Nintendo jumps 6% as it says current Switch games will be playable on the console's successor

Nintendo connected Wednesday said it volition let existent Switch games to beryllium played connected the deed console's successor arsenic it looks to drum up excitement among its existent idiosyncratic basal for the highly-anticipated device.

Shares of Nintendo closed 5.8% higher successful Tokyo connected Wednesday, aft the announcement.

"Investors deliberation this is simply a motion Nintendo's adjacent instrumentality volition not beryllium a risky experimentation but alternatively a continuation," Serkan Toto, CEO of Tokyo-based games consultancy Kantan Games, told CNBC.

"I judge investors privation Nintendo to follow the iPhone attack of gradually improving a winning merchandise alternatively of trying to reinvent the instrumentality with each caller console generation."

Backward compatibility of games is captious for console makers for respective reasons: firstly, erstwhile caller consoles launch, they often bash not person a immense magnitude of games to take from. Making older games disposable for the caller Switch volition boost the device's entreaty connected this front.

Secondly, existent Switch users who are reasoning of purchasing caller games up of the caller console motorboat whitethorn clasp disconnected until aft its debut. Making existent games playable connected the Switch's successor removes that concern.

The Switch is Nintendo's second-best selling console successful history, down the Nintendo DS.

But request for the Nintendo Switch, which was archetypal released successful 2017, is dilatory opening to slice — albeit from precocious levels. Investors person been waiting for much details astir the console's successor, which the institution said it volition announce successful its fiscal twelvemonth ending March 2025.

Nintendo managed to breathe caller beingness into the astir eight-year-old console past twelvemonth by releasing games involving apical brands similar Zelda and Pokemon, arsenic good arsenic expanding into areas similar movies.