Quick Summary
Nintendo's president has confirmed a couple of key features of the successor to the Switch.
The Nintendo Switch 2 will come with backward compatibility for all existing and future Switch games, plus Nintendo Switch Online support.
Although we'll have to wait until 2025 for the launch of Nintendo's Switch successor, the company's president has broken silence on a couple of its key features.
It is now official that the Nintendo Switch 2 will be backward compatible with all existing (and future) Switch games. It'll also work with Nintendo Switch Online, so if you're a subscriber and upgrade, you can continue your membership on the new machine.
That should also allow you to continue to play your favourite retro games from the Nintendo back catalogue, with Nintendo Switch Online offering a library of NES, SNES and Game Boy titles. Those with the Expansion Pack can also play N64, Game Boy Advance and Sega Mega Drive / Genesis games.
Nintendo's president Shuntaro Furukawa took to X to reveal the details, but also warned that we'll not find out much more about the Switch 2 until "a later date".
This is Furukawa. At today's Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch. Nintendo Switch Online will be available on the successor to Nintendo Switch as well. Further information about…November 6, 2024
He also stopped shy of officially calling it the Switch 2, even though that's now believed to be the accepted name of the new console.
It is also claimed that developers are being told the Switch successor will arrive no sooner than April next year. GamesIndustry.biz reporter, Chris Dring, revealed (via VGC) that it has likely been switched to launch in the next fiscal year: "No developer I’ve spoken to expects it to be launching this financial year."
The decision not to even announce the machine in 2024 could have been influenced by Sony's new console launch. The PS5 Pro will be available worldwide from tomorrow, 7 November, and considering how capable and powerful it is, it is unlikely Nintendo would want to compete directly.
It makes sense, therefore, to switch it to a later date (no pun intended) where it could have a clean run for attention.
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