Nintendo introduced Tuesday that Nintendo Change software program “may also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Change,” in accordance with a publish from Nintendo’s company X account. The publish, attributed to Shuntaro Furukawa, president of Nintendo, additionally confirmed that Nintendo Change On-line will probably be supplied on the brand new console.
No point out was product of compatibility with Pleasure-Con controllers or different Change {hardware} equipment, though this has beforehand been reported.
The publish mentioned Nintendo introduced the Change 2’s backward compatibility at its Company Administration Coverage Briefing, a semiannual investor assembly the place the corporate stories its gross sales and roadmaps.
The presentation, which is publicly out there, additionally addresses whether or not gamers’ Nintendo Accounts will perform on the brand new console: “We imagine that it will be important for Nintendo’s future to utilize Nintendo Account and carry over the great relationship that we have now constructed with the over 100 million annual enjoying customers on Nintendo Change to its successor.” The report additional clarifies that, “along with with the ability to play Nintendo Change software program they at the moment personal, customers will be capable to select their subsequent buy from a broad number of titles launched for Nintendo Change.”
Based on an earlier leak, the Change 2 reportedly has a card slot. Nonetheless, the message doesn’t affirm the brand new Change will be capable to play bodily Change video games. The message from Nintendo says, “Additional details about the successor to Nintendo Change, together with its compatibility with Nintendo Change, will probably be introduced at a later date.”
Backward compatibility was thought-about a make-or-break function for the Change 2. Though strongly rumored, there remained doubts that Nintendo would be capable to pull it off if the brand new machine’s chip structure was very totally different, or if third-party publishers objected. The Change itself was not backward appropriate with any earlier Nintendo consoles, and Nintendo made a mint from Change rereleases of earlier video games, reminiscent of promoting 63 million copies of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
However client expectations round backward compatibility have modified since Steam normalized the thought of a persistent digital library of video games that works throughout a number of gadgets. Particularly, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Collection X are each absolutely backward appropriate with their predecessors — one thing that might not be claimed for PS4 and Xbox One. On this panorama, a console with out backward compatibility would have been a troublesome promote for Nintendo, particularly contemplating that it has bought over 140 million Switches.
Different notable revelations in Tuesday’s presentation embrace the report that the Pikmin, Kirby, Metroid, and Xenoblade Chronicles franchises have seen “dramatic gross sales development on Nintendo Change” in comparison with gross sales for these collection’ titles on the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.
Correction (Nov. 6): A earlier model of this story indicated that Nintendo had introduced backward-compatibility with Change {hardware} in addition to software program. Though beforehand reported, {hardware} compatibility has not been confirmed by Nintendo.
