Nintendo Switch 2 will have backwards compatibility with Switch games, and Nintendo Switch Online will be coming back too

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"Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch"

Upcoming video game movies: Mario, Princess Peach and Toad in The Super Mario Bros Movie.
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Backwards compatibility between the Nintendo Switch 2 and its predecessor has been confirmed.

In an announcement early this morning, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said that "at today's corporate management policy briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch." That means that all of your current Switch games will work on the Switch 2, which should make the, ahem, switch to the new hardware easier when it comes.

Furukawa also explained that "Nintendo Switch Online will be available on the successor to Nintendo Switch as well." Given the recurring income Nintendo gets from its online services, it's no huge surprise that it would be maintaining the subscription through its next generation, even if we had to finally say goodbye to the Wii U/3DS era earlier this week.

Sadly, Furukawa remained pretty light on details. He closed his statement by saying that "further information about the successor to Nintendo Switch, including its compatibility with Nintendo Switch, will be announced at a later date." 

That remains in-line with Nintendo's previously-mentioned plans - the company has recently reaffirmed its plans to officially announce the Switch 2 before April 2025, and it's looking increasingly likely that we won't hear about the new console before next year at this point. Of course, those details will also include the console's official name, which seems unlikely to be Switch 2, but which Furukawa is also firmly not giving away with that repeated use of 'the successor to the Nintendo Switch'.

Are you looking forward to bringing the best Switch games to the new console?

Ali Jones
Ali Jones
Managing Editor, News

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.