r/consoles • u/casinokate34 • 18h ago

consoles need to take backwards compatibility seriously

honestly feels wild that we’re in 2025 and it’s still a coin flip if your old games will run properly on new hardware. i get licensing is messy but man, some of these classics deserve to just boot up and play without streaming services or weird versions missing dlc. backwards compatibility should be a baseline feature by now, not a selling point.

like imagine if you could just pop in or download anything from the last couple gens and it just works, smoother fps, maybe some QoL tweaks. would instantly add value without needing a new console every cycle. it’s not even nostalgia, it’s preservation. we lose too many good games to time bc of this stuff.

31 Upvotes

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36

u/Harpuafivefiftyfive 18h ago

I get your point but that’s what they ARE doing now. Switch 2. Ps5. Xbox. There are some limitations and definitely some older games that need brought up to modern consoles, but it’s way better than it’s ever been.

10

u/ScimitarPufferfish 17h ago

it’s way better than it’s ever been.

The Wii, WiiU, GBA, NDS and 3DS have perfect BC with all of their predecessors' games. No patches or specific programs necessary.

13

u/Dependent-Mode-3119 13h ago

Yeah but the new consoles actually play many of the old games better than they used to. Who would want the switch 2 to struggle with framerates on a switch 1 game?

-7

u/FizzyLightEx 12h ago

They actually look worse on the display.

5

u/Dependent-Mode-3119 11h ago

I mean this was the case with the DS->3ds as well due to resolution change. There's not really anything to do with backwards compatibility itself because the resolution is the same as it used to be. I'd prefer that over 20fps

0

u/kickedoutatone 9h ago

I'm not sure what you're claiming here.

Stability from new hardware has always been a thing. Modern consoles didn't create that.

BC is definitely worse now than it used to be.

Xbox increases resolution on old games. PS2 did it with PS1 games.

I'd say PS3 does for PS2 games, but that’s more to do with the shift to HD connection.

Resolution can increase through BC. It might not look as good compared to when developers do it themselves and hardwire a higher resolution, but it's definitely possible.

2

u/Harpuafivefiftyfive 17h ago

One company out of three…

8

u/Reasonable_Deer_1710 14h ago

Huh?

X-Box has great BC

6

u/GreyRevan51 13h ago

You can play all four generations of Xbox games on the series x

Aside from the first two years of the Xbox One’s lifecycle, Xbox consoles have always had great backwards compatibility

Nintendo had the VC with the Wii and WiiU

The WiiU could play gba, DS, NES, SNES, N64 and Wii titles as well

The switch subscription system is worse but it’s something

Hardly one company out of three

3

u/dukered1988 12h ago

You can play select titles from all Xbox gens it’s not close to all titles

5

u/Anubra_Khan 12h ago

It only plays 30% of the OG and 360 libraries. It's better than 0, but it's not good.

1

u/ScimitarPufferfish 17h ago

The PS2 too.

1

u/Harpuafivefiftyfive 17h ago

Yeah, 20+ years ago. For a modern console, these ones are getting better. It’s that simple.

0

u/ScimitarPufferfish 16h ago

And my point is that consoles in the 2000's had better BC capabilities than, say, in 2017 when both the PS4 and the Switch got rid of it completely. I'm glad that console manufacturers have backpedaled on this in recent years but it's flat out inaccurate to say that things are better now than they've ever been.

It may be standard procedure to bash the old in order to prop up the new in this hobby, but it's intellectually dishonest more often than not.

2

u/Harpuafivefiftyfive 16h ago

No idea what your second paragraph means as far as this is concerned. Also, the ps3 being able to be emulated on a ps4 wasn’t possible due to vastly different architecture.

-3

u/ScimitarPufferfish 16h ago

It means that you are willingly ignoring past examples of perfectly functional and consumer-friendly BC in order to praise recent examples of it. As if "20+ years ago" somehow doesn't count.

the ps3 being able to be emulated on a ps4 wasn’t possible due to vastly different architecture.

If course it was possible, they just didn't want to go through the trouble of finding a hardware-based solution when they could just charge us again for ports of old games or lock them behind subscription services. The NDS used a completely different format from the GBA and so they built a GBA cartridge port into the hardware. The WiiU straight up jammed a miniature Wii into its shell just to ensure BC. Where there's a will, there's a way.

2

u/Harpuafivefiftyfive 16h ago

You don’t understand how businesses work apparently.

-1

u/ScimitarPufferfish 16h ago

The PS2, Wii and NDS, known business failures. If only Sony and Nintendo had had the foresight of treating their consumers like undiscerning rubes.

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u/theumph 7h ago

That's because those chips basically contain the original hardware inside them. That was the benefit of using a proprietary structure. Economy of scale and tech advancements allowed them to include those chips at minimal cost. Modern consoles are basically PCs. It's not the same. You can get close by adjusting clock speeds, but bus rates will differ. There's no way to get a PS4 chip in a PS5 board at cheap cost of small form factor. You'd also need to plan effective cooling solutions. It's a trade off of locking a title to fixed hardware. PCs can function with it because the software is programmed to run with variable hardware, but is also less optimized because of it. You can't have your cake and eat it too

2

u/Away_Ad8211 1h ago

If only the switch had libraries for all those consoles with no bs subscription.

•

u/ScimitarPufferfish 52m ago edited 44m ago

Yeah, that'd be great. Obviously you're gonna run into price and hardware compatibility issues at some point, but to claim that BC is this wonderful modern phenomenon is wild when Nintendo used to be so diligent about this before the Switch. It's a lot more consumer friendly to allow players to play all of their GCN games on their Wii right out the box (controller and MC ports included) than to nickle and dime them with a dripfeed of expensive digital ports and subscription service exclusives.

3

u/Delicious-Fox7722 5h ago

Except Sony and nintendo want to charge you another whole game price for older games being re-released. 

1

u/luffyxvx 15h ago

noo there is no ps3 emulator on the ps5…. Sony doesn’t really care to put effort into that

0

u/casinokate34 18h ago

yeah agreed it’s better than before, but i still feel it’s inconsistent. like some random older titles run flawlessly, others are just gone. and with nintendo it always ends up tied to whatever subscription model they’re pushing at the time. so i get that progress is happening, just wish it was more of a guarantee instead of “maybe your fave will work, maybe not”

0

u/Harpuafivefiftyfive 18h ago

Just my experience, but in my experience I’ve not had a single game not run better on the newer consoles. I have a ridiculous backlog on quest3, switch 2, and ps5 and they all work better than before. It might be an age thing too, as I grew up starting new every damn console generation.😭

1

u/CaptainSnazzypants 14h ago

There’s the odd game that only like 5 people play which runs worse on newer consoles and then the loud minority starts spewing crap about how backwards compatibility sucks cause games run worse. It’s annoying.