Nintendo has usually been good at providing backwards compatibility on its new systems so that we don’t need to abandon our collections or keep old hardware, and it’s tested over 10,000 Switch games to ensure they’re good to go on the Switch 2.
“There are some games that ran well due to the Switch system’s hardware configuration,” explains Tetsuya Sasaki, general manager of Nintendo’s technology development division in an Ask the Developer blog post. “Switch 2, on the other hand, has increased processing capabilities and an expanded memory capacity, which could theoretically cause some of those games to stop working. We weren’t so confident at first, but as we tested games one by one, we found out that some issues could be solved by making improvements. This process helped us build confidence that, while we might not be able to solve everything, we can work it out for many games.”
Kotaku reports that over 120 Switch games already have compatibility issues and may not start at all on the Switch 2. Still, there are plenty of upcoming Switch 2 games for us to look forward to that will run well.
“We’re checking them all, one by one,” Sasaki says. “More than 10,000 games in total.” However, “Even with all those checks, it might not be that all Switch games run perfectly in time for the launch of Switch 2, but we will continue our efforts so that we can support as many Switch games as possible,” adds Kouichi Kawamoto, a Nintendo producer.
This is obviously disappointing news to a lot of us, but I’m not going to pretend to understand all the technical limitations and workarounds that go into backwards compatibility.
“We assume players will think it’s natural for Switch games to run on Switch 2, and of course, we thought that it should be that way too,” says Takuhiro Dohta, senior director of the entertainment, planning, and development department. “So, in order to achieve this somehow, we challenged ourselves to implement a new solution.”
Part of this solution seems to be the ability to transfer Switch data to the Switch 2 through your Nintendo account. I do miss the days of simply being able to put a GameBoy Advance cartridge into a DS, but I still appreciate Nintendo is looking into ways to help us preserve our physical and digital collections of games.
If you want to know more about the system, check out all the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct news that we got yesterday.
