Nintendo Creates Hybrid Switch Emulator, But It Will Only Work on Switch 2

Nintendo has finally announced the Switch 2, and the good news for fans of the company’s consoles is that it will be backwards compatible between the devices. The developers said that this required the implementation of a hybrid emulator, which had not been done before.

Image source: Nintendo

There are significant hardware differences between the Switch 2 and the Switch. To overcome these, the developers first turned to a purely software solution — similar to how third-party emulators for the original Switch, including Yuzu, work. But this solution required significant computing resources — the Switch 2 ran at full capacity, and the battery began to drain quickly. So the Switch 2 used a hybrid emulator that was “somewhere between a software emulator and hardware compatibility”: according to Nintendo, games for the original Switch are converted to Switch 2 format in real time, during execution.

This means that Switch games will run faster on the new console and will get new features, including GameChat. However, a list of projects for the first Switch has appeared that have compatibility issues on the new system – these include Doom Eternal, Dead by Daylight, Everspace and GRID Autosport. These issues are currently being “studied”, meaning that it is possible that the situation will improve over time.

At the same time, Nintendo still fights with all its might against third-party emulators – just remember last year’s story with Yuzu, but for users, Nintendo Switch Online offered its own emulators of old consoles up to GameCube. And considering that the first Switch ran on an Arm system, it becomes clear why its emulation is a relatively simple task.