Reaction: Rest Easy, Folks, Your Switch Backlog Ain’t Going Anywhere

In a deft move of redirection, Nintendo has anticipated investor disappointment in its ‘numbers are down’ six-month financials and changed the conversation by revealing a tidbit about Switch 2: the Switch successor will be backwards compatible with current Switch software.

Confirmed by company president Shuntaro Furukawa himself in both a tweet and his investor presentation, games you own on your current Switch will be playable on the next system. And the fandom did rejoice and breathe sighs of relief.

Also of note, Nintendo Switch Online will migrate, so presumably subscribers will maintain access to most (if not all) of the retro games, DLC, and peripheral benefits of that service on the new console, too. ‘Presumably’ is doing some lifting there, and Furukawa also said that more details would be announced in due course.

Will every game be compatible? Will this apply to digital and physical purchases? You’d assume so, especially given the backlash if it turned out that wasn’t the case, but you know what they say about assumptions. There are nearly always caveats with backward compatibility – at the very least, there’ll be a Labo asterisk. Yet for Switch OLED and Lite owners, that’s already a reality and, despite our admiration for Nintendo’s cardboard experiment, most users will live just fine without it.

For anyone who’s spent the last seven-and-a-half years accruing a sizeable Switch library, knowing that access carries over as and when you upgrade to the next console is fantastic news. Rumours suggested this would be the case and it was widely assumed, but again, assumptions can bite you on the rear end.

This news also reiterates that Switch 2’s form factor will be broadly the same as the current console. Sure, the new controllers could be radically different and the system might simply be compatible with current Joy-Con, but it seems more likely that current software will be playable without the use of old accessories – especially given that you’ll be able to buy ‘old’ games on Switch 2 itself.

For people concerned that Metroid Prime 4 might get lost in the excitement of Switch 2’s arrival next year (assuming MP4 makes its nebulous ‘2025’ window, of course), this cross-gen announcement means that everyone’s invited to the party, whether you fork out for the new hotness or stick with ol’ reliable. It’s the best of both worlds… except for people who were hoping that game might take advantage of improved tech to deliver a more impressive, bespoke-for-Switch-2 experience. But hey, you can’t please everyone.

Questions remain – big ones. Will your current catalogue of Switch games gain performance or resolution boosts from the upgraded hardware? (See also: Will Link’s Awakening‘s and Echoes of Wisdom‘s dodgy frame rate be smoothed over on Switch 2?) Will Nintendo sell Deluxe upgrades of current-gen games that take advantage of the new Switch somehow? Might — and this would be utopia-level stuff — we arrive at a glorious nexus point where all series entries ever made are available to play on a single system?

The current Switch isn’t too far from offering that, with only a handful of Zeldas and Marios, primarily the DS/3DS entries, not playable on Switch in some form. Another generation’s worth of remakes and re-releases could very well see all mainline entries in Nintendo’s biggest series in one place, officially, for the very first time.

Might we arrive at a glorious nexus point where all series entries ever made are available to play on a single system?

Backwards compatibility also means there’s no jumping console to escape your backlog. It’s coming along for the ride!

In fact, you could argue that continued access to the Switch catalogue is good insurance for Nintendo in case it isn’t able to keep up the monthly cadence of releases that’s served so well this generation. Got a two-month gap in Switch 2’s first-year release schedule? Why not plug it with a quality Switch 1 game? Looking at you again, Prime 4. Remember, plundering a previous-gen console for underappreciated gems isn’t an option this time around, but that doesn’t mean Switch 2 can’t still benefit from its predecessor’s software.

Viewed this way, backwards compatibility isn’t simply a token, peace-of-mind feature but something more critical to the Switch successor’s success (five times fast, please) beyond a feelgood, back-of-the-box check mark. Coupled with the continuation of the Nintendo Accounts system, the next system will be just that: a continuation.

It also means that Nintendo is going to have to up its game with future entries in its core series. A Splatoon 4 that feels an awful lot like Splatoon 3 and Splatoon 2 might be a less attractive prospect if its predecessors are sitting right there, just a couple of clicks away.

Likewise, the next Animal Crossing will need to distance itself from New Horizons and offer something truly fresh and exciting. Backwards compatibility makes it more convenient than ever to just keep playing ‘the old one’ — especially for more casual Switch players still enjoying the evergreens, or those who have only just picked them up. You’d hope this will keep Nintendo honest and hungry to push innovation and new ideas on the software side.

For some of us who thrive on ‘weird’ Nintendo, we hope Switch 2 will also bring a little of What Th— on the hardware side, because we all need that Surprise and Delight™ in our lives, but it’s heartening to see this sensible, consumer-friendly feature confirmed, even as we wait for the reveal. Things are looking up in Nintendo land.