Nintendo’s Virtual Console label, which has been used to label their initiatives of bringing classic games digitally to modern consoles ever since its debut on the Wii, will not be coming to the Nintendo Switch, the company has confirmed in a statement to Kotaku. This makes the Switch the first Nintendo system since 2006 that will not have the service in some form.
“There are currently no plans to bring classic games together under the Virtual Console banner as has been done on other Nintendo systems,” Nintendo’s statement to Kotaku reads.
The frustrating thing here is that Virtual Console would be absolutely perfect for Switch- the hardware lends itself to enjoyment of retro games (just look at the success of Neo Geo’s titles on the system, for example), and is more than powerful enough to emulate most Nintendo systems ever made. There seems to be no acceptable reason as to why Nintendo might want to skip Virtual Console on Switch.
In the same statement, they did make it a point to emphasize that retro games can still be enjoyed on Switch, especially as part of Nintendo’s Switch Online service- but those are NES games only. What about SNES? N64? Gameboy Advance? Gamecube? Nintendo has a rich legacy catalog going back almost 40 years, and it is frustrating to see them not use it better.