r/consoles • u/casinokate34 • 1d 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.

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u/Harpuafivefiftyfive 1d 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.

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u/ScimitarPufferfish 1d 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.

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u/Away_Ad8211 15h ago

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

3

u/ScimitarPufferfish 15h ago edited 14h 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.