Nintendo recently announced that the upcoming Switch successor, dubbed by the community as Switch 2, will have backward compatibility and will utilize the existing Nintendo Switch Online subscription service.
Whether the new device will accept the physical cartridges of the Switch is another matter, since the announcement never really mentioned anything about physical games.
But now that a 3D-printed mock-up of the Switch 2 has surfaced online, Switch fans can somehow breathe a sigh of relief as the device has a similar-looking cartridge slot to those of the original Switch.
Posted on YouTube by @SwitchUpYt, they mentioned that a Chinese case manufacturer claimed that it had the final design templates for the Switch 2 and sent them a 3D-printed mock-up. They then proceeded to examine the mock-up, showcasing a larger screen and Joy-cons, plus an additional USB-C on top of the device.
What is more interesting is that the mock-up has almost similar cartridge sizes to those of the Switch, which leads to speculations that the new Switch 2 will have backward compatibility for both digital and physical games. If this is true, then Nintendo fans who have massive physical libraries of games can now stop worrying and start getting excited about the console.
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The mock-up also features a screen larger than a Steam Deck, possibly indicating that the Switch 2 will have a higher resolution than Valve's device. Joy-cons are also larger, but whether the triggers are analog ones is still a mystery.
Another fascinating feature of the mock-up is that it has 2 USB-Type C slots, one at the bottom and another one at the top near the cartridge slot. This allows for charging the tablet while being used on Tabletop Mode. Whether the additional USB-C port on the top part of the handheld is capable of high-speed transfer for devices such as third-party docks is still unconfirmed.
While the mock-up is not the official final design of the Switch 2, the additional features on the mock-up show great promise and players can expect the Switch 2 to finally beat Sony as the best-selling console ever.
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