Following its Corporate Management Policy Briefing, Nintendo took to Twitter to confirm that games for the Nintendo Switch would be playable on their next-gen console, commonly referred to as the Switch 2.
If you dive into the Management Policy Briefing, which is amassed on Nintendo’s official website, you’ll find it paints a comprehensive picture of Nintendo’s stronghold in the console hardware market. An impressive 146 million units from the Nintendo Switch family have been sold so far. Remarkably, more games have been enjoyed on the Switch than on any other Nintendo device. The detailed 59-page document is a treasure trove of sales stats and historical insights, confirming that Nintendo Switch Online services, along with other features, will carry forward to the Switch 2’s launch.
For those familiar with Sony or Microsoft’s approach to console compatibility, this news probably comes as no big shock. Microsoft’s Xbox consoles have been champions of backward compatibility, enhancing older games from the original Xbox and Xbox 360 with improvements like FPS and Resolution Boosting when played on the Xbox One or the newer Xbox Series S/X. Meanwhile, Sony’s PlayStation journey with backward compatibility has been a bit rockier since the PS3 era, which supported past console games seamlessly. However, the PlayStation 5 does a commendable job running PS4 titles and offers emulation for a selection of PS2 and PS1 classics. Sadly, PS3 games are confined to cloud streaming on both the PS4 and PS5, leaving some PlayStation fans yearning for more.
Nintendo’s track record with backward compatibility was quite stellar—up until the Switch came along. The Wii U, its predecessor, could handle Wii and GameCube disks and had a robust Virtual Console library covering most of Nintendo’s earlier catalogs. The 3DS handheld could run Nintendo DS games, yet none of its models could support Game Boy Advance or other older Nintendo handheld games. But with the launch of the Switch, which unified Nintendo’s handheld and home systems and shifted to Arm CPU cores, Nintendo stepped away from backward compatibility. Fortunately, the success of the Switch’s Nvidia-powered hardware looks set to make the transition smooth for current game owners moving to the Switch 2.
With any luck, this advancement will also mean that games that previously struggled on Nintendo’s original hardware, like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, might finally get a boost over 60 FPS—without needing the unofficial emulation software that Nintendo has been actively clamping down on. It’s a significant move considering how emulators like Dolphin could replicate GameCube and Wii, hinting that unchecked Switch emulators might tackle Switch 2 games just as well.
