Nintendo introduced Tuesday that Nintendo Change software program “will even be playable on the successor to Nintendo Change,” in accordance with a put up from Nintendo’s company X account. The put up, attributed to Shuntaro Furukawa, president of Nintendo, additionally confirmed that Nintendo Change On-line will likely be supplied on the brand new console.
The official Nintendo account confirmed that many Change equipment will likely be appropriate with the Change 2, together with authentic Pleasure-Con controllers. Nonetheless, because the Change 2’s Pleasure-Cons connect magnetically slightly than utilizing the Change’s rail clip, traditional Pleasure-Cons can’t be hooked up to the brand new machine or charged immediately from it, and may solely be used as secondary controllers. Nonetheless, it will likely be useful for when you’ve gotten pals round to play Mario Kart or Smash Bros.
The put up stated Nintendo introduced the Change 2’s backward compatibility at its Company Administration Coverage Briefing, a semiannual investor assembly the place the corporate experiences its gross sales and roadmaps.
The presentation, which is publicly obtainable, additionally addresses whether or not gamers’ Nintendo Accounts will operate on the brand new console: “We imagine that it will be important for Nintendo’s future to utilize Nintendo Account and carry over the nice relationship that we’ve got 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 presently personal, shoppers will be capable of select their subsequent buy from a broad choice of titles launched for Nintendo Change.”
In line with an earlier leak, the Change 2 reportedly has a card slot. Nonetheless, the message doesn’t affirm the brand new Change will be capable of 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 likely be introduced at a later date.”
Backward compatibility was thought-about a make-or-break characteristic for the Change 2. Though strongly rumored, there remained doubts that Nintendo would be capable of 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, such because the promoting 63 million copies of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
However shopper expectations round backward compatibility have modified since Steam normalized the concept of a persistent digital library of video games that works throughout a number of units. Specifically, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Sequence X are each totally 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 offered over 140 million Switches.
Different notable revelations in Tuesday’s presentation embody 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 sequence’ titles on the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.