While leaks indicated such, and fans were hopeful, it has finally been officially confirmed: the Nintendo Switch's successor will have backwards compatibility. Nintendo Switch games will be playable on the "Switch 2"/Switch successor, and Nintendo Switch Online will also work on it as well. Of course, further details will be announced at a later date--which is still set for anytime between now and March 31, 2025.

This is Furukawa. At today's Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch. Nintendo Switch Online will be available on the successor to Nintendo Switch as well. Further information about…

— 任天堂株式会社（企業広報・IR） (@NintendoCoLtd) November 6, 2024

 

[Jayinem]

Will my softmod continue to work on Switch 2. I demand continuaty.

Great but now what are they gonna release on the new console ? I guess they were saving Mario Galaxy 2 and Luigi's Mansion 1 for this

Twilight Princess/Skyward Sword HD Double Pack.

 

[spkatsi]

Hadn't this been officially confirmed months ago?

"Smooth Transition" they called it.

 

[SDA]

Seriously tho, who would ever make the Switch's successor NOT backwards compatible with Switch games?

 

[ftjiso]

took them this long to announce this? i guess i am not surprised since that company is probably run by mostly old people

 

[BanthonyHopkins]

Well, who didn't expect for Nintendo Switch software to not work on the successor? I feel that it's a no brainer that if it didn't work, then the successor wouldn't be successful.

Loads of people expected this, because they are getting greedy.

It appeared equally likely that they were going to re-release all the best Switch games as remasters and make you pay AGAIN.

 

[lwiz]

Backwards compatibility HOW?

Handheld gaming PC running in-house version of Ryujinx

 

[Rahkeesh]

Them confirming this out of the blue either means we're really close for an announcement, or still have a long way to go

The confirmation is for investors. Things like this and the XCX announcement are breadcrumbs to try and tide them over till the Switch 2 announcement that is at least another 3 months out.

 

[Bladexdsl]

of course it will it's not only using ryu but it's 100% a switch-U!

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I expected as much, with the high likelihood of it being ARM based and all.
The real question is whether Switch games will have boosted clock speeds. I have zero interest in BC that runs the same as the original console, better off emulating if that's the case.

 

[BaamAlex]

I hope this means physical software and not just eShop stuff.

That would be pretty...backward...

 

[andersoncardoso]

lol the obvious fact, shitendo will never 'inovate' that only means this console will be soon easily emulated.

 

[omega59]

I think this should be mandatory to have on all consoles.

 

[stanleyopar2000]

Wow no fucking shit Nintendo

 

[Sonic3320]

I expected as much, with the high likelihood of it being ARM based and all.
The real question is whether Switch games will have boosted clock speeds. I have zero interest in BC that runs the same as the original console, better off emulating if that's the case.

I douubt that Nintendo will go to the same approach as Xbox which tries to enhance all backward compatible titles. Everytime they did BC they focused on having the most amount of software working natively without having to retouch stuff and risking having inconsistencies like FPS Boost has with some games (Sonic Generation has collision errors that make a few stages impossible to finish and GTA IV ending becomes extremely difficult because the frame time of inputs is reduced, requiring the player to rapidly tap twice as fast on the helicopter scene). I think the easiest way to offer a sense of upgrade without risking issues like that is to run the games on TV quality settings on the portable mode, but at the same time the resolution and the size of the screen is smaller and running with "TV graphics" wouldn be that noticeable.

 

[Sir Tortoise]

Less, assuming the backwards Compatibility with Switch 1 means Switch 2 has the same architecture of a Switch 1.
I'm giving it like... 8 months max... same story of the 3DS.

3DS took way longer to be fully hacked, and backwards compatability wasn't a huge part of it until near the end for convenience.

I think the Switch 2's backwards compatability is unlikely to help at all - the bug that enables most Switch softmodding is long-since patched, there hasn't been nearly as much research into other methods of hacking as a result of it (and what there is isn't promising), and there isn't a huge market for flashcards that could be repurposed.

Unless we get another miracle like the Nvidia bug, the Switch 2 could be extremely difficult to crack.

 

[MultiKoopa]

Less, assuming the backwards Compatibility with Switch 1 means Switch 2 has the same architecture of a Switch 1.
I'm giving it like... 8 months max... same story of the 3DS.

huh? Switch 1 has yet to be hacked outside of the launch models and modchips. Why would you think this?

 

[hybori]

No shit Nintendo. What next, the switch successor will play games?

 

[MLGBigSmoke35]

of course it will it's not only using ryu but it's 100% a switch-U!

Seeing the switch 2 use Ryujinx would be terrible LMAO. So many games would run like ass and stutter really badly.

 

[Robert Newbie]

I do feel like this confirmation was necessary. There was never a guarantee that Nintendo would include backwards compatibility, but I believe they want to continue the momentum of the Switch by any means necessary. Backwards compatibility is a nice goodwill move, and Nintendo cannot afford to challenge that, since they lost the handheld market. What Nintendo needs to do now is push the exclusives.

Speaking of which, do we have any game confirmations for Switch 2, or are we stuck doing the default "new Mario and Zelda" routine?

 

[Marusu]

Nice!