With announcements flooding in on all sides from Nintendo Direct, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and miss some important details.
One of which isn’t all Mario Sunshine and daisies: unfortunately, you won’t be able to play all of your Switch 1 games on the Switch 2.
This is due to how Nintendo built the Switch 2 as, interestingly, it “doesn’t contain any Switch hardware.”
That doesn’t mean you won’t be able to move any of your favorite titles over to the new system, but it does mean you won’t see the same kind of compatibility you saw between the DS and 3DS.
Here’s what you need to know.
The Switch 2 focuses on “enhancing its performance as hardware”
Now, the incompatibility between some Switch games and the new Nintendo Switch 2 does come with a reasonable explanation.
In Vol. 16 of Nintendo’s Ask the Developer conference, Kouichi Kawamoto (Producer, Entertainment Planning & Development Department), Takuhiro Dohta (Senior Director, Entertainment Planning & Development Department), and Tetsuya Sasaki (General Manager, Technology Development Division) accepted questions on the development of Nintendo’s new handheld console.
When asked if the team had “already decide[d] on this functionality when [they] were first planning the development of a new dedicated game system,” the team highlighted that compatibility was indeed a consideration. Even so, it wasn’t as simple as porting Wii games to the Wii U.
The foremost focus with the Switch 2 was instead “on enhancing its performance as hardware, namely, expanding its capacity. So, compatibility was a lower priority.”
This meant creating a revamped system with no original Switch hardware under the hood. Sasaki comments, “It’s tricky to explain… Maybe the easiest way to understand it is that the methods used to achieve compatibility between Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS, and between Switch and Switch 2, are completely different.”
Kawamoto adds to that: “Simply put, those systems were compatible because Nintendo 3DS contained Nintendo DS hardware, and Wii U contained Wii hardware. However, Switch 2 doesn’t contain any Switch hardware.”
If you’re brave enough to check whether your favorite game made the journey, Nintendo published and continues to update a comprehensive list of Switch games that are not compatible with the Switch 2.
It’s not all gloom and doom, though
That’s not to say the Switch 2 won’t run any games from the OG Switch. Most of your favorites run just fine thanks to what Dohta explains is “something that’s somewhere in between a software emulator and hardware compatibility.”
It’s also important to note that almost all first-party Nintendo titles are available on the new Switch 2 (save for Fitness Boxing).
Sasaki continues, “There are some games that ran well due to the Switch system’s hardware configuration. 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.”
In fact, thanks to the Switch 2’s new and improved hardware, some of your go-to games may even run better. The team mentioned seeing shorter load times and more stable gameplay in some instances.
You’ll also see the arrival of some new features like GameChat, which lets you voice chat and screen share with up to 12 players at a time. This could be a home run for party games, ultimately enhancing the experience of hanging out with your Switch- 2-wielding friends.
Overall, it’s worth checking the list of games that will run on the Switch 2 to make sure your favorites aren’t on the red light list. The good news is that the majority of Switch titles will run on the Switch 2, which launches June 5 and will be available for preorder starting April 9.
