Physical Wii U and 3DS Games Not Backwards Compatible with Nintendo Switch - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 21 October 2016 / 9,531 Views
Physical Wii U and Nintendo 3DS games are not backwards compatible with the Nintendo Switch. A Nintendo representative confirmed the news with Famitsu (and translated by Perfectly Nintendo).
Nintendo did specify physical releases, so it is possible that digital games purchased on the Wii U and 3DS will work on the Switch.
The representative added that the Switch is not just the next version of the Wii or Wii U, but is something entirely different.
"I can assure you we’re not building the next version of Wii or Wii U," said the representative. "It’s something unique and different. It’s something where we have to move away from those platforms in order to make it something that will appeal to our consumer base."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
More Articles
Why did people think this? This doesn't cater to 3DS's dual screens, you'd have to look at aspect sized, 3 inch screens and turn it long ways. It's stupid. And it uses cards...so why did we think it'd be BC with Wii U? What is wrong?!
It could be possible if you used both the Tv and the system.
That's just going backwards at this point. Nintendo needs to give themselves a break and move on without having to worry about BC. No other company gives 2 flying fudges about BC and they are doing just fine. Nintendo needs to focus on its future rather than trying to cram in BC at extra cost. Including relatively recent tech like Wii U and 3DS in the Switch is going to cost, even with emulation.
Darn. Perhaps all the digital titles from the Nintendo Shop will carry over....?
As much as I like backward compatibility, I can also understand why they didn't do it. With their past few consoles, Nintendo was able to do backward compatibility flawlessly because their systems used the same Power PC architecture and used the same customized optical medium. They changed everything with the Switch. Adding it would have actually cost them money to do and would have made the Switch bulkier. For something that's supposed to be a secondary on the go device, that isa big no no. As for 3DS backward compatibility, that might have been easier to do, but then there's one big issue. No 3D. If you're updating from a 2DS, that might be fine, but if you're updating from a 3DS, you're losing something in the process. Not to mention the screen ratio might be an issue. It certainly was for DS games on the Wii U's Virtual Console.
Well I don't buy shiny new consoles to play dusty old games so doesn't bother me. I just hope they port over certain games like DKTF and Xenoblade X that deserve a wider audience.
Lame. 3DS backwards compatability would have been easy to accomplish by using the tablet screen and the T.V. screen together. Oh well.
What? Could you imagine going from a 3inch screen to a 50 inch it would be unplayable.
now lets see where all the hate is what the ps4 and xbox one got...
OMG cant play my wiiu and 3ds games on it have to rebuy them!
There's a difference here though since there going from disc to cartridges as well as 2screens to 1 . Sony skip backwards compatibility and released alot of ps3games on ps4. At least Xbox is doing right by patching it in. Hopefully digital games make there way to switch but as for physical it's a no go with this new design.
i would be angry if it made sense to have BC, but with the changes they made it doesn't make sense. It doesn't even have a disc drive and 3DS has 2 screens. If it was a disc based system it would have been stupid to not have BC but that's just not the case here.
