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

Nintendo hasn’t announced its Switch successor yet, but we know one thing for sure: it will be able to play and transfer current Switch games for your Nintendo Switch Online services and account. The news was announced at Nintendo’s mid-year policy briefing, with further information promised “at a later date.”

Nintendo also talked about numbers for the current Switch (PDF), noting that it sold 4.72 million units in the past three months, down 31 percent from the same period last year, but well above previous consoles eight years after launch.

That amounts to 146 million Switch units sold and a new record for software sales on a Nintendo platform, which reached 1.3 billion units as of September 30, 2024. It was also noted that the number of Switch Online subscriptions decreased slightly from last year to approximately 34 million members. . At the same time, the number of people opting for the more expensive version with the Expansion Pack library of games continues to increase.

According to the presentation, “more software has been played on Nintendo Switch than on any other Nintendo hardware.”

All three major console manufacturers have had spotty records with backwards compatibility. Both the Xbox Series X and PS5 are largely backwards compatible. But since the Wii U’s transition involved the transition from discs to cartridges, the Switch is not. Playing a game from previous Nintendo consoles at this point is a function of optimism, which involves the hope that Nintendo will release a remastered Switch port or bring the game to the Switch Online library, but that won’t be the case this time be a case.

According to Nintendo, the Switch 2 (or whatever it’s called) is still on track to be unveiled during this fiscal year, which runs through the end of March 2025, without disrupting Nintendo’s existing connection to more than 100 million annual Switch players .

The conversation about backward compatibility is not just about player satisfaction, but also about video game retention. A report from the Video Game History Foundation shows that more than 87 percent of games released before 2010 are “critically endangered” or no longer available for purchase. Although Nintendo has brought some of its back catalog to the Switch, there are still many inaccessible games. Nintendo also directly contributed to the increasing scarcity of older games by closing the Wii U/3DS e-shop last year.

Update, November 5, 2024: Additional details added.