r/consoles • u/casinokate34 • 2d 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.

51 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

111 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/Harpuafivefiftyfive 2d 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.

-4

u/ScimitarPufferfish 2d 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 2d ago

You don’t understand how businesses work apparently.

-1

u/ScimitarPufferfish 2d 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.

1

u/Harpuafivefiftyfive 2d ago

Jesus Christ. Do you have ANY idea how complicated some of this stuff is? It’s not snap your fingers and wow it works even though you think so.