Even before Nintendo unveiled the Switch 2 in all its glory, one of the few confirmed things we knew was that it'd be backwards compatible with existing Switch games, and the company has now stated that this decision was made since it was "the best direction" for consumers.
Between the OG Nintendo Switch and its OLED and Lite variants, the current-gen Switch family has sold a lot. To be precise, as of last September, over 146 million consoles and 1.3 billion pieces of software had been sold. That's an enormous amount of existing players with even more existing games, something which a Nintendo representative acknowledges in a statement sent to Game File.
"Nintendo Switch is played by many consumers, and we decided that the best direction to take would be for consumers to be able to play their already purchased Nintendo Switch software on the successor to Nintendo Switch," Nintendo explains. "As a result of that thinking, Nintendo Switch 2 plays Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive games, as well as both physical and digital Nintendo Switch games."
That latter point about digital and physical Switch 1 games was confirmed during the Switch 2's reveal trailer, so we now know for sure that the current cartridges will fit into the new console. However, in this latest statement, Nintendo also acknowledges a different point made in the trailer – "certain" Switch 1 games "may not be supported on or fully compatible." The company hasn't given any further insight into this, reiterating that more details will be available at a later date, so it's not entirely clear how many games this could affect.
As things stand, though, the Switch 2's backwards compatibility is a real winner of a feature, and Nintendo will know this well from its previous hardware. After all, we've seen this before with the 3DS, standard DS and DS Lite, and Game Boy Advance, which were all able to play games from their immediate predecessors. One industry analyst has even gone as far as to say that the feature "was almost unavoidable," pointing out the enormous number of game sales the Switch has already racked up.
With such a strong Switch library, it's fantastic that the Switch 2 will be able to carry this forward, although I'm positive I'm not the only one keen to find out what Switch 2 exclusive games the company is cooking up alongside what certainly looks like Mario Kart 9.
