Nintendo Switch 2 Backward Compatibility Issue Finally Revealed?

It’s been several days since the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, and many are enjoying the gaming experiences that are available on it. One of the key things that many people love to do with it, though, isn’t just playing the titles that are exclusive to it, but instead, going back and playing some past games from the original Nintendo Switch and seeing how much better they play on the new console. That might feel like an “odd thing to do,” but you need to remember that many Switch titles were “good” on the OG Switch, but they also felt like they were being “held back” by the system’s graphics and processing cards.

However, on the Nintendo Switch 2, things are MUCH better, and even without Nintendo updating certain titles, gamers from all over are finding new ways to enjoy their older games, which makes the system all the more valuable. However, as Nintendo themselves have revealed, there are a select number of 1st and 3rd party games that you can’t play on the Switch 2 right out of the gate. Or, you need to play them in a specific way. The list is honestly very small, but it does raise a question as to why this is a problem.

The answer came from Limited Run Games. Its founder, Josh Fairhurst, talked with Time Extension about finally getting the new system and how they were able to uncover the issue via a specific line of code:

“The backwards compatibility issue derives from a line of code that is used for video playback on the original Switch. We have reported the line of code to Nintendo and are hoping to see it addressed as an update to the Switch 2’s backwards compatibility in the future, as I believe this line of code is also causing compatibility issues with games from other publishers.

We were accepted as Switch 2 publishers and developers in mid-May and received our development hardware two weeks ago. We started digging into the issue the minute we got our kits and found the line of code causing the problem after a few days of investigation.”

So, that seems to be it. It’s just a simple line of code that likely got overlooked, and thus, some games don’t properly play on the Switch 2. However, with the issue possibly known now, it can be fixed, and then, in the future, the new console could have truly close to 100% reverse compatibility.