Nintendo says its Switch successor will be backward compatible with Switch games

Nintendo hasn’t introduced its Switch successor but, however we do know one factor for positive: it will likely be in a position to play present Swap video games, and have carryover in your Nintendo Swap On-line companies and account. The information was introduced throughout Nintendo’s mid-year Coverage Briefing, with additional data promised “at a later date.”

Nintendo additionally talked about numbers for the present Swap (PDF), noting that it bought 4.72 million models up to now three months, a drop of 31 p.c in comparison with the identical interval final 12 months, however nicely above earlier consoles eight years after they launched. That provides as much as 146 million Swap models bought and a brand new document for software program gross sales on a Nintendo platform, which reached 1.3 billion models as of September thirtieth, 2024. “Extra software program has been performed on Nintendo Swap than on some other Nintendo {hardware},” in line with the presentation.

All three of the main console producers have had spotty data with backward compatibility. Each the Xbox Series X and the PS5 are principally backward-compatible. However because the transition from the Wii U concerned going from discs to cartridges, the Swap isn’t. Enjoying a sport from earlier Nintendo consoles in the meanwhile is a operate of optimism, involving the hope that both Nintendo releases a remastered Swap port or brings the sport to its Swap On-line library, however that received’t be the case this time round..

In line with Nintendo, the Swap 2 (or no matter it’s really referred to as) continues to be on schedule to be revealed throughout this fiscal 12 months, which runs till March 2025, with out interrupting Nintendo’s present reference to over 100 million annual Swap gamers.

The dialog about backward compatibility isn’t nearly participant satisfaction but in addition online game preservation. A report from the Video Game History Foundation discovered that over 87 p.c of video games launched earlier than 2010 are “critically endangered” or unavailable for buy. Whereas Nintendo has introduced a few of its again catalog to the Swap, there are nonetheless loads of inaccessible video games. Nintendo additionally straight contributed to the rising shortage of older video games by shutting down the Wii U / 3DS e-shop last year.