By Ben Sledge
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Highlights
- The Nintendo Switch is set for a strong final year with many anticipated titles.
- Nintendo expects most players to upgrade to its successor, so backwards compatibility is crucial.
- Big games like Pokemon Legends: Z-A and Metroid Prime 4 should straddle two console generations.
Has any console had a stronger final year than the Nintendo Switch will? The recent Nintendo Direct unveiled a swathe of highly-anticipated titles, surprised us with new entries for both the beloved Zelda and , and finally gave Metroid Prime 4 a release date.
However, a lot of titles are slated for release in 2025. Add Metroid Prime 4 and the to Pokemon Legends: Z-A, and we’ve got a stacked start to the year for the Nintendo Switch. While Nintendo has kept a tight lid on any information about the Switch successor, it did mention in an investment call that it did not expect to see any income from it until the 25/26 financial year – ergo, it will release after April.
This is obviously a good thing. The Nintendo Switch is, in my mind, one of the best consoles ever made, up there with the PlayStation 2 and GameCube (fight me). The worst possible ending for this great piece of technology would be for it to fizzle out with a year of disappointing releases as Nintendo prepares for its successor. Thankfully, the company has taken the opposite approach.
Nintendo fans are eating well this year, and will continue to feast well into the next. By the time the Switch 2 shows its face, we’ll already be gorged on great gaming experiences. However, there are arguably too many big releases in this period.
Nintendo expects the majority of its players to upgrade from the Switch to its successor. But what if, come May 2025, those players haven’t finished all the games that have released in the past 12 months? Are they expected to not buy the shiny new toy that all their friends and colleagues have? Or are they expected to abandon those half-finished experiences to play a whole new slate of titles launching with the new console?
The solution is obvious: backwards compatibility. If Nintendo is releasing Metroid Prime 4 and Pokemon Legends: Z-A in 2025, just months before a new console, you’d hope that these games would be playable on said new console. But we have more than just hope.
Nintendo is viewed as the ‘good guy’ of enormous games companies. Whether that’s an accurate representation of the company or not is another matter, but it works hard to uphold that reputation. It gives away its old games for ‘free’ as a part of the Nintendo Online Subscription. It makes the sequels that you dream about. Its consoles and games are accessible for all ages. It’s nice like that.
I don’t think, in 2025, Nintendo would throw away all that goodwill by not making the Switch 2 backwards compatible. It’s believed the next console is an iteration of the Switch rather than something entirely new, but even if it was a brand new concept, I think Nintendo would work to make your old games playable on the new system. It may do something like add a little notch to the cartridge like it did with 3DS games so that you can’t put them into your original Switch, which is a little bit scummy, but it’s better than not having backwards compatibility at all.
Combine Nintendo’s image with the strength of its Spring 2025 releases, and I will be gobsmacked if the new console can’t play Switch games. Both Metroid Prime 4 and Pokemon Legends: Z-A feel like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: perfect big name games from monstrously popular series that will straddle two generations of consoles. I imagine, as well as releasing on the Switch, they’ll run better and look superior on its successor, too. I just hope we won’t have to buy them again to see their true forms.
Next
We Should Care More That Nintendo Doesn’t Say Who’s Developing Its Games
We still don't know who is making the new Mario & Luigi or Zelda game, and won't until we roll credits. It shouldn't be this way.
- Triple-A Games
- Nintendo
- Nintendo Switch
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