Summary
By now it’s no secret that theNintendo Switch 2willbe able to playyour existingNintendo Switchgames, a decisionNintendoimmediatelycalled the “best direction.“And as shown inThursday’s dedicated Switch 2 Direct, some games will even get a “Switch 2 Edition,” featuring enhanced features and,in some cases, extra DLC.
That said, if you’re not too keen on paying an upgrade fee, you can still pop in an original Switch cartridge and play it on the Switch 2. However, it won’t be a native experience. That’s because the Switch 2 isn’t technically compatible with the original Switch.
Emulators Save The Day, Again
As shared in Nintendo’s “Ask The Developers” Q&A, the Switch 2 and original Switch aren’t compatible on a hardware level. “When we first started Switch 2 development, the focus was on enhancing its performance as hardware, namely, expanding its capacity,” Takuhiro Dohta said. “So, compatibility was a lower priority.”
To get things compatible, the end result is a mish-mash between an emulator and actual hardware. “If we tried to use technology like software emulators, we’d have to run Switch 2 at full capacity, but that would mean the battery wouldn’t last so long, so we did something that’s somewhere in between a software emulator and hardware compatibility,” Dohta explained.
Now, when you play an original Switch game on the Switch 2, it’s being converted on a “real-time” basis, according to the developers. That tidbit is requiring the team to test each game one by one, over 10,000 in total, to ensure compatibility and make note of any errors.
“Even with all those checks, it might not be that all Switch games run perfectly in time for the launch of Switch 2, but we will continue our efforts so that we can support as many Switch games as possible,” Kouichi Kawamoto said of the team’s endeavors. Ultimately, only time will tell how well the games do run, though it sounds like there won’t be too much of an issue.
