Nintendo hasn’t introduced its Switch successor but, however we do know one factor for certain: it is going to be in a position to play present Change video games, and have carryover on your Nintendo Change On-line companies and account. The information was introduced throughout Nintendo’s mid-year Coverage Briefing, with additional data promised “at a later date.”
Nintendo additionally talked about numbers for the present Change (PDF), noting that it bought 4.72 million items previously three months, a drop of 31 % in comparison with the identical interval final 12 months, however effectively above earlier consoles eight years after they launched.
That provides as much as 146 million Change items bought and a brand new file for software program gross sales on a Nintendo platform, which reached 1.3 billion items as of September thirtieth, 2024. It additionally famous that Change On-line subscriptions dropped barely from final 12 months to about 34 million members. On the identical time, the variety of folks choosing the pricier model with the Enlargement Pack library of video games continues to extend.
In response to the presentation, “Extra software program has been performed on Nintendo Change than on another Nintendo {hardware}.”
All three of the main console producers have had spotty data with backward compatibility. Each the Xbox Series X and the PS5 are principally backward-compatible. However because the transition from the Wii U concerned going from discs to cartridges, the Change isn’t. Taking part in a sport from earlier Nintendo consoles in the intervening time is a perform of optimism, involving the hope that both Nintendo releases a remastered Change port or brings the sport to its Change On-line library, however that received’t be the case this time round..
In response to Nintendo, the Change 2 (or no matter it’s really known as) continues to be on schedule to be revealed throughout this fiscal 12 months, which runs till the tip of March 2025, with out interrupting Nintendo’s present reference to over 100 million annual Change gamers.
The dialog about backward compatibility isn’t nearly participant satisfaction but in addition online game preservation. A report from the Video Game History Foundation discovered that over 87 % of video games launched earlier than 2010 are “critically endangered” or unavailable for buy. Whereas Nintendo has introduced a few of its again catalog to the Change, there are nonetheless plenty of inaccessible video games. Nintendo additionally straight contributed to the rising shortage of older video games by shutting down the Wii U / 3DS e-shop last year.
Replace, November fifth, 2024: Added extra particulars.