Without naming it, the head of the American branch spoke about the future of the company, with the next generation of consoles from the Japanese manufacturer. And inevitably, the question of backwards compatibility comes back up, with players worried about the possibility of losing their precious retro games.
The head of Nintendo America declined to comment on rumors that the Switch 2 will be as
powerful as a PS5, but the idea of two next-gen models continues to swell among gamers. However,
only one Switch would be backwards compatible. Expected for September 2024, the Switch 2 could opt for a lower-cost version, deprived of compatibility with the company's older games. Like the PlayStation 5 digital edition and Xbox Series S, which lack a disc drive, a version of the Switch 2 could only focus on digital games, without a cartridge drive. A more accessible model, but one that could not accommodate the physical cartridges of the first Nintendo Switch.
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Last week, in an interview with the American media Inverse, Doug Bowser offered a glimmer of hope to gamers by confirming the importance of ensuring the transition to the next generation of consoles. "
In the past, every device we transitioned to had a completely new account system. The creation of the Nintendo Account will allow us to communicate with our players, if and when we transition to a new platform, in order to facilitate that process or transition."
According to Doug Bowser, Nintendo's goal with its Switch 2 would be
to reverse the trend, avoiding the phenomenon of loss of compatibility usually seen at the end of a platform's life cycle. To achieve this, the implementation of a cross-generational account system should go a long way towards simplifying the
bridges between the manufacturer's different platforms, in this case between the Switch and the console that will succeed it.