Nintendo Switch 2 Is Officially Backwards Compatible
Did you all hear the big news last night? Apparently, a significant portion of twenty-year-olds are returning for a second time. That’s right: Nintendo Switch 2 will officially be backwards compatible.
Yes, on a night when many Americans (and likely a large number of people around the world) were glued to social media to see how another red and blue story would turn out, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa reached out to X Company (formerly called Twitter ) to reveal that yes, the successor to the Nintendo Switch will be able to play previous-gen games.
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It was definitely good news for a wild evening, but if you’re wondering why the family publisher announced it at 8:26 on a certain Tuesday in November, it’s a good question. Unfortunately, the answer is a bit boring. There was no surprise, Direct or anything like that; rather, the news was previously discussed earlier in the day during Nintendo’s Q2 2025 Policy Briefing . Think of it more as an explanation for investors than as a means of creating hype.
However, the news is pretty dry and the briefing doesn’t reveal much more, noting that more information about the technically yet unannounced console (including presumably its release date) will come “later.” Another tidbit we got is that the Nintendo Switch Online service has also been confirmed to be available on the Switch successor, so buyers will likely have access to a catalog of retro games with the subscription right away.
Fixing Switch’s Biggest Bug
Despite the low-key nature of the announcement, it puts the Switch 2 ahead of Nintendo’s current console by a significant margin. This is because the Switch’s inability to play Wii or Wii U games meant that the company instead had to re-release those games again, wave after wave of remasters, essentially forcing customers to re-buy their old library , while also leaving some games stuck online. previous generation . The Switch’s successor, on the other hand, will have access to an entire generation of content the moment you download it.
So the question on everyone’s mind right now is whether this content will be improved in any way, like how the new PlayStation and Xbox consoles handle older games. Some recent Switch games may have become too large for the system’s capabilities , so if the Switch 2 can play them at higher resolutions or higher frame rates, it will breathe new life into games that may have been a little ahead of their time upon release .
However, backwards compatibility with the Switch’s successor means you can continue to buy Switch games with peace of mind knowing you won’t have to keep two Nintendo consoles connected to your TV when it’s time to replace them.