There have been many speculations and theories about what the next generation of Nintendo’s console will be, although Nintendo has not officially announced anything major in terms of hardware in the near future. Even so, the Switch is now 6 years old, so that’s likely to change soon.
One analyst who has discussed the Switch’s successor is ModernVintageGamer, developer NightDive Studios, or MVG for short. In a new video talking about what the hardware specs for the next console could be, MVG also talked about what it would mean for implementing backwards compatibility with Switch games.
You see, the Nintendo Switch uses an NVIDIA Tegra X1 chip. This same chip also powers NVIDIA Shield Android TV from 2015-2018. According to MVG, “if Nintendo moves away from the Tegra X1, which we all strongly believe they will likely do, current Switch games will not run on the new hardware, that is without recompiling the games to target that hardware”.
MVG states that there are a number of ways Nintendo can fix the problem. One of them is software emulation, something similar to what is implemented in Xbox Series consoles. Another possibility is that NVIDIA and Nintendo ensure compatibility of the Tegra X1 chip in the next console. However, MVG does not think this will happen as it would require a lot of extra work as this is not currently a supported feature.
The third solution mentioned is to include a Tegra X1 chip in every successor Switch, meaning that Nintendo wouldn’t need emulation to solve the problem. This is something Nintendo has done before. The Nintendo Wii had a GameCube chip, which allowed the Wii to be backwards compatible with the GameCube. However, this would increase production costs. This would also mean that depending on Nintendo’s stance on physical games for their next console, either the Nintendo Switch cartridge slot would be required for the new console, or Nintendo would have to use the same cartridges for the Switch successor.