I feel like they pretty much have to make it backwards compatible. They just released a new Zelda game which is like a once-every-7-years event and there's no way they're gonna make people re-buy the game a year after launch on the new console, especially when they already made it the most expensive single price for a Switch game. Plus they have a fairly big Mario release coming up next month (Super Mario Bros Wonder), which again, they're not gonna make people re-buy within a year of release.
It doesn't make sense to be launching these big titles a year before the new console if you only have a year to buy/play them before they sell you a new console that can't play it. Nintendo historically hasn't worked like that.
My guess is it'll be backwards compatible like the jump from DS to 3DS, where the cartridge slot fits the last gen system's games and has the same contacts, but the new gen cartridges are shaped with some extra protrusion of plastic that stops you from shoving them into the last gen system.
They make weird decisions but not when it comes to something like this. They're not gonna not have their new Zelda game on their new console, and they've never done a rerelease for a new system so quickly after a launch where there was only one platform to buy the game on at launch.
People point to Breath of the Wild, but that launched same day on Wii U and Switch. They weren't reselling you the game unless you chose the buy the Wii U version and then later wanted it on Switch.
Meh, they aren’t that weird considering their audience is children, and the majority of parents can’t set up parental controls to save their lives.
Plus, our news media is totally going to report a single pedophile incident with Nintendo Switch Online to high heaven regardless of whether parental controls would have prevented it.
There's nothing preventing them from serving recompiled versions from the store though, right? As long as the behaviour is the same, they could have two different versions behind the scenes for the first party games (Mario, Zelda).
Indeed. Hopefully Nintendo releases more games from it on the Switch, but the rumor mill and message from Dolphin is that GameCube games are often harder to emulate on the Switch than Wii games. Data miners also reported that Super Mario Sunshine had the most tech work done to get it running compared to 64 or Galaxy.
But if you are Nintendo, the Wii and the Switch are about equally successful phenomenons. That didn’t save them from the Wii U; and the success of the Switch certainly won’t save them from a Switch 2 implosion. Even if the games are good (like the Wii U launching with Mario Kart 8, now the bestselling Switch title.)
It wasn't a launch title, it came like a year and a half after the Wii U's launch. And even though it was pretty good, it was an exception. The Wii U really didn't have much in terms of killer apps. Nintendo was releasing some very bland stuff in the early-to-mid 2010s.
Plus they botched the marketing horribly between the name "Wii U" and never showing the console itself, only the gamepad, making many consumers believe it was just a Wii accessory they didn't want.
They were released simultaneously, Breath of the Wild was a Switch launch title. Same with Twilight Princess (actually I think the Wii version might have launched a few weeks before the Gamecube, I assume that was more to incentivize people to buy a Wii. Not the potential issue here regardless)
Tears of the Kingdom already had its launch and sold a TON of copies. If the new console isn't backwards compatible, they either are going to have to resell it to you which is a big ask, or just not have a new Zelda game available to play on their new system for another 6-7 years, which is not likely.
True, but those came out at the same time, so most people were only buying one of them. Whereas Nintendo just sold 18 million copies of Tears of the Kingdom, so a lot of the expected buyers of a Switch 2 version would probably already have it.
It doesn't make sense to be launching these big titles a year before the new console if you only have a year to buy/play them before they sell you a new console that can't play it. Nintendo historically hasn't worked like that.
My guess is it'll be backwards compatible like the jump from DS to 3DS, where the cartridge slot fits the last gen system's games and has the same contacts, but the new gen cartridges are shaped with some extra protrusion of plastic that stops you from shoving them into the last gen system.