous Nintendo consoles, and Nintendo made money from Switch re-releases of older games, including selling 63 million copies. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
But since Steam standardized the idea of a persistent library of digital games that work across devices, consumer expectations about backward compatibility have changed. Notably, both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are fully backward compatible. This cannot be claimed on PS4 and Xbox One. In these circumstances, a console without backward compatibility would have been difficult to sell to Nintendo. Especially considering that the Switch has sold over 140 million units.
