Nintendo announced Tuesday that Nintendo Switch software “will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch,” according to a post from Nintendo’s corporate X account. The post, attributed to Shuntaro Furukawa, president of Nintendo, also confirmed that Nintendo Switch Online will be offered on the new console.
The official Nintendo account confirmed that many Switch accessories will be compatible with the Switch 2, including original Joy-Con controllers. However, since the Switch 2’s Joy-Cons attach magnetically rather than using the Switch’s rail clip, classic Joy-Cons can’t be attached to the new machine or charged directly from it, and can only be used as secondary controllers. Still, it will be handy for when you have friends around to play Mario Kart or Smash Bros.
The post said Nintendo announced the Switch 2’s backward compatibility at its Corporate Management Policy Briefing, a semiannual investor meeting where the company reports its sales and roadmaps.
The presentation, which is publicly available, also addresses whether players’ Nintendo Accounts will function on the new console: “We believe that it is important for Nintendo’s future to make use of Nintendo Account and carry over the good relationship that we have built with the over 100 million annual playing users on Nintendo Switch to its successor.” The report further clarifies that, “in addition to being able to play Nintendo Switch software they currently own, consumers will be able to choose their next purchase from a broad selection of titles released for Nintendo Switch.”
According to an earlier leak, the Switch 2 reportedly has a card slot. However, the message doesn’t confirm the new Switch will be able to play physical Switch games. The message from Nintendo says, “Further information about the successor to Nintendo Switch, including its 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 strongly rumored, there remained doubts that Nintendo would be able to pull it off if the new machine’s chip architecture was very different, or if third-party publishers objected. The Switch itself was not backward compatible with any previous Nintendo consoles, and Nintendo made a mint from Switch rereleases of earlier games, such as the selling 63 million copies of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
But consumer expectations around backward compatibility have changed since Steam normalized the idea of a persistent digital library of games that works across multiple devices. In particular, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are both fully backward compatible with their predecessors — something that could not be claimed for PS4 and Xbox One. In this landscape, a console without backward compatibility would have been a tough sell for Nintendo, especially considering that it has sold over 140 million Switches.
Other notable revelations in Tuesday’s presentation include the report that the Pikmin, Kirby, Metroid, and Xenoblade Chronicles franchises have seen “dramatic sales growth on Nintendo Switch” compared to sales for those series’ titles on the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.