Nintendo Switch won't have Virtual Console at launch and Nintendo won't say when it's coming

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Well, now we know why everything's been so quiet about Virtual Console (AKA classic console emulation) games on Nintendo Switch - it won't have them at launch. Nintendo quietly confirmed our mounting suspicions in a press release today in the space of two sentences:

"Virtual Console games will not be available on Nintendo Switch at launch. We will share more information in the future".

Switch will launch without support for several other common features, but many of those - like the eShop - will be enabled via a small day-one update. It's somewhat alarming that we don't have a timetable for when Virtual Console games will appear on the system, but we do know that Nintendo plans to get them working eventually: free access to online-enabled SNES and NES games will be a big part of its paid multiplayer service.

Nintendo also confirmed that you can share wallet funds from your other Nintendo devices by linking your Nintendo Network ID (that's the old account system) with your Nintendo Account (the new system, which also ties into mobile games like Super Mario Run). So don't despair if you already fed all your eShop gift cards into Wii U or 3DS since you should be able to use those funds on Switch without much difficulty.

Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan
Former GamesRadar+ News Writer

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar+.