 Look, it's no secret around here, we talk a lot about Nintendo Switch 2. I'm not even gonna sit here and pretend it's not a major topic of the channel because it is. And look, we have another video coming later today that isn't related to Switch 2, but we need to talk about this key feature for the system because it is something that has been widely debated and we really have some direct evidence for it. Now, there's a rumor that it has to do with it as well, but we actually got evidence quite a bit ago from a partner company with Nintendo that this feature is going to actually be there on Switch 2 and it is a very important one because it deals with backwards compatibility. Now, if you look at the history of Nintendo systems, whether it was home console or handheld, for the most part they have done within reason one generation of backwards compatibility. The 3DS could play DS games, the DS could play Game Boy Advance, the Game Boy Advance could play Game Boy. Oh, but we're not done there. How about the Nintendo Wii, the original run of that being able to play GameCube games? What about the Wii U being able to play Wii? Now, obviously Switch wasn't compatible with disks so you weren't gonna get Wii U backwards compatibility. The Super Nintendo wasn't backwards compatible with the Nintendo Entertainment System and likewise the N64 to the SNES and obviously the GameCube to the N64 with the cartridge format. When it changes so drastically it's obviously hard to maintain backwards compatibility for. A little bit less so with Nintendo with their handhelds because the cartridge formats weren't changing drastically but obviously now we're sitting here in 2024 expecting a new system to come out and wanting to know what the heck is going on with backwards compatibility. Well, one thing we need to bring up is from an interview we covered a long while ago dealing with Mario plus Rabbids sparks of hope and this is what Ubisoft had to say about this game and I think it's key when we're talking about backwards compatibility. Although I think it was a different issue with Mario we had already released a Mario Rabbids game on Switch. So by doing another we had two similar experiences on one machine. On Nintendo games like this never die. There are 25 Mario games on Switch. Nintendo has advised that it's better to do one iteration on each machine. We were a bit too early. We should have waited for the next console because you can play a great game and we think it'll last for 10 years because we will update it for the new machine that will come in the future. Now this could or cannot be a hint at that. When you hear update to me that feels like hey, you're gonna be able to play this game on Switch too with your current copy of it but we're gonna provide an upgrade, right? We're gonna do higher resolutions. Maybe we'll throw in some new lighting systems in there, ray tracing and all that maybe even faster frame rates, right? That's sort of what you hear when you hear update. People also, at the time we're taking this to mean oh, they're gonna make like a deluxe version of the game, repackage it, re-release it, charge 70 bucks, yada yada yada pack all the DLC and that is obviously a route they might take as well. But I think what even helps further this is a recent rumor from Nash Weedle. Now look, I know not everyone knows the history of Nash Weedle. For the most part he gained credibility for calling Metroid Dread before it happened, right? The game wasn't even announced yet. He said, hey, we're getting Metroid Dread it's releasing later this year, yada yada yada ended up being true, ended up coming out. So look, Metroid Dread was obviously a known name because it was a canceled Metroid project from a long time ago but nobody was really talking about that particular project coming back except for him. He also said who was developing it which was Mercury's team. So hey, give him some credit for that. Other things he's talked about since then haven't come to fruition yet, you know? That's sort of the way you have to look at it as if you want the history of them, hey, he hasn't gotten anything wrong technically yet but most of what he said is stuff that applies to the future and this is one of them. Now we talked about this briefly in another video. We brought up his Bayonetta post, right? How there's gonna be a Bayonetta trilogy coming to Nintendo Switch too. But one thing he did note about the upgrades, he talked about the upgrades and I was really confused when I was reading this and thankfully you guys my actual audience in the comment section, many of you who speak his language natively so I don't have to rely on a translation, clarified what he was talking about. And the second part of what he was talking about dealt with the idea that while these upgrades are gonna be there in this trilogy collection, if you already own Bayonetta 1, 2, and 3 on Nintendo Switch, through backwards compatibility you're gonna get these upgrades on Switch too. You do not need to buy the trilogy to get the upgrades. So essentially what Nashville did and this went under the radar is he put a rumor out there that Nintendo Switch 2 is going to have backwards compatibility. You combine this with Ubisoft referencing doing upgrades to the games as well and you start to paint a picture that there is likely going to be backwards compatibility on Nintendo Switch 2. And again, this is such a major feature for launch. I don't think backwards compatibility makes or breaks the success of Switch 2 because, I mean, come on, Nintendo Switch didn't have backwards compatibility, didn't make or break the success of that, right? So Game Boy didn't have it, the Super Nintendo didn't have it. So we can't sit there and say it's a make or break feature but what you want heading into launch of a new system is you want everything to be positive. You want all of the buzz around your system to be positive. And we just saw when PlayStation was actually talking about maybe not allowing free upgrades for their games and charging money for them when they brought PlayStation 5 out. There was even a moment, a brief period of time when Sony refused to confirm that you could even play PlayStation 4 games on PlayStation 5. Meanwhile, Xbox just straight up said, hey, you can not only just play Xbox One, do you have an original Xbox disc? Stick it in the system and you can play it. So Xbox was pushing this whole BC thing. Meanwhile, PlayStation would even confirm PS4 backwards compatibility. Of course, we all know how that played out. You can play your PlayStation 4 games on PlayStation 5 but it did create this negative perception around the next PlayStation system that Sony eventually clarified before launch that yes, you will be able to play PlayStation 4 games. And I think that is just a marketing thing, right? You don't want negative buzz around your new system. And so I do think Nintendo will likely include backwards compatibility. Again, it extends the life of games. It also builds confidence in switch owners with massive libraries upgrading to a Switch 2 maybe sooner than they may have done otherwise. Like they might have waited until the library was big enough that they wanna get the new system. But hey, if you already know you can play all your current games there, you're really just upgrading your current Switch. And you know some of the games you get will have upgrades for them and obviously you'll get to play all of the new games. So yeah, I think that there is an inherent value add for the consumer, especially around launch to have backwards compatibility. Now I do think, and Nintendo said this before, they might phase out backwards compatibility later on in the Nintendo Switch 2 generation as they make iterative systems and they release new versions of the Nintendo Switch 2 or whatever they call this thing. But I do think there's gonna be backwards compatibility. Now the last thing I wanna talk about, and this is just addressing some of the comments out there and yes, I read your comments guys. There are some people that think it's weird that we're just addressing this as another Switch. Like Nintendo is this weird company. We should expect them to do this. Okay, well let's look at the history of Nintendo. Just briefly, a very brief history. When the DS blew up, did they not release a sequel system? Of course they did. When the Wii blew up, did they not release a sequel system? Of course they did. When the Nintendo Entertainment System blew up, did they not release a sequel system? Oh look, of course they did. When the Game Boy blew up, did they not release a sequel system? Look guys, that's what Nintendo does. If you wanna say Nintendo is this weird company and you never know what they're gonna do and yet every time they've been successful they've been pretty damn predictable in what they're gonna do next. On top of that, people forget about the Japanese market. Okay, the Japanese market massively prefers handheld consoles or anything else. Nintendo is not going to abandon that market. On top of that, Nintendo has very little competition in what they're doing. People will bring up all the handheld PCs and that's great. Handle PC market is a nice market. But the best selling of them, the Steam Deck has sold maybe 3 million at most. Nintendo Switch is at 130 mil. It's in the category of its own. There is no competition for it. You have the exclusive games. Look guys, there's no reason for Nintendo to leave this market. The market hasn't left them. See, unlike the Wii and DS where it kinda felt like a lot of that got absorbed into smart devices like tablets and phones, it doesn't really feel like anything's really replaced in a fundamental way. What the Nintendo Switch does, meaning it's a ripe category to keep bringing out new systems in. So you add that to the fact that the demand for Switch while it's going down isn't sinking as fast as prior. Systems showing a clear demand for this type of product. People are just ready for something that does a bit more, right? They wanna, when Hogwarts Legacy comes to a platform like Switch, they want it to actually look and run well. They're starting to see a little age with this system and just kinda hoping that there's gonna be a new one soon. So look guys, I think we're getting a Switch Shoe in 2024, but more importantly, it looks like signs are starting to point to us being more and more confident that backwards compatibility will be there at launch. I wanna thank you guys so much for being here. I want your thoughts on backwards compatibility and how important you think it is to Nintendo's next system. And you know what guys, we'll catch you in that next video.