The Nintendo Switch 2 will be backwards compatible, which is not surprising, and there is a key detail that needs to be clarified.

We all want Nintendo to unveil the Nintendo Switch 2, but the company has started announcing everything (Nintendo Alarm, Nintendo Music) except the next-gen console. The only thing we know is that the Switch 2 will be revealed before the end of the current fiscal year, which means the deadline is March 31, 2025, but Nintendo just released a little gem about its new console.

A few days ago, the company’s president confirmed that Nintendo Switch 2 will be backwards compatible with Nintendo Switch software, and news aside, there are two opinions because, as is often the case, it’s written in the fine print.

Expected, but not sure. The fact that the Nintendo Switch 2 is backwards compatible with Switch games, while expected, is still good news. Nintendo Switch is one of the most successful consoles in history. In the same statement, President Shuntaro Furukawa confirmed that over 140 million switches had been sold on the market in those seven and a half years.

These are brutal figures, but their games also sell well. It’s often said that the Switch sells anything, and that’s somewhat true considering the number of releases, both independent and from major companies, that dropped support for Nintendo with the launch of the Wii. Nintendo itself continues to announce games for next year (“Xenoblade Chronicles X” or “Metroid 4”), and they were also expected to work on its 2025 console.

Good news. The most important thing is that Nintendo, whenever it supported formats, maintained backward compatibility. This didn’t happen with home console cartridges (although there were adapters), but on the Wii we could play GameCube games (smaller) and on the Wii U we could insert a Wii game.

On laptops, we have cases like the Game Boy Advance, which allows you to play Game Boy and Game Boy Color games. The original Nintendo DS had a slot for Game Boy Advance games, and the 3DS could accept Nintendo DS cartridges. That is, at least the previous generation could be played on the new Big N slot machine. Considering this, and the fact that even the Xbox Series X and PS5 are banking on backwards compatibility, it seemed clear that the Switch 2 would be like this.

small font. However, let’s stick with Nintendo’s literal statement. The report guarantees that Nintendo Switch Online will be fully compatible, allowing us to keep friends and all these elements across generations, but when it comes to software, the company states the following:

• Nintendo Switch software will also be compatible with the successor Nintendo Switch.
• In addition to being able to play the Nintendo Switch software they already own, consumers will be able to select their next purchase from a wide selection of games released for Nintendo Switch.

Key: software backwards compatibility. The first time around, we all interpreted this news as “okay, I’ll be able to play my Switch collection on the Switch 2, which includes physical and digital games.” But at the end of the day, Nintendo keeps saying “software” and I find it strange that they don’t go into more detail. Does this statement “Software” include physical and digital software? If so, why weren’t they more specific?

It seems obvious that the Nintendo Switch 2 will be compatible with, for example, Animal Crossing New Horizons, which we can get digitally, but… what if I have a physical card? For physical backward compatibility, one of these two scenarios must occur:

• The physical format of the Switch 2 is the same as the Switch.which will mean higher memory card density for the successor if they want to create games with more powerful graphics.
• Let there be two types of slotsas happened with the Nintendo DS and its Game Boy Advance slot.

I’d like to think that I’ll be able to play my entire collection of physical games on the new Nintendo machine, since the Switch is a console that, thanks to its box format, allows you to collect games in that format, but I also plan to remain cautious about respect as the interpretation of the reverse The compatibility of this software, as I already indicated, suggests two scenarios: backward compatibility with everything or only with digital games.

Free remasters? Honestly, I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to play our collection of physical games on the new Switch. Otherwise, this would be very negative for many players, but on the brighter side of this whole story, backwards compatibility could be a great scenario to enjoy the pending games in better quality in portable mode.

A special feature of the Nintendo Switch is that the dock allows you to increase the resolution. Also performance in some cases. Notable cases such as “Xenoblade Chronicles 2” with resolutions up to 360p in handheld mode, which does not happen in docked mode. There are more cases like this, and I have to admit that I’m waiting for the new Switch 2 so I can enjoy these games, hoping that they will work in handheld mode the same way they work in the Switch dock.

It’s more of a wish than a certainty, although the wish is based on what competitors (PS5 Pro, without going into detail) are doing and what the Nintendo Switch itself does when scaling its games when we dock it. We’ll see what happens, but despite my caution with the definition of “Nintendo Switch 2 software compatible”, the fact that the new machine is backwards compatible is without a doubt great news that holds its own no matter what. we expected this.

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