At a recent briefing, Nintendo announced the first concrete details about its upcoming console (aka Nintendo Switch 2). And that could be good news for those hoping the Switch 2 will be backward compatible.

Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said during a Q&A session on an investor conference call that the company has already begun thinking about transitioning from the current Nintendo Switch to the company's next-generation system.

"Regarding the transition from Nintendo Switch to the next-generation system, we will do everything we can to ensure a smooth transition for our customers while utilizing their Nintendo accounts," Furukawa said (thanks to @Genki_JPN for the translation).

While this may not seem like particularly important news, it represents a change for Nintendo, which has historically favored a clean approach when launching new hardware. For example, users who purchased a Switch from a Wii U console could not carry over their existing Nintendo Network ID and instead had to create a new Nintendo account.

Furukawa pointed out to investors that there are more than 290 million Nintendo accounts for the Switch family of consoles and mobile devices. And it makes sense that a gaming company would want to build on that number rather than force Switch 2 adopters to start from scratch.

Carrying a single Nintendo account across multiple generations of consoles is similar to the approach taken by rivals Sony and Microsoft. Both companies have allowed existing PlayStation Network and Xbox Live accounts to be transferred across the last three generations of hardware.

It's good to know that when you eventually get a Switch 2, you won't have to create an entirely new Nintendo account. However, the real significance of this news may be related to the backwards compatibility feature of the next generation console.

Now that we know that Nintendo will allow existing Nintendo accounts to be transferred to the next console, it is not unreasonable to suggest that users' game libraries will also jump between hardware generations.

Such is how the transition from PS4 to PS5 and Xbox One to Xbox Series X works, and Nintendo is attempting to do the same with Switch and Switch 2, allowing users to play their current game libraries on the new hardware It may be that the company is trying to allow users to play their current game libraries on the new hardware.

However, recent reports suggest that Nintendo is having problems making the Switch 2 backward compatible. This is because the current Switch is powered by Nvidia's Tegra X1 CPU, which is now considered quite outdated; the Switch 2 will likely be upgraded to a more powerful chip, affecting the console's ability to play games released on the previous model Potentially.

Nevertheless, while backwards compatibility is far from guaranteed, the confirmation that Nintendo wants to make a "smooth" transition to the next generation console is a positive update for those hoping that the Nintendo Switch 2 will offer this feature It is certain that this is a good thing.

Hints for the Nintendo Switch 2 have continued to grow in recent weeks. Most recently, Ubisoft suggested that they should have waited for the release of "Mario + Rabbids": this is a great hint that third-party publishers are aware of Nintendo's future plans.

However, we are unlikely to hear more from Nintendo itself in the coming months: in May, Nintendo told investors that Switch 2 would not be released in the current fiscal year, which ends in April 2024. Therefore, don't expect to see a full reveal of whatever Nintendo is preparing, especially anytime soon.