The Death of Backwards Compatibility?

[aozgolo]

Kind of spinning off from the whole "console exclusivity" debate, I realized one of the big things that often influenced my decision to buy a new console was "backwards compatibility". My early years weren't so well informed, I had a NES, so of course the Super NES was the next step. It was the likes of games like Oddworld and Final Fantasy 7 that made me go Playstation and then... I more or less clicked into position as a "Sony Player" for awhile.

I had no issues at all deciding on a PS2 for a very simple reason, I could play all my PS1 games on it. I knew this would be important because even at that stage I was having problems with my old NES systems working right, it was evident these systems won't last forever so extending the life of them into the new generation was really a big deal for me. Since I was already enjoying the Playstation line, I went ahead and bought a PSP, a super powerful handheld that blew everything else out of the water (for it's time) and I still love playing my PSP, and due to the ease of mobility handhelds offered I purchased about 20 something PSOne Classics to really round out my game collection, several I already had owned, several others I never got a chance to play before. This of course influenced my decision to choose a PS3 over an XBOX 360 or Wii, because with the PS3 I already had 20 games that would work on it guaranteed AND it is backwards compatible with PS1 Game Discs.

Nintendo, starting with the Gameboy line-up has kept up with backwards compatibility fairly well, their consoles began doing it once they went to disc based systems, with the Wii and Wii U both supporting their predecessor's line-up.

What about the big-dogs this generation though? the XBOX One and PS4 both going to x86 architecture means leaving any thought of backwards compatibility in the dust. Even on PCs, the mightiest of all gaming platforms, new Windows OS's are making it more difficult to run certain older games, though that at least wasn't an intentional move.

This of course concerns me that a big aspect of what drove me as a customer to new consoles and even new operating systems (I stayed XP for the longest time...) is being largely phased out with excuses of "nobody cares".

I'm curious to find out what other people's opinions on backwards compatibility is and how important it has been to your console/OS buying habits.

 

[CrazyCrab]

Sorry but I just had to leave this here. PC MASTER RACE.
To be honest I could just never affort a pc for the official stuff as well as an extra console just for games.
I have a feeling like a lot of people who buy consoles will simply not care as all that is new seems simply better. Afterall if we comoare the 1st and the last Call Of Duty most gamers wouls go with the latter.
Personally, even though I like new games I still play games lIke Baldurs Gate nd Sierras citybuilders from time to time.
I fear the day when wont be possible anymore, but im ok for now.

EDIT: Ugh. It was a joke. `PC MASTER RACE` is a reference to what TB says during the podcast when hes making fun of it, was expecting more people to get the reference.
In any case whatever console youre playing it doesnt really matter all much as long as youre having fun ^^

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Sorry but I just had to leave this here. PC MASTER RACE.

Really? No, just no.

PC has a very similar problem in that when windows gets updated a lot of older games either completely stop working, or need inconvenient workarounds to keep them working.

I for one can't get Thief to work on my PC not matter what I do.

 

[CManator]

Only a handful of consoles have ever had BC and one even took it away. Sucks, but it's hardly a deal breaker.

Besides, as I get older, i'm finding my older games less appealing. Not sure why.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Sorry but I just had to leave this here. PC MASTER RACE.

Really? No, just no.

PC has a very similar problem in that when windows gets updated a lot of older games either completely stop working, or need inconvenient workarounds to keep them working.

I for one can't get Thief to work on my PC not matter what I do.

thats what gog.com is for to me its worth the $5 or so to update a game to work on newer systems

Same with Steam, although I prefer GoG for their DRM-free games.

 

[arkady]

Backward compatibility is hard and expensive. To make a PS4 backwards compatible to the PS3 is possible, but would significantly increase the cost.

 

[josemlopes]

Backward compatibility is hard and expensive. To make a PS4 backwards compatible to the PS3 is possible, but would significantly increase the cost.

Basicly this, even on PC there are still plenty of games that do loose backwards compatibility, you either wait for someone to fix it (GOG or fans) or it will be doomed forever unless you downgrade your PC.

For what its worth that Gaikai thingy with the streaming may be the best option out there to be honest since making the console itself backwards compatible would probably raise the price so much that you might as well buy the other console.

 

[The_Echo]

I'm curious to find out what other people's opinions on backwards compatibility is and how important it has been to your console/OS buying habits.

Gonna be honest I definitely TL;DR'd your whole post but here goes:

Backwards compatibility has never been a sure thing on consoles and people should never expect that feature.

Nintendo wasn't BC until the Wii. The PS2's various models were never 100% BC. The PS3 was the same, and eventually BC was stripped to make the console cheaper. The 360 has limited BC.

PS4 has a different architecture that means it just plain can't play PS3 games. In order to do so, it would need the hardware to do it which would increase the cost significantly. I'm sure the Xbone suffers a similar situation.

It's really not that difficult to keep an old console. I for one buy a new console to play the new games.

If a console is backwards compatible, that's great. But I will never expect it or get upset when it doesn't happen.

 

[Padwolf]

Backwards compatibility has been important to me in choosing when to buy a console and was important to me when buying the PS2, however it is not a deal breaker for me. Though I do love how Nintendo have been great with backwards compatibility. I love that my DS can run all my gba games and that the wii could run all my gamecube games. I found it really weird not being able to play ps2 games on the ps3 and also I found the Xbox 360's backwards compatibility weird and I still don't fully understand it. How does it work? Does it only work for certain Xbox games? I could never figure it out.

 

[Saelune]

Nintendo is keeping it alive. I did not own a DS or Wii, but I did buy a 3DS an Wii U and most of my games are for their previous systems.

As for PC, Windows 8 is kinda ruining "backwards compatibility" on PC.

 

[aozgolo]

While I certainly understand the technical limitations that prevent certain consoles from being backwards compatible (I mean the Cell Processor was hardly going to make it into this new gen) I still lament it's loss. I guess it can also be argued that while Nintendo does keep BC in their mainline consoles now (They couldn't do it before because everything pre-Gamecube was ROM based) they are hardly the most powerful in the console race, though in all honesty of the current gen, the Wii U is looking to be the most promising console for me to get on account of never having a Wii, and it automatically being compatible with them.

While there's often loopholes, patches, and workarounds to get old PC games to work on newer OS, some just won't no matter what you do, I still am holding onto a little indie game called Shadow of Power that hasn't worked since my Windows 98 PC. Plus the effort it sometimes takes to get these older games to work is beyond casual PC users to figure out. At least in Windows case, it wasn't a deliberate effort to make it not BC, it was just a side-effect of new kernel types and infrastructure.

 

[MetalDooley]

Well I started gaming back in the NES days so backwards compatibility for me wasn't even a thing until the PS2 came along.I view it as a nice bonus feature but not essential as I don't get rid of old consoles anyway

 

[Schmeiser]

Sorry but I just had to leave this here. PC MASTER RACE.

Really? No, just no.

PC has a very similar problem in that when windows gets updated a lot of older games either completely stop working, or need inconvenient workarounds to keep them working.

I for one can't get Thief to work on my PC not matter what I do.

Not that i really care about all this PC master race shit ( i exclusively play on PC tho) but that's quite not true, even know on my windows 7 i can pretty much run any old game i want with not even using GOG. If i can't i can always find a loop hole or just google the shit out of it and find a way to get it working

 

[Directionless]

Sorry but I just had to leave this here. PC MASTER RACE.

Really? No, just no.

PC has a very similar problem in that when windows gets updated a lot of older games either completely stop working, or need inconvenient workarounds to keep them working.

I for one can't get Thief to work on my PC not matter what I do.

Not that i really care about all this PC master race shit ( i exclusively play on PC tho) but that's quite not true, even know on my windows 7 i can pretty much run any old game i want with not even using GOG. If i can't i can always find a loop hole or just google the shit out of it and find a way to get it working

This. While there may be some games from the 90's that just don't want to work anymore, and they were so unknown that no-one could be bothered to put a fix up on the net; you cannot compare that to console BC. Unless you keep your old console, you'll never be able to play even the most recent games again, let alone ones from over 10 years ago.

I just played Planescape Torment for the first time a little while back, and it was made in 1999. didn't have to go out and buy a SNES or Genesis to play it, i just bought it from GOG and modded it up a bit to run at 1080p. I'm planning to do another Mass Effect run through soon, and i know i'll be able to do that for years to come without having to hold onto my old outdated box. I know that my game library will always be there, and that the vast majority of them will continue to work decades from now.

 

[Saltyk]

For what its worth that Gaikai thingy with the streaming may be the best option out there to be honest since making the console itself backwards compatible would probably raise the price so much that you might as well buy the other console.

This was my first thought. Sony is saying that you will be able to play PS3 games on the PS4 via Gaikai sometime next year. I'm curious as to what that will entail, and if they will charge for it, but it sounds like a good alternative to the system just being backwards compatible.

I won't lie. I wish the PS4 was backwards compatible. It sucks, but it's hardly a deal breaker. I understand why it would be difficult to do (especially with the PS3). And I'm hoping that any future consoles will try to keep the hardware similar and perhaps make backwards compatibility easier in the future.

 

[WeepingAngels]

Only a handful of consoles have ever had BC and one even took it away. Sucks, but it's hardly a deal breaker.

Besides, as I get older, i'm finding my older games less appealing. Not sure why.

Your current favorites will one day be "older games". Are you saying that after this gen is over, you will no desire to go back to them? "Well, I'll just keep my current consoles hooked up", you say?

Well, without backwards compatibility you would need to hook up an NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii, PS1, PS2, PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360 and I didn't even list the Sega consoles.