Nintendo Could Have Backwards Compatibility, If It Wanted To

Let's face it, there has been plenty of times when Nintendo has lied to fans. Nintendo has a shady side to it just like many other major companies, and director Shigeru Miyamoto has highlighted just how shifty it can be. According to Miyamoto, Nintendo could have backwards compatibility in the future, but there's a twist – it's only if the company wants it.

Backwards compatibility has been a hot topic of conversation in the community for years. With the newest generations of PlayStation and Xbox featuring it in one way or another, many have wondered if the next Nintendo console would feature it. Considering the 3DS was backwards compatible, it's an understandable question to have.

After a financial presentation, a Q&A was held where Miyamoto discussed the feature. He explained that backwards compatibility is easier to include in consoles now than ever before because of publishing rights as games had to be updated to new hardware on new consoles (via translation by VGC). Nowadays, the gaming industry as a whole has become more standardized, which means that it's easier to bring older games to newer platforms.

This conversation was brought about because of questions about internal discussions surrounding the next console for Nintendo, so it's a fairly optimistic statement for many retro gamers.

While the Nintendo Switch Pro probably isn't the next console on the horizon, Shigeru Miyamoto did vaguely mention the company's next device. While the remarks on backwards compatibility do look positive, he discussed the idea that Nintendo wants to make new games instead of just porting over old ones (according to translation via VGC).

"Nintendo's strength is in creating new video game experiences, so when we release new hardware in the future, we would like to showcase unique video games that could not be created with pre-existing hardware," Miyamoto explained.

Fans have been expecting the next Nintendo Switch to release in the next few years, and a recent job posting from the developers of "Pokémon" showed that the next game in the Nintendo-owned franchise will more than likely be on a new system, as My Nintendo News pointed out.

Some fans think thought there would be no way that a new Nintendo console won't offer backwards compatibility, while others were pretty pessimistic about the idea that Nintendo would pass up on revenue for future ports. The back-and-forth statements and refusal to give a straight answer could be a sign that Nintendo isn't entirely sure what it will do yet, so fans will have to wait for more information to come out about the next console.