5 Reasons Why Backwards Compatibility Is Needed

When the Xbox One and PS4 hit during the holidays, the death knell of retro gaming will be upon us.  Both companies have stated that their newest consoles will not be backwards compatible, and that if you want to play your older games you have to keep your older systems.  That saddens some gamers as with those announcements retro gaming has been giving a big set back.  So here at BagoGames, we came up with some reasons why backwards compatibility needs to stay. So listen up Sony and Microsoft (and to a lesser degree Nintendo!

5) Less Clutter

Imagine 15 years from now, you’re sitting on your couch with 5 different versions of the PlayStation (they’ve all survived time in this scenario) hooked up to your HD TV, and next to them at 3 versions of the Wii and four more of the Xbox. Do you even think that your television stand would be able to hold all that hardware?  Probably not, plus you’d run out of jacks in the TV to put all the systems, and will there even be component, and HDMI ports anymore? If the PS5 played all the generations down you could easily store your old systems, and hook up one glorious black box to the TV and play to your little hearts content.

4) Simplicity

Sometimes people get confused. Heck, some people still call ANY portable device a GameBoy. So to simplify everything for these folks, backwards compatibility would be a saving grace. Instead of needing to find out if such and such a game plays in such and such a device, you could just pop in any disc or cartridge into the newest machine and poof, gaming commences.

3) Consumer Appreciation

Consumers will only put up with purchasing the same title over and over for so long. Somehow Hideo Kojima is immune to this annoyance seeing as every generation sees multiple releases of past Metal Gear and ZOE titles.  If the systems were backwards compatible, then one wouldn’t have to buy multiple copies, they could buy the original and enjoy that until the end of days.

2) Fuller Wallet

Not only does the consumer lose money if they have to keep buying upgraded versions of a game, they lose money if their downloads don’t transfer over to the new system. Wii owners were disappointed to hear that their downloads won’t carry over to the WiiU and that they’ll have to buy them again to see them in HD.  There have been rumors of this amazing thing called The Cloud for saving. Why doesn’t Nintendo invest a little into their own so customers don’t have to re-buy Super Metroid for the tenth time?

 

1) Less Worry

Ask pretty much anyone in their 30’s and they can tell you that if they kept their Nintendo from the 80’s, it will fire up with no problem at all.  You can pop in Mario Brothers and relive your childhood if you choose.  Nowadays consoles failing is the norm, not the exception.  So how long do you think your launch 360 is going to last? Five years, maybe ten if you’re lucky.  How sad will it be to have a huge library of classic games and no console to play them on? That’s like getting a bunch amazing toys for Christmas, but no batteries. It’s scary to think how many classic games will be rendered unplayable in ten to fifteen years.  Backwards compatibility solves all this, and gaming’s history won’t be lost.