Do Switch 1 controllers work on the Nintendo Switch 2?
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If you're a long-time Nintendo Switch owner who's eyeing up a Switch 2, or (like many on the T3 team) you've just taken delivery of the newer console, you might be looking at your collection of old controllers and wondering if they're now obsolete.
Good news – I've been researching and testing, and working out whether you can keep hold of those controllers for use on the Switch 2, and the outlook is pretty positive. Nintendo indicated before the console's launch that many controllers would continue to work, and it looks like that's the case. I'll go category-by-category for the sake of simplicity, though.
This is the big one – every Switch 1 owner has at least one pair of Joy-Cons that they might be hoping to use as multiplayer controllers on the Switch 2, and for the most part, that should work fine.
Old Joy-Cons can connect wirelessly to the Switch 2, and work just like you'd hope they would – although there's no way to dock them with the Switch for charging. They'll also work when slotted into a grip, so you should be good to go.
You can use them in Switch 1 or Switch 2 games, as well, but there's one big exception – mouse controls. These have been added to both new Joy-Cons, and if you use Switch 1 versions, you therefore won't be able to use the mode. It's not impossible that we'll see some Switch 2 games launch without compatibility with old Joy-Cons down the line.
Nintendo has released a few controllers for the Switch 1 over the years, from the Pro Controller to NES, SNES and N64 wireless controllers for use with its back catalogue of retro games.
The good news is that all of these will again work without any issues on the Switch 2 – although, like the older Joy-Cons, some of them will lose the ability to dock with the console. Even the Nintendo GameCube Controller adapter will work when plugged into the new dock.
The Pro Controller is really similar to the new version for the Switch 2, in fact, basically only missing out on higher-fidelity rumble capabilities and the new C button for GameChat.
This is probably the biggest category of controller out there, since many third-party options from the likes of PowerA and 8BitDo undercut the official Nintendo controllers handily.
Again, it's good news for some people. If you use a controller wirelessly on the Nintendo Switch 1, there's a good chance that your controller will work the same on Switch 2 – although in some cases it may require a firmware update to do so.
8BitDo has confirmed that some of its controllers can be updated now to work as intended, so it basically boils down to a case-by-case situation.
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