So there is concern from lots of websites saying that the Switch 2 might not be backwards compatible with Switch 1 games. This is likely because Switch 1 games have GPU drivers statically embedded into the the games themselves, so they can only work with the Nvidia Tegra X1 GPU (no flexibility here). The Switch 2 will obviously have a newer GPU, meaning that Switch 1 games will fail to work unless the games are re-compiled with the new GPU drivers. This would mean only a tiny fraction of the Switch library will be playable on Switch 2 since most developers won’t bother recompiling their games.
The only way the Switch 2 can play all Switch 1 games is if Nintendo or Nvidia create a translation layer to automatically convert the GPU drivers and shaders for the Switch 2 GPU to understand. But I don’t know if this is possible without the games being patched.
In either case, it is incredibly STUPID for Nintendo’s engineers to make GPU drivers statically embedded into the games themselves. Why the heck they did this when they knew it would make backwards compatibility difficult is beyond me.
https://www.tomsguide.com/news/nintendo-switch-2-may-lack-backwards-compatibility-this-could-be-a-major-problem
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/nintendo-switch-2-may-lack-backwards-compatibility-this-could-be-a-major-problem/ar-AA18k5CD
Your thoughts? Is this an epic, humiliating mistake, considering that backwards compatibility is the norm nowadays?
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