You don’t have to go to great lengths to save your Switch console so you can play your favorite games on it years after it’s out of commission. In its earnings report, Nintendo announced that the upcoming Switch successor will be backwards compatible and will be able to run games created for the current console. In addition, Switch Online will also be available on Switch 2, which means that your cloud-saved saves will be transferred and you will be able to play NES, SNES, and Game Boy games on the new console.
Nintendo explained that it is making Switch Online available on the upcoming console because it believes it is important for the company’s future to “carry over the good relationship” it has built with its more than 100 million annual users to the new device. The main way to do this is to use the Nintendo Account, which ties a user’s history to a single account and allows the company to “maintain a continuous relationship” with them across all console generations. Prior to the introduction of the Nintendo Account, Nintendo had no easy way to transfer a user’s history and purchases to the next console. “As a result, our relationship with consumers was interrupted when a new system was purchased,” the statement said.
The company promised to reveal more information about the Switch 2 “at a later date,” although it did not say when exactly. At a recent event where we thought a new console might be announced, Nintendo instead started an alarm clock. Judging by its earnings results, it looks like people may decide to wait for a new console instead of buying the current Switch: The company was forced to lower its sales forecast for the fiscal year due to a significant drop in console sales compared to the same period last year.
