Nintendo hasn’t officially revealed a Switch successor just yet, but we now know our biggest piece of information so far. A statement from President Shintaro Furukawa at Nintendo’s latest Policy Briefing confirms Nintendo Switch games, as well as Nintendo Switch Online, will be backwards compatible for the “Nintendo Switch 2.” That’s not all, though. The company also peeled back the curtain on further plans for their system of the future.
President Fuwukara’s full statement reads: “This is Furukawa. At today’s Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch. 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.”
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This means there are still a few things to be addressed, but anyone who has built up a collection of Nintendo Switch games will be able to carry them forward. Also, some Switch games will be directly purchasable at launch via the new system, allowing players to expand their catalogue after the fact. Nintendo Switch Online access will be completely uninterrupted.
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All of this is possible thanks to the implementation of Nintendo accounts, which weren’t introduced until the Switch era. These accounts allow the company to assign data and purchases to specific players, allowing for a newfound sense of continuity instead of “interrupting the relationship” between the company and fans every generation.
It won’t be long before we know even more about the Switch’s successor. This Policy Briefing included mention of an official announcement of the next console during the current Fiscal Year, which kicked off on October 1st, and ends on September 30, 2025. This comes as little surprise, as with two new Pokemon games in the wings (Pokemon Legends: Z-A and the untitled Gen-10 releases) fans have long assumed the new console was on its way. However, the tease of later compatibility information was unexpected.
There’s a growing number of older Nintendo games available to play on Switch via NSO Classic Games Library, with titles from the NES, SNES, N64, Gameboy, and Gameboy Advance all being revived via the service. We don’t know yet if any other consoles will be included in the next era, but it’s certainly worth thinking about ahead of any official announcements.
For now, it’s back to dreaming about what might be coming down the pipeline. The meeting also showed off huge growth for fan-favorite franchises in the Switch era, specifically showing how much growth Kirby, Pikmin, Xenoblade Chronicles, and Metroid has seen since the Nintendo Switch launched in March 2017. With Metroid Prime 4 coming out in March (and Donkey Kong Country Returns HD set for January) there certainly seems to be an emphasis on bringing back familiar faces in 2025. Perhaps that trend will only continue with the Switch 2, but only time will tell.
