Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said on Wednesday that software for the company's Switch console would be playable on the successor device.
The Kyoto-based gaming company has said it plans to make an announcement about a successor device during the financial year ending March 2025 but has not provided further details.
"Nintendo Switch is currently being played with by many customers so we decided it would be optimal for them to be able to play their Switch software on the successor model," Furukawa said.
"Customers will be able to enjoy the games they own and choose their next title from the lineup of games already on the market," Furukawa told a management policy briefing.
Offering backwards compatibility could help encourage consumers to transition to the new device and boost the appeal of existing software.
"It's not a big surprise but might be another hint the next device will be similar to the current one," said Serkan Toto, founder of the Kantan Games consultancy.
Nintendo has sold more than 1.3 billion software units for the Switch, which is in its eighth year on the market and has an install base of more than 145 million units.
The Kyoto-based gaming company has had success in extending the lifecycle of the hybrid home-portable Switch with hit games and a series of hardware refreshes.
Hardware sales are losing steam, with Nintendo on Tuesday cutting its full-year sales Switch forecast by 7% to 12.5 million units ahead of the key year-end shopping season.
"We are not surprised by the miss on the (hardware) side, given that Nintendo's target markets appear fairly saturated in most geographies," Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal wrote in a client note.
"Software sales picked up in 2Q and are expected to continue in 3Q," Goyal wrote.
Nintendo sold 39.6 million software units in the second quarter ended September, a 29% increase compared to three months earlier.
The company's shares climbed 6% in Tokyo, compared to a 3% rise in the benchmark index.
