A big question around the Switch 2 has just been answered. While everyone (in the U.S. at least) is glued to their TV watching the 2024 election returns, Nintendo officially confirmed that its next gaming console will be backwards compatible with the Switch.
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“At today’s Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch,” Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa wrote on Twitter. “Nintendo Switch Online will be available on the successor to Nintendo Switch as well.”
Players with massive Switch game libraries everywhere just heaved a massive sigh of relief. It wasn’t a complete surprise, however, as there had been some clues that everything on the existing hardware might carry over to the Switch 2. Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser previously suggested that the company was focused on creating a smooth transition between consoles. At the same time, no one would have put it past Nintendo to do the unthinkable and buck the current expectations around taking your older game libraries into the future.
With Switch Online also being compatible with the next console, it seems like all of the emulation work Nintendo’s already done to make NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and Sega Genesis games work on its modern platform won’t have to be repeated this time around when switching from one device’s virtual console to another.
But where does this leave the Switch 2’s actual announcement? “Further information about the successor to Nintendo Switch, including its compatibility with Nintendo Switch, will be announced at a later date,” Furukawa added in his tweet. Many expected a reveal as early as September or October. Now, however, the window for a 2024 announcement seems to be closing fast, especially as the company prepares for its holiday blitz aimed at selling millions more of the existing Switch models.
Nintendo previously said it would announce the Switch 2, or whatever it ends up calling the successor console, before the end of March 2025. Despite the wait, the company reiterated that time-table today, saying nothing had changed.
