"At today's Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch," Nintendo posted in a social media update attributed to company president Shintaro Furukawa. "Nintendo Switch Online will be available on the successor to Nintendo Switch as well."

Nintendo explained that it's making Switch Online available on the upcoming console, because it thinks it's important for the company's future to "carry over the good relationship" it has built with its more than 100 million annual playing users to the new device.

Nintendo confirms that its next console will be backward compatible with current Switch games, answering one of players' most urgent questions before the console's release.