Nintendo has just officially confirmed the following: the upcoming ‘Switch’ hybrid console will definitely not be backwards compatible with any of the physical 3DS and Wii U games. Renowned Japanese gaming outlet Famitsu first reported this development with no comments available for digital versions of the same.
As the preview trailer made clear, the Switch will be using cartridges, so it’s not that much of a surprise that any physical Wii U game isn’t supported on it. And now, we also know for sure that physical 3DS games won’t be playable on the new system, either.
Apart from the not so exciting backwards compatibility news you just read, Nintendo also informed Famitsu that the two Joy-Con(as they’re called) controllers, both the left and the right, will be bundled together with the system. The company further mentioned that it’d go into more details about the Switch’s cartridges, battery life, and processing power sometime later.
On further questioning about whether the Switch would be able to play certain smartphone games, Nintendo basically refused to answer that question as whole at the moment. The Japanese gaming giant didn’t outright deny the possibility, so it seems even more likely after all. The success of Pokémon Go and Nintendo’s own upcoming massive slate of titles fuel the fire of this mystery even further.
When you think about it from their perspective, Nintendo’s decision of no backwards compatibility is not just pragmatic, it genuinely makes good business sense. Although nothing really has been confirmed yet, the eShop storefront will most likely make the jump to Switch immediately, giving Nintendo just the perfect opportunity to sell a good amount of digital copies of classic and/or remastered software made for legacy platforms.
Now it’s only a matter of waiting as details slowly emerge towards the console’s release next year, during March. The details are a bit scarce but this could be a ‘worthy’ successor to the 3DS that will support all your physical games as well.
