Update on NS2 Backwards Compatibility testing
Learn which Nintendo Switch games may not be supported on or fully compatible with Nintendo Switch 2.
Interesting to read that you'll be able to pair Switch 1 joycons with Switch 2. That seems like the type of thing Nintendo would have avoided in the past to prevent product confusion. I wonder if I'll be able to use my old pro controller too?
Nintendo has repeatedly done things like this.
The original Wii supports GameCube controllers, the Wii U supports Wii Remotes, Wii U and Switch both support USB GameCube controller adapters, and NES/SNES Classic Edition Mini systems support the Wii Classic Controller. Switch Lite supports pairing Joy-Con too, despite having no rails for them.
Wii U goes so far with Wii Remote support that Nintendo usually treated it as the preferred way for extra players to join local multiplayer, moreso than its own Pro Controller. Wii games were more limited with GC controller but still supported it in a few big titles like Brawl and Mario Kart Wii.
The thing that worries me here is the ones that are marked okay have passed "basic compatibility testing". What are the chances that when someone actually plays through them, something will be broken? Maybe slim, I don't know, but would there be a patch for those cases?
Nintendo is not going to do extensive QA testing for every single Switch game (especially not every third party shovelware game which might have had errors running on a regular Switch). I assume they ran every automated test they had handy and had someone spend X hours poking around the game to try to find issues.
The more interesting question would be how will games be fixed? Are they patching the game to fix the issue or are they patching the Switch 2 firmware to match Switch behavior? The more bugs they fix with the later approach the less important it is to exhaustively test every single game.
I expect they'll patch both. Start with patches to the Switch and then, if the game can be patched, patch that.
Depend on the publishers and developers. If they are still active, chances are they may update any major issue.
but would there be a patch for those cases?
Considering this is Nintendo, the patch would probably cost $20.
Yep, it's just like the Xbox 360 compatibility program. Don't sell your Switch unless you aren't interested in playing some games anymore. I saw quite a few games I own on the lists, so I'll be keeping mine.
Yep, it’s just like the Xbox 360 compatibility program.
While I do agree that anyone with a big collection should hold on to their Switch 1 until we get more updates and real-life testing, I don't think this is a fair comparison - even now this looks massively better than anything MS did for backwards compatibility.
There are 462 games made backward compatible out of 989
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Xbox_games_compatible_with_Xbox_360
There are 632 games that have been made backward compatible out of 2,155
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_backward-compatible_games_for_Xbox_One_and_Series_X/S
I guess we'll see. Based on their language, their testing isn't exactly thorough. Their highest rating is "basic compatibility testing" (which I take to mean "played for a few minutes"). Their next highest is "the game boots up."
There are 15,000 Switch titles. Many of those are shovelware, but there are still thousands of legit titles. I guarantee a significant portion of them will never get the necessary patches to run without at least some problems (shader problems, textures, and other glitches).
Of course the 100-something Nintendo titles will get more love and attention than the others. Those patches will also be $20 each.
Not a huge change in the charts but the lists of titles with problems are getting longer.
2 titles have committed to fixes:
- Fortnite (Switch 2 version planned)
- Fitness Boxing (update planned)
