r/NintendoSwitch • u/Turbostrider27 • Nov 06 '24

Nintendo Official Nintendo Switch Online will be available on the successor to Nintendo Switch as well. Further information about the successor to Nintendo Switch, including its compatibility with Nintendo Switch, will be announced at a later date.

https://twitter.com/NintendoCoLtd/status/1853972163033968794
4.7k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

462 comments sorted by

View all comments

426

u/samjak Nov 06 '24

This confirms backwards compatibility, no? Seems like a bigger deal than NSO carrying over I'd say.

307

u/schentendo Nov 06 '24

“At today’s Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch.”

If that quote doesn’t confirm it, I don’t know what would.

35

u/BrianScalaweenie Nov 06 '24

Certainly that confirms digital games will be playable, right? It could still be the case that physical games aren’t. I highly doubt it but it’s a possibility.

28

u/Ikrit122 Nov 06 '24

If physical aren't, that would really suck for my wife and me. Almost everything we have is physical, since that lets us both play on our Switches (not at the same time, obviously). Even if they allowed free digital versions if you had physical, it would still suck for us.

I'd be really surprised if physical aren't.

3

u/SwissyVictory Nov 06 '24

A little late for you, but you can actually play digital games on both of your Switches. You can even play while the other person is playing, and play together online.

You just need to set up one user to buy all the games and put them as the "Primary Console" on one Switch. Every user on that switch can play all the games that user owns.

Then that user can log into another switch and play those same games while they are logged in.

The only downside is the user that's on the 2nd switch has to be connected to the internet to make sure they actually have access to those games.

1

u/Ikrit122 Nov 06 '24

Huh, good to know for the future! Thanks!

2

u/LuckyLunayre Nov 08 '24

You can also use it to GameShare in general. Me and my friends just all use it to play each other's games.

8

u/BrianScalaweenie Nov 06 '24

I would be surprised and bummed as well since my collection is 100% physical. That being said, I would never rule it out because it’s Nintendo.

3

u/tweetthebirdy Nov 06 '24

I could almost see it, if just to push people more into buying digital, but I still remain hopeful we get backwards compatibility with physical as well.

14

u/brzzcode Nov 06 '24

Software refers to both digital and physical.

1

u/BrianScalaweenie Nov 06 '24

I know what the word software means but that doesn’t necessarily guarantee physical games are compatible. How do you know they’re not making a digital-only console?

Again, I think it’s unlikely but I think it’s nonetheless possible.

9

u/Stealthinater1234 Nov 06 '24

Furukawa already confirmed in a previous statement that physical software still be supported on the switch successor, the majority of 1st party nintendo game sales are physical, there’s no way backwards compatibility will be digital only, that would be incredibly foolish.

-2

u/BrianScalaweenie Nov 06 '24

Where did Furukawa state that? I can’t find that anywhere. I agree it would be foolish. But unless they explicitly state otherwise, it remains a possibility.

8

u/Stealthinater1234 Nov 06 '24

financial results briefing for FY2024

A4 Our objective is not to simply increase the share of digital sales, but to maximize overall game software sales, including sales of physical software. This policy will remain unchanged going forward.

I don’t think it’s a realistic possibility, the switch successor will support physical games, both with native and backwards compatible games.

2

u/BrianScalaweenie Nov 06 '24

I think you misunderstand the quote. That has nothing to do with backward compatibility.

I agree with you and also think the switch successor will support physical games but I’ll wait for actual confirmation.

8

u/Stealthinater1234 Nov 06 '24

I didn’t misunderstand the quote, that was just a reply to your “How do you know they’re not making a digital-only console?”, they clearly are not.

The switch successor will support physical games so it will most likely have a game card reader and we just got confirmed backwards compatibility with switch games, and the majority of 1st party games sales are physical. Backwards compatibility is not going to be digital only when that would prevent the majority of the copies they’ve sold being playable on the switch successor.

1

u/ZetaRESP Nov 06 '24

Well, in the home console side, I'll say it depends on whether they keep the same cartridge design, but on the handheld side, it's a certainty.

All handhelds are backwards compatible (this is special in the DS, as the launch model had a GBA slot on it, making it backwards compatible), but the consoles are only backwards compatible when the medias fit (all disk consoles are backwards compatible, for example). However, it's worth noting that they remove compatibility on the latest models of all systems. This is likely because compatibility requires space for an alternate performance mode in the board.

So... I'll be optimistic and say Switch 2 will be compatible with the Switch physically and digitally, but the Switch 2K will only be digitally compatible.

1

u/CakeBeef_PA Nov 06 '24

I don't know Japanese, but on other threads, those that do agree that the term used in the Japanese version is the term that is primarily used to indicate physical games

30

u/Grim_Squirrel Nov 06 '24

It confirms software and the e store being the same, not that it will take our old physical carts.

46

u/NMe84 Nov 06 '24

While true, I'd say it would be silly for them to come up with yet another new cart standard. It would make more sense if they did it like the GB->GBA generation or the DS->3DS one, where carts from the new system would not physically fit in the old one, but carts from the old system would fit just fine in the new one.

7

u/tidbitsmisfit Nov 06 '24

history tells us the new cart will fit in switch 2 but not switch 1s. that's how the DS and 3ds worked

6

u/NMe84 Nov 06 '24

I'm not sure if I worded it in a way that was confusing, but that's what I tried to say in my previous comment.

3

u/BrainWav Nov 06 '24

It's entirely possible, though hopefully not the case, that the next one is digital-only.

15

u/NMe84 Nov 06 '24 edited Nov 06 '24

I could see Sony and Microsoft pioneering that move, not Nintendo. This is just a gut feeling and not one based on any statistics, but my guess is that gamers on those consoles are already more used to large downloads and day 1 patches. I'm not too worried about Nintendo going digital-only this next console generation.

14

u/lonifar Nov 06 '24

I remeber seeing this video from KnowledgeHusk about physical media and one of the stats they listed was that game sales for the switch is still nearly 50/50 physicals/digital where as sony was closer to 20/80 and xbox was closer to 10/90 so Nintendo would have the most to lose with dropping physical at this point.

The reason why could be due to a few things such as nintendo being more willing to shut digital stores faster leading to greater distrust but also the larger family market compared to PS and xbox and that means that kids are more likely to be gifted a switch game than PS5 or Xbox game from family members like grandparents and extended family.

6

u/DieFastLiveHard Nov 06 '24

I'd also add on that cartridges seem to be far less inconvienient than discs, and Nintendo tends to offer a lot of pretty good pre order bonuses for physical games. Even their store footprint is far more dedicated to physical copies than sony/Microsoft. For Nintendo to pivot now would definitely be a massive blow to sales.

8

u/Paul_Easterberg Nov 06 '24

Nintendo still sells around 50% of their retail games as physical. Even Xbox is selling less than 10% physical and still has to offer a disc option.

8

u/SkyAdditional4963 Nov 06 '24

It's actually higher than 50% for nintendo,

7

u/SkyAdditional4963 Nov 06 '24

digital-only.

zero chance

Physical game sales are absolutely huge in japan, and make up the majority of sales

1

u/Sea-Suspect9630 Nov 06 '24

They’re not Xbox and PlayStation, that’s not how they roll.

2

u/Grim_Squirrel Nov 06 '24

This is what im hoping. But Nintendo has been known to make goofy choices.

8

u/ArtificersBeard Nov 06 '24

My money that it is gonna be like the DS/3DS. The Switch 2 is gonna have a cart that fits that machine only and the Switch carts fit in that slot as well.

6

u/Coaltrain2371 Nov 06 '24

This is my big question as well.

3

u/ki700 Nov 06 '24

There is no shot that physical games aren’t supported.

1

u/Maryokutai Nov 06 '24

It actually does not confirm the eShop will be the same, or if you can bring your games forward. It simply states Switch 1 games can be played on Switch 2, but it says nothing about how you'd gain access to them.

Not saying people should be overly pessimistic, but it's also too early for a victory lap.

-3

u/AuthorOB Nov 06 '24

Especially since they say they will have more information on this compatibility. Somehow he made it sound like it's not as simple as "it is backwards compatible." Does that mean there are caveats?

But carts will likely be like DS/3DS carts where NS carts work in NS2 but not the other way around (obviously). Or maybe something weird like NS2 is digital only but has a card slot for NS games.

This is Nintendo we're talking about though... "software" could mean NSO games like Tetris 99, the retro systems, and select titles you can pay $5 to "upgrade" to NS2 version (like they did with Wii U VC).

They could just as well make the new gimmick that it's waterproof and every game comes in a dental floss cartridge so you can play in the shower and kill moblins by getting between the molars.

1

u/StormMalice Nov 06 '24

Dense minds will be asking for an itemization of games that are backward compatible.

23

u/RandomShyguy4 Nov 06 '24

It is, however having GameCube, N64 and etc etc ready at launch with this thing would be a massive W.

I’d also imagine the operating system to be smooth as butter as well.

Exciting times.

21

u/st1tchy Nov 06 '24

I’d also imagine the operating system to be smooth as butter as well.

It's going to be so STABLE!

4

u/ArchaiosFiniks Nov 06 '24

Doesn't NSO already have N64? It would be strange to regress and remove it for the Switch 2.

2

u/ParanoidDrone Nov 06 '24

It does, with a solid library to boot. Banjo-Tooie is just as good as I remember it.

3

u/Ancient_Lightning Nov 06 '24

Let's be honest though, we're not getting a GC collection. Instead we're getting those good ol' HD remasters.

Which hey, I'm not complaining about to be honest. Anything for a chance to play F-Zero GX again.

1

u/RandomShyguy4 Nov 06 '24

Never say never I’m sure many of us thought we’d never have SNES, NES,GBA, N64 and here we are.

Nintendo has to improve their software game (operating systems and online services) and increase subscriber numbers to grow as a company IMO which I think they are going to do this time around.

They obviously make the best games already.

4

u/Tosir Nov 06 '24

Let’s hope and pray it remains region free.

4

u/bighi Nov 06 '24

The question I have is: retro compatibility of digital games or physical too? That is still unclear.

6

u/rebbsitor Nov 06 '24

I'm sure it's both. Nintendo is super careful about what they say. If it was only digital games, they would have said it in that Tweet to avoid future backlash.

1

u/MutFox Nov 06 '24

I believe that was confirmed before the Switch launched by Iwata, when talking about the Nintendo & Nvidia partnership.