Nintendo says current Switch games will be playable on new console

Nintendo mentioned on Wednesday it’s permitting present Change video games to be performed on the favored console’s successor, because it appears to be like to stoke pleasure among the many present person base for the extremely anticipated machine.

Nintendo shares closed 5.8% larger in Tokyo on Wednesday after the announcement.

“Buyers assume it is a signal that Nintendo’s subsequent machine is not going to be a dangerous experiment, however relatively a continuation,” Serkan Toto, CEO of Tokyo-based video games consultancy Kantan Video games, informed CNBC.

“I imagine buyers need Nintendo to undertake the iPhone strategy by step by step bettering a profitable product relatively than making an attempt to reinvent the wheel with every new console technology.”

Backward compatibility of video games is essential to console makers for a number of causes: First, when new consoles launch, they typically haven’t got a lot of video games to select from. Making older video games obtainable for the brand new Change will enhance the machine’s enchantment on this entrance.

Secondly, present Change customers who’re contemplating buying new video games earlier than the brand new console’s launch can wait till after its debut. By making present video games playable on the successor to the Change, that concern is eliminated.

The Change is Nintendo’s second best-selling console in historical past, after the Nintendo DS.

However demand for the Nintendo Change, which was first launched in 2017, is slowly beginning to fade – albeit from a excessive base. Buyers have been ready for extra particulars in regards to the console’s successor, which the corporate says it should announce within the fiscal yr ending March 2025.

Nintendo managed to revive the virtually eight-year-old console final yr by releasing video games with high manufacturers akin to Zelda and Pokemon, but in addition increasing into areas akin to movies.