With the holiday season now nearly in full swing across the world, manufacturers are preparing to meet the demand. And while Nintendo doesn’t follow a similar release pipeline compared to its competition, it does still try to take advantage of the final quarter of the month by announcing something huge before the year ends.
For this year, it appears that Nintendo is preparing to announce the Nintendo Switch 2 ahead of its release before the end of the current fiscal year.
Several well-known sources, including Andy Robinson from VGC, well-known leaker NatetheHate2, and MST Financial senior analyst, David Gibson, are all claiming that a late September announcement of Nintendo’s next console is on the cards.
If it’s indeed true that Nintendo will reveal the Switch 2 later this month, then we’re hoping that they take this time to highlight one particularly important detail.
As the successor to one of the most successful gaming platforms in recent history, the pressure is on for Nintendo to deliver a worthy follow-up. A crucial factor that could determine its fate is backwards compatibility.
As players invest more of their time and money into digital libraries, the ability to carry previous purchases forward to new hardware becomes more important.
While Nintendo’s handheld devices supported games from previous generations, home consoles have had a more mixed track record. The Wii and Wii U both offered some level of backward compatibility, but the Switch marked a departure from this trend due to its unique hybrid nature.
Embracing full backward compatibility is key to maintaining the Switch’s momentum and satisfying its massive user base. However, this approach presents both technical and business challenges for the traditionally innovative company.
From a technical standpoint, maintaining backwards compatibility with the existing Switch library is no small feat. The new console will need to use similar architecture or implement robust emulation capabilities. This requirement may limit Nintendo’s ability to make dramatic hardware changes, potentially constraining their usual penchant for novel gaming experiences.
On the business side, Nintendo has a history with rereleasing and remastering its classic titles. Games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe have proven incredibly lucrative on the Switch, despite being ports of Wii U titles. Full backward compatibility could impact this revenue stream. Although they do have history with releasing games on both newer and older consoles, similar to what happened with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which was available on both the Wii U and the Nintendo Switch at launch.
Interestingly, recent leaks suggest Metroid Prime 4 and a new Legend of Zelda game may follow a similar route, releasing on both the current Switch and its successor.
Despite potential challenges, there are encouraging signs that Nintendo recognizes the importance of backward compatibility. Nintendo’s president, Shuntaro Furukawa, has emphasized the role of Nintendo Switch Online accounts in providing a smooth transition between generations, hinting at a more unified ecosystem.
Today’s players now expect their games and progress to follow them across multiple hardware upgrades, much like how Steam and smartphone apps persist across device changes.
If Nintendo embraces this philosophy (and all signs point that it will), it could put the pressure on Sony to continue supporting its older titles going forward.
