Nintendo DS Games May Be Coming to Nintendo Switch Online Soon

Nintendo DS games may be coming to Nintendo Switch Online soon. Following a report that Nintendo was working on adding both Wii games and DS games, a new Nintendo patent has surfaced online that confirms this report and reveals which games are going to be added to the Nintendo Switch Online library first. More specifically, it may reveal that Nintendo DS games are coming first.

As spotted by MikeOdysseyYT, Nintendo recently updated a patent that many Nintendo fans think is a Nintendo Switch 2 accessory that would enable a second flip-up screen for the purpose of emulating DS games. And for good reason. As you can see via the images below, this is a reasonable conclusion to draw. Nintendo patents are not usually worth paying attention to, as a company like Nintendo patents a metric ton of things; however, DS emulation on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 is going to require a solution involving hardware. It won’t be achievable with software alone. To do this, Nintendo will need to create a new, novel device to facilitate this emulation, and a patent-happy company like Nintendo is going to patent whatever solution it comes up with. To this end, patent hawking is reasonable, and this patent is interesting to say the least.

Here we go! Nintendo JUST Updated AGAIN what I believe is the Nintendo Switch 2 second screen accessory for NSO DS, 3DS and maybe Wii U. Patent published on Sep 4th (busy with Silksong hype) This is def. happening. (I am a blind creator and finding these are not easy. A credit… pic.twitter.com/yoyR7SJ3q9

— Mike Odyssey (@MikeOdysseyYT) September 8, 2025

No Timeline

While it appears Nintendo is working on a solution to DS emulation via Nintendo Switch Online, we do not have a timeline. Unless Nintendo has proceeded with creation and manufacturing before said patent, it is unlikely any of this will come to fruition soon. To this end, there are usually two-year gaps between platforms being added to Nintendo Switch Online, and considering GameCube games were just added this year, if DS games are next, they probably won’t be added until 2027. Until then, Nintendo will keep adding more N64 and GameCube games.

In addition to preparing for more platforms to be added, Nintendo has always been going through the platforms already added and improving the experience of playing their games via Nintendo Switch Online. For example, it recently added a slew of improvements to Game Boy Advance games and did the same thing with SNES games over the summer.

All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think, and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum. What DS games would you want to see added to Nintendo Switch Online first?