• Nintendo has confirmed that owners of the Switch 2 will still be able to play games from the original Switch.
• Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said the decision was because of the popularity of the Switch and its games.
• The company is planning to reveal the Switch 2 – or whatever they will call the mystery successor console – in 2025.

Today Nintendo has confirmed that it will allow backwards compatibility with original Switch games on the Switch 2 – or its as of yet unnamed successor console to be revealed next year.

This is something we had been expecting since Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definite Edition was revealed, spurring discussions about potential software compatibility between past and future machines of the gaming giant.

The confirmation came from Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa, citing the popularity of the Switch as the main reason.

“Nintendo Switch is currently being played with by many customers so we decided it would be optimal for them to be able to play their Switch software on the successor model,” Furukawa explained on Wednesday per Reuters.

“Customers will be able to enjoy the games they own and choose their next title from the lineup of games already on the market,” he said.

The original Xenoblade Chronicles X released on the doomed Wii U, which was never able to even get close to the overwhelming success of the Nintendo Wii – the best-selling gaming console ever – and died a miserable death, taking swathes of acclaimed games with it.

The Definitive Edition port promises better graphics and added story elements “and more” and with it geared for a 2025 release, it will likely launch on the Switch and the Switch 2 if the new console is out by March.

It also makes sense to allow backwards compatibility noting the huge existing library for the Switch, including critically and commercially successful heavyweights like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

Nintendo is gearing up to launch its new console in 2025 and the compatibility announcement likely means it will be similar, at least in terms of hardware, to the original Switch. Despite selling over 146 million consoles as of September 2024, sales for the seven year old device are slowing considerably.

The Japanese firm cut its sales forecast for the holiday shopping period by seven percent this week, believing it is likely to sell 12.5 million units less than first expected. Software sales, videogames, are staying somewhat strong comparatively with a 29 percent increase in the second quarter ended September.

What this points to is likely that fewer and fewer people are wanting Switch consoles, while those who already have the machines are happy to continue using them.

The news of the backwards compatibility confirmation is a rare official statement about the upcoming console. Previously fans and the media have had to wait for crumbs of information about the Switch 2, sometimes from awkward sources.

[Image – Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash]