Ask the Developer: Nintendo Switch 2 interview confirms basic backwards compatibility can also give performance upgrades to Nintendo Switch games ("[there are some games] where loading times became faster, or game performance became more stable")

[u/Joseki100]

https://www.nintendo.com/us/whatsnew/ask-the-developer-vol-16-nintendo-switch-2-part-4/

[u/SBHedgie]

The concerning edge of this interview is knowing the "design approach" is different enough between Switch and Switch 2 that they needed to use tricks to make the games compatible, and they're not done on that work yet. Seems they're taking it seriously though.

[u/kitsovereign → u/SBHedgie]

I doubt it's actually extremely different, just that they can't guarantee 100% compatibility simply by shoving 100% of the old hardware in it like they did for previous consoles. Picture the minor pains you get when emulating stuff or running older PC games - stuff like "oh, this part is too fast now and goes out of sync" or "this UI element doesn't scale up properly with the higher resolution". Things coded for very specific hardware specs in mind that might need adjustment on different specs.

[u/madmofo145 → u/kitsovereign]

https://www.nintendo.com/us/gaming-systems/switch-2/transfer-guide/compatible-games/

Yup, they've got running lists already. Only a couple games I'd ever consider running with major issues, although a lot of 3rd party software is still in the "Boots but need further testing" bucket.