Here's Nintendo's Switch 2 Backwards Compatibility Game Plan

All the hubbub the last couple of days has been about the Switch 2's preorder date, and how that's been delayed due to Trump's tariffs, but something else caught our ear during Nintendo Direct this past week. The company talked about "compatible" original Switch games working with the new system, in addition to the paid upgrades for certain titles. That surprised us a little bit, because Nintendo's backwards compatibility has been pretty spot on in the past, so why wouldn't that be the case with the new system?

In part four of the company's ongoing Ask the Developer series related to the Switch 2, which is part 16 in a larger series, Nintendo employees talked about the challenges of running older games on new hardware. Producer of Entertainment Planning & Development Department Kouichi Kawamoto says that right from the beginning, the company wanted Switch 2 to run original Switch games, but Senior Director Takuhiro Dohta said that it wasn't quite so simple. That's what led to the company's hedging at the Nintendo Direct announcement.

With past backwards-compatible systems, like the Game Boy Color and Advance, DS family, and Wii / Wii U, playing older games was simple because the new console included hardware from the previous generation. Sega did something similar with the Genesis, which used its Z80 processor to play Master System titles. That isn't the case with the Switch 2, even though the SoCs at the heart of both devices are made by NVIDIA. 


"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," says Kawamoto. So, there had to be a software approach to playing Switch games. 

Straight software emulation was out, as well, as Dohta says, "If we tried to use technology like software emulators, we'd have to run Switch 2 and full capacity, but that would mean the battery wouldn't last so long," said Dohta. 

In the end, the company took a hybrid approach, in which the Switch 2 "translates" Switch binaries for the newer console. If that sounds familiar, it's because Sony used this kind of translation layer to make PlayStation 4 games playable on the PlayStation 5. Linux gamers are also used to taking a similar approach with Proton and Wine, which translates Windows calls to Linux calls. And it works with pretty high success in both of those scenarios. 


Speaking of success, Nintendo has also published a current status of Switch game compatibility and how they run on the newer hardware. Of course, Nintendo has focused on getting its hardware running its own games at a high rate of compatibility, and by the company estimates around 99% of first-party titles are already up and running.

On the other hand, the Switch library is huge -- over 10,000 titles -- and third parties have their work cut out for them. Only around 20% are confirmed to be completely playable on the Switch 2, while over 70% can at least start up on the new platform. There are a few titles in both camps that have been found to have issues, either not starting at all or with severe issues that require additional work.

That's actually not too shabby considering the early state of the Switch 2. Head on over and read the full interview with Nintendo's developers, as all four parts are very interesting. We'll keep an eye on this because we're sure plenty of gamers are looking to unload older hardware when the new system launches on June 5 and play their older titles in addition to Nintendo's $80 games. Let's just hope we can preorder by then.