Nintendo Says Backwards Compatibility Is Now Easier Than Ever

Nintendo Switch was released more than five years ago, so it seems pretty obvious that Nintendo is now working on the console's successor. One of the most wished-for features for Nintendo's next-gen console is backwards compatibility.

During a Q&A session following the publication of Nintendo Q2 2023 financial results, Nintendo director Shigeru Miyamoto addressed the topic of backwards compatibility on new hardware (via VGC). When asked whether the company is considering the possibility to offer backwards compatibility on new consoles, the executive said that this ability is actually not so hard to implement.

Miyamoto recalled the Virtual Console for the Wii, Wii U, and 3DS, which allowed to play older games on newer devices, and mentioned that in the past "the development environment" was different for each console so that games could not be played on newer consoles without "additional modification."

He went on to say that the development environment is now more standardised which is why it is easier for developers to emulate old games on newer hardware.

"Recently, however, the development environment has increasingly become more standardised, and we now have an environment that allows players to enjoy older video games on newer consoles more easily than ever before," Miyamoto said.

He, however, didn't commit to implementing backwards compatibility on Nintendo's future consoles saying that the company's strength is in "creating new video game experiences."

"When we release new hardware in the future, we would like to showcase unique video games that could not be created with pre-existing hardware," Miyamoto said.

You can find more of Miyamoto's responses here. Also, don't forget to join our Reddit page and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.