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Players can officially play Nintendo Switch games on the next-gen console.
Nintendo has finally answered a question that has been on everyone’s minds since the announcement of the Nintendo Switch 2: will we be able to play Nintendo Switch games on the next-gen console? The answer, thankfully, is yes. During a corporate management policy briefing, the company announced that “Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch” with more details to follow “at a later date.”
The Nintendo Switch successor is officially getting backwards compatibility
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has officially confirmed that the upcoming Nintendo Switch successor will feature backwards compatibility. In a new post on Twitter/X, Furakawa said that “Nintendo Switch software” will also be playable on the successor to the Nintendo Switch, meaning that players will be able to continue playing the Nintendo Switch games they already own on the company’s next-gen hardware.
Additionally, Furukawa confirmed that “Nintendo Switch Online will be available on the successor to Nintendo Switch as well,” so subscriptions will seemingly be retained in the next console generation. The post ended with Furukawa stating that “Further information about the successor to Nintendo Switch, including its compatibility with Nintendo Switch, will be announced at a later date.”
During Nintendo’s corporate management policy briefing this week, the company explained further that “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,” allowing the company to maintain a “continuous relationship with the consumers across platform generations.”
The briefing also pointed out that multiple franchises like Pikmin, Kirby, Metroid, and Xenoblade Chronicles have seen “dramatic growth” on the Nintendo Switch, hinting that more work might be done with these titles in the future. The inclusion of backwards compatibility on the Nintendo Switch 2 also makes it such that new console owners will be able to catch up on all the Switch games they’ve missed over the last few years.
As for the actual Nintendo Switch successor, it looks like Nintendo is not ready to make an announcement on the console just yet. A full reveal is still set to happen some time before March 2025. For now, here’s everything we know about the Nintendo Switch 2.
