Topic: What if: Your Switch physical collection won't be backwards compatible with the Switch successor.

@Matt_Barber I think you re-emphasised the most important point. I think everyone agrees that Nintendo don't get backwards compatibility for free, they have to do something. We debate what the options are and the complexity of them - that is for a large part speculation.

I suppose the most important question is, do Nintendo want to support it?

Lets imagine a technical worst case, the solution is complicated and increases the cost of the console by 10% - 20% - do they do it?

I don't buy the argument that Nintendo want the option of remastering most the Switch 1st party library like they did with the WiiU - hardly anyone bought a WiiU so it made sense. Is the average gamer going to buy Mario Odyssey again in 4k? I don't think so, not without additional content.

The biggest problem here is those don't work on the SOC or Nvidia or Switch O/S architecture should not be talking as though they know it since that seems to be a well kept secret right now. No one here is a Uncle at Nintendo Production or Development and those whom were are now sidelined by Nintendo Ninja now. So all this talk about others knowing is just squat right now as none of those talking can share details or actual development clause for anyone to see if they could the Ninja would be knocking down their doors. Other then reports there is a new Model in town as to when we see more that is up to the Ninja to let us know now.

It's worth bearing in mind that Nintendo also did several GameCube to Wii and Wii to Wii U ports, in spite of those systems being backwards compatible, so that's something they'd probably have done anyway.

@SwitchForce
That's not really a problem if everyone is open about the fact that we are just speculating here. Making educated guesses at best. Maybe with a dash of "yeah that theory doesn't quite add up" at times. But as long as the playing field is level and we all know what the game is? It's all fine I think

One observation I'll make more broadly here. I don't think confidence in your beliefs is a vice and I don't think being blunt in the way you communicate those beliefs is either. However, being unwilling to test your ideas and being incapable of conceding when you are wrong? Those things certainly are. And I'd argue being able to figure out which side of that line you are on is one of the greatest challenges of life. The worst people to interact with are the people who fail to consider the line or knowingly live on the wrong side of it

I will gladly tolerate people on this site throwing ideas against the wall. I'm less tolerant of the internet personalities who end up staking their reputation on specific speculations. Anyone remember SuperMetalDave64? Yeah, that's the stuff I'm talking about here. That's why I'm hesitant to buy into people's arguments when the root of it is "well this person on youtube said....". Playing with the wrong side of the line when you do that

@Matt_Barber
Usually when that has happened in the past there has been a clear reason for it. Twilight Princess HD was in HD, the New Play Control series on Wii brought in motion controls. The performance gap from Switch to this next platform will be pretty significant but I don't think the two consoles will be functionally that different. Certainly not enough to get people to rebuy the games if BC is a thing

I mean, would I buy Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Remastered if the original runs through BC on the next bit of hardware, possibly even upscaled with DLSS to 4K? I'm not so sure I would. Would I be buying it again if it was the only Mario Kart on the next hardware and there was no way BC at all? Probably, yeah, I'm fairly sure I would. Is this a reason why Nintendo might end up cutting the tap? Possibly, it could be....... but I'm not that cynical to think it likely and I think the cost of doing that (weak launch library) would be greater than the reward (milking fans for cash)

@skywake Everyone is has a opinion and but just sounds ludicrous that thinks they are a Nintendo Uncle haven't gone and spoken on YouTube about it to put a face to what they say or believe.

Yup, nothing is set in stone until Nintendo presents it to the general public as such. I'm the penultimate pessimist around these parts, so it's my duty to assume the worst. From my perspective, the industry creeps closer and closer every day towards the all-digital future where (I suspect) we all know the hobby is heading towards.

Who buys music CDs anymore? How many streaming services do you pay for every month?

How many games sitting on retail shelves are little more than download installers that have little to no actual game data on the medium?

More than you think.

@Magician I think you're right, I think it's unlikely the Switch 2 is digital only, but the Switch 3? maybe...

@SwitchForce This Nintendo uncle, everyone should be on youtube stuff is getting old, if you don't understand the concept of a forum I really don't know why you're here instead of watching and recording youtube content all day.

Three things. Yes everyone has an opinion but, IMO, you're only really entitled to your opinion to the extent that your able to defend it. If you can't defend your opinion you shouldn't hold it

Secondly, nobody here is or has claimed to have any inside information. Sure people have thrown down life experiences to back their theories. And people are citing various rumours, leaks, precedents and other speculations from around the web. But nobody here is claiming any inside knowledge

Thirdly, on youtubers. Let me throw this thought out there. Being a good presenter is a skill. Being able to do quality research online without falling into confirmation bias is another. Being someone who is across tech is a another. And having a business mind is another. I think on these forums between us we have all of these (I know Arlo used to post on here so we also have youtubers). But a single youtuber? Odd are they're good on YouTube and maybe they have one of the other skills needed for this. Very unlikely they have all of them, especially if they're one of those "running out of bedroom" type channels and not a team of 50+ people sharing their expertise

I like to think I have the "tech" skill pretty maxed out. Well, I know I have it maxed out more than most of these Nintendo YouTubers. The number of them who are completely clueless on tech is astounding. It's like when you see a story on the actual news covering a topic in your domain of expertise and you think "did these guys ask anyone?".... The answer is no, no they didn't

@TheBigBlue
Yeah, I think I saw one in my recommendeds the other day along those lines. Might have been that video, could've been another one. They're all more or less the same. I think the title was something along the lines of new info on the Switch 2 or something. But there was 10mins of nothing which I skipped through quickly to see if I could figure out what their point was.

Then towards the end they were going on about AI, presumably because of the Tensor cores in the newer Tegra SoCs. Skipping through a bit more they started to go on about "what AI could mean" and were ranting about AI voice assistants and ChatGPT..... right.....

That's kinda what I mean when I say there are different skills required here and they don't necessarily overlap. No doubt these Nintendo YouTubers have some skills, especially the ones who have gained an audience. Certainly some that I don't possess. The ability to present well on camera, the ability to talk fast and clearly, the ability to game the algorithm, the ability to maintain a following, the ability to say a lot of words without saying much (ok, maybe I have this one).

But there are a lot that certainly don't know what they're talking about. They don't have the skills required to know what ideas are junk and which ones are worth bringing up. Or at the very least, they put out any old crap in order to hit some sort of content volume with little regard to quality. Often both I suspect

Problem here is NL posters are anonymous and on Youtube you can't be and rumors and leaks and speculation you can't say I didn't say or mention that. That's for all to see and whom is saying it. So if one has something like uncle at Nintendo should post on Youtube that others can see and watch over and over-regardless rumors/leaks/speculations. Youtube are opinions and some speckle of truth if be told but they put a face to what they are saying and posting leaks that shouldn't be seen yet.

@SwitchForce
Your bit is getting old. You keep saying we're anonymous and therefore there's no accountability. And now you're literally saying that's because we can say "well I didn't say that". But as I said, your post history on this site is there for all to see. So this claim is provably false

Here, have a browse through mine if you really want to:
https://www.nintendolife.com/users/skywake/posts

As I said a few posts above I don't think confidence in your beliefs is a vice and I don't think being blunt in the way you communicate those beliefs is either. However, being unwilling to test your ideas and being incapable of conceding when you are wrong? Those things certainly are. And here I am presenting you with a test of your idea, something that makes it clear what you are saying is flat out wrong.

You're claiming that there is no accountability on here because we can just pretend that we never said what we said. Well, the link above is over a decade of what I have said on this site. I've pointed this out before, you know about it and you're still making this same point. You are showing clearly that you are incapable of conceding that you are wrong. There is absolutely zero point in anyone bothering to discuss anything with you, you have zero interest in listening

I suggest you work on that

Honestly I wouldn't be that surprised if there were some people who worked at Nintendo who looked at posts on this site. This is a relatively prominent Nintendo forum, outside of Reddit/Youtube I'd think this is probably in the top 2 or 3 English language Nintendo forums. So Nintendo would take some interest I think, but I think people probably overestimate the amount that they do

And even so, I doubt there are any active accounts on here from people who actually work at Nintendo. Way too risky. I remember following some prominent people from IGN who got jobs at NoA on twitter. Their posts before they got the jobs were mostly discussing games and Nintendo's position in the market. After they got their jobs? Their posts were only about movies, TV, pets, sports etc

If I bot a job where I could get some inside information about Nintendo's plans? Any inside information at all. I'd stop posting on here. Just dead in its track, probably delete my account, stop posting on here. And if I'm being honest, if my job was at Nintendo? I wouldn't spend my spare time talking about Nintendo. I'd walk out of the door at the end of the day and mentally from that point until I walked in the door the next day? I'd try and pretend that Nintendo did not exist

@skywake no on puts their real name on here you can search all posting and that tells one nothing of whom is postings. This site could be shuttered and all posting removed and there be no record but YouTub videos can be saved and reposted. The bane of online videos someone saves them.

@SwitchForce
You could just conceed you are wrong. But no, you double down. Good job. Welcome to the social media age people, where everyone thinks they are right always

I already don't expect them to be backwards compatible so that in the event that it goes wirrher way, I will be either surprised that they were backward compatible, or they aren't. Regardless, I do buy new game consoles to play new games, but I can't deny the appeal of being able to play Nintendo Switch games. Like I said though, I am keeping my expectations low.

I’ll get the new console day 1 like all other consoles but currently my Switch backlog is 21 games, most of them being lengthy JRPGs.

It would be amazing to have backwards compatibility which is wha ti hope happens but if they don’t, they don’t. Nothing I can do about it. I’ll just keep one of my OLED Switch in my work book bag and when I’m not seeing patients or charting I’ll pull it out.

Nintendo doesn’t have to do backwards compatibility. They switched to cartridges so wii u games couldn’t be backwards compatibile, but they still brought the system’s best games to the console anyway, like Mario Kart 8 and Xenoblade Chronicles. (That’s a Wii entry, but whatever.) If they switch back to discs for some reason (I doubt it personally, especially for those who believe we are just getting an updated switch) then Nintendo would still port the switch’s best games onto the new console. Will be pricey, admittedly. I don’t plan on getting the new console. Gonna keep buying switch games for my switch, which will be much more money efficient than paying for a console that people think will run switch games or being a stronger switch itself. Someday, these switch games will be difficult to find and expensive like Wii games.

To be clear, I fully expect Switch compatibility at some point will drop. I also expect that some titles won't make the transition due to accessory incompatibility or dropped features. Like the IR camera on the right JoyCon or the physical shape of the JoyCon. Don't hold your breath for LABO and Ring Fit Adventure

But I am generally expecting current gen Switch games to run on Nintendo's next hardware. Will it run on the console they release in 2033? Maybe not. Will all the games make it? Maybe not. But will titles like TotK and Smash make it? I'd be very surprised if they don't

The closure of the Wii U and 3DS eShops really made me consider this, but I'm personally in a position where I'm planning to stockpile as much money on the eShop as possible. I really just want to not have to worry too much about this happening again.

Plus it helps with sales, and I don't mind paying for the DLC that's in the Expansion Pass eventually.

BC I would expect it be something like the 3DS XL to the New 3DS XL cart factor that you couldn't insert NEW 3DS games into older 3DS XL unit since they have a notch on the NEW 3DS games to prevent that but allowing older 3DS carts to fit into the NEW 3DS XL cart slot. That shows you Nintendo with new 3DS carts did allow older 3DS carts to work with the newer 3DS XL consoles. So to say they don't is backward thinking. People always forget this is cart factor in the 3DS but keep harping the Wii to WiiU BC issues but those were long gone in favor of the 3DS cart factor.