Today’s Nintendo Direct didn’t officially include any news about the Switch 2. However, the company’s new Virtual Game Card feature has revealed that some old Switch games might get enhanced or improved ports that will only be playable on Nintendo’s upcoming Switch 2 console.
On March 27 during Nintendo’s last Direct before it reveals all about the Switch 2 early next month, the company showcased some new Metroid Prime 4 footage and shared some new trailers for upcoming games. During one point in the Direct, Nintendo announced that it is changing how digital games work on Switch. Now players will buy Virtual Game Cards that can be digitally shared between consoles and other players with some restrictions. This new system will go live in late April and will be compatible with Switch 2 at launch. And on a new website Nintendo created explaining Virtual Game Cards, there’s some fine print hinting at enhanced Switch 2 ports of past games.
As spotted by video game deals and news sharer Wario64, some fine print at the bottom of this webpage mentions something we’ve not heard about before: “Switch 2 Edition” games. These will only be playable on Switch 2 and will likely be enhanced native ports of older titles.
Here’s the full text with the important bits bolded:
Compatible systems must be linked to a Nintendo Account to use virtual game cards. Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive games and Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games can only be loaded on a Nintendo Switch 2 system. To move virtual game cards between two systems, you must pair the systems via local wireless and an internet connection, but only when pairing the systems for the first time. Up to two systems total can be linked per Nintendo Account.
Interesting! While we’ve known for a while now that Switch games will be mostly backward compatible with Switch 2, this is the first official mention of the possibility that some older games might get native ports to Switch 2. This will likely work similarly to PS4 games on PS5: most of them play just fine (or even better) on the more powerful hardware, but there are some titles that have received separate, native PS5 ports. For example, Death Stranding on PS4 plays great on PS5. But you can spend $10 to upgrade to the PS5 version which unlocks new visual features and options.
Kotaku has contacted Nintendo about this fine print and what it means.
For now, we can only speculate as to what “Switch 2 Edition” means. One possibility is that some of these Switch 2 Edition games will run at a higher framerate. Recently, dataminers discovered unused 60FPS code in Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition. Many are theorizing that the game will run at a higher FPS on Switch 2. And that might be true, but perhaps only while playing a theoretical Switch 2 Edition of it.
Will you have to pay for these native ports? Maybe. Will they support cross-save and crossplay with older versions? Possibly. We don’t know yet, but hopefully we’ll learn more on April 2 during the announced Switch 2-focused Direct.
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