How Nintendo will handle the transition between consoles remains an open question. Shuntaro Furukawa, the company's current president, revealed some details during a question-and-answer session discussing the latest financial results.
“Changing platform generations in the dedicated game console industry is never easy. We have faced serious problems many times after successful platforms, so we never consider our current situation to be completely safe. Our business is always subject to strong competition. From a broader perspective, the competitors in this industry are not only video games, but also various forms of entertainment. In this environment, the need to continue to provide unique offerings to become the brand of choice is greater than ever before.”
It seems that the director means that the company will make every effort not to alienate customers. Nintendo is known for going its own way. Surely Nintendo realizes that there is a huge base of gamers who would like to transfer their accumulated library of games to a new generation device. For many, this will be the question that may determine the potential purchase of a Switch successor. If Nintendo does offer backwards compatibility, another question arises: will it be completely free or will you have to pay for it.