I mean, historically Nintendo have offered backwards compatibility by inserting previous generation hardware built into the following platform Nintendo provided. Gameboy was built into the Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Advance was built into the DS, the Wii was a glorified GC in disguise, the Wii was built into the Wii U, etc. It's almost a forgone conclusion that the Switch's successor will be operating on a new SoC, so all Switch releases will need some degree of recoding in order to function on the new Nintendo platform. Your digital purchases will most likely get patched and function normally.
However, your physical collection, probably won't make the same transition.
There's that...and the real possibility Nintendo will forgo backwards compatibility all together and ask their loyal fanbase to purchase their Switch games all over again if they want them to work on the new platform. It'll depend on how greedy Nintendo are feeling after dominating the market for the past few years.
Hmm, it seems more likely that the Switch successor will use the same sorts of carts as the current one, @Magician .... The capacity of those has increased quite a bit without affecting the physical size so far
It's one of those things where I hope I'm wrong. But I'm a pessimist. After reading reports last year that production of the Tegra X1 SoC was ending soon, it casts serious concerns over backwards compatibility with the Switch's successor. How will the Switch cartridges operate in the absence of the hardware that runs them? Emulation? I'm not sure the hardware within the Switch's successor would be up to the task.
Hmm, we'll have to see, @Magician .... It might be that will make it incompatible, I'm not a tech expert or anything! If that does turn out to be the case, it will probably cause people to be slower to adopt the console, with the number of Switch games, though
I strongly doubt that the Switch’s successor will ship games on cartridges different to the ones that we have now. Maybe faster and with higher capacity variants, sure, and with the possibility of cross-generation compatibility for certain games (with improved performance and/or content on the Switch’s successor), but I feel 99.9% confident that Nintendo won’t be going back to using discs or springing for a new format to ship their games on.
And by extension, I would assume that the next console will have backwards compatibility. As it is more than reasonable to expect that it will be a better, faster, and stronger version of what we already have (maybe with a new gimmick or two), I think it would be foolish to risk tossing out the Switch’s ridiculously diverse library only to start anew... again.
And considering that the Switch already grants us handheld and home console experiences in one, I can’t see myself double-dipping quite as much next generation, unless such updates are substantial (or in the case of games with complete physical re-releases).
But, if my digital games aren’t BC, their Twitter intern better call in sick that day.
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It would suck, but personally i wouldn't really care too much as i rarely used the backwards compatibility feature in earlier Nintendo consoles, my Wii actually is not able to play Gamecube games anyways since it was from the newer generation.
But i am tending to stay more optimistic in that the successor is gonna have backwards compatibility
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I have no reason to believe that the Switchs successor wont be backwards compatible with it if I'm being honest.
The switch formula is working so well that its already outsold the wii and its momentum is still going like it just came out. Not to mention Nintendo stated that they plan to support it more than the average lifespan.
Nintendo is most likely going to just keep going with the switch model for years to come and just build upon what they already have on the pavement of the switch ecosystem, so just more switch models just more powerful than the rest and maybe with some changes to the joycons hopefully.
But in the event that the switch successor doesn't have backwards compatibility that isn't necessarily a deal breaker for me but it is a major thing. I would assume that nintendo would pull a sony and release a new model with backwards compatibility later down the line.
I definitely wouldn't buy it at launch looking at the issues the switch had and still does like joycon drifting and the cooling fans being absolute garbage unless there are some REALLY good games in its launch year.
Nate the Hate and Modern Vintage Gamer talked about this a few months back, as a game developer MVG seems to know quite a bit about it, he talked about 4 options in the podcast, but really it's only 3...
1. Patch every game + offer tool to 3rd parties to streamline process
2. Add a X1 chip to the motherboard
3. Don't offer backwards compatibility but continue to sell the current Switch
The podcast has chapters, the discussion on this was around 22 minutes...
@MarioBrickLayer and how exactly do you add in x1 chips if there are no chips to be found. So it’s either patches or nothing. I won’t be surprised if it’s nothing. Nintendo rarely likes doing extra work and why bother when you can simply port again and charge full price again.
Then I keep my Switch to play my Switch games. I mean I don't buy new hardware to play old games on now do I??
I mean you're right but thats the literal purpose of backwards compatibility.
Its the feature everyone wants but no one uses.
The feature is really nice to have and it makes things real convenient.
I think its a deal breaker depending on the console.
So for the 3ds i would say that backwards compatibility for it was an absolute must.
Meanwhile with the playstation consoles people still buy them despite the lack of it, as evidenced by the PS5 still selling well.
@iLikeUrAttitude PlayStation 5 plays PlayStation 4 games. It just doesn’t improve them the way Xbox does (frame rate and resolutions) with its previous generation games.
@MarioBrickLayer and how exactly do you add in x1 chips if there are no chips to be found. So it’s either patches or nothing. I won’t be surprised if it’s nothing. Nintendo rarely likes doing extra work and why bother when you can simply port again and charge full price again.
Unless it has a major impact on the production of other chips at whatever plant they are created, Nvidia would keep producing them, even if it was only for Nintendo.
Nintendo are signing a larger contract with them and Nvidia would try and make it happen if it was requested. Nintendo is a very important to Nvidia, as far back as 2016 they were talking about a 20 year relationship. Nintendo are not buying them retail from Nvidia!!
Nintendo put a Gamecube chip in the Wii and a Gameboy chip in the GBA and the Wii U could play all Wii games, so Nintendo have a history of supporting this.
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@MarioBrickLayer I lived through those times and yet I have only heard chip shortage in the last two years. So I don’t know if the past is the best indicator. Besides this is the first generation I can remember where Nintendo blatantly rereleased previous games at full price. Maybe they don’t want to stop that party.
The idea that Nintendo would both abandon backwards compatibility for no apparent reason while simultaneously being both generous and ahead of the curve enough to allow digital games to go from one generation to the next (outside of NSO) is complete and utter madness.
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Topic: What if: Your Switch physical collection won't be backwards compatible with the Switch successor.
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