Among the most requested features for the unannounced Nintendo Switch 2 is backward compatibility with its predecessor. While rumors have been conflicting so far, it seems like the new console will indeed be able to play games released on the current Switch, judging from some recent findings.
A few hours ago, Doctre81 reported in a new video to have found the LinkedIn profile of a former Nintendo developer who worked at the company from February 2021 until August 2023. The developer took ownership of an existing project and redesigned it to reduce complexity, increase performance, and introduce new features while “maintaining all existing functionality.” By the description, it seems like this existing project is the Nintendo Switch 2, as no other known project from the Japanese company would fit it, and maintaining all existing functionality may be for backward compatibility purposes.
The LinkedIn profile discovered by Doctre81 also seems to confirm how the Nintendo Switch 2 will have machine learning features, as the developer lists among the skills used during their time at the Japanese company not only machine learning but also NVIDIA TensorRT, an open-source library which accelerates and optimizes inference performance of the latest large language models. The ARM assembly mention also suggests the new console, much like its predecessor, will be powered by an ARM CPU.
Very little is currently known about the Nintendo Switch 2, not even its official name. According to some recent rumors, the console will launch with two different models on September 24th, 2024. Nintendo is keeping a November 3rd release date as a fallback release date in case something prevents the console from launching in late September.
