It depends on how they go to the new platform. There are two main ways of doing this - porting the game project to the new platform or emulating the old game on the new platform.

Porting the game basically means taking the old code and assets and making them run on the new hardware. This involves getting the old game running natively (i.e. the game itself compiles, links, and runs) on the Switch 2. This is usually the choice for newer games and projects - stuff that's more recent usually doesn't rely on obsolete tools or a workflow that is no longer supported. Since we can still use the tools that the game was built with, we (or some contracting studio) can get it working on the new hardware.

Emulating the game means building a virtual machine around the original game that pretends to be the original hardware and modifies the inputs and outputs to and from the game. Emulation is typically done when the game development workflow is no longer feasible - e.g. the game was built with ancient tools on ancient hardware that is no longer supported anywhere. Because we can't modify the original game, we need to build a box around it that we can modify and run the original game within that box. [Click Here] for an an older post that goes into more depth about how virtual machines and emulation work.

The decision on whether to port or emulate is typically driven by what is easiest and most cost-effective. Porting is usually preferred to emulation if available, because it means that the porting team has access to tools, assets, and possibly even the original dev team to answer questions. Emulation means that any gameplay changes tend to be very difficult since rebuilding the original game is probably unfeasible.

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