Will Nintendo's next handheld and console use Power PC like the Wii U?

[burninmylight]

spemanig said:

burninmylight said:

Because to make a console backwards compatible, you have to either base your new console around the same architecture as the old one, which is usually very dated by the time you're looking to release the new one (Wii and GameCube), or you throw in hardware that literally makes it two different consoles one box (PS3 and PS2), which makes it quite pricey. Or I guess you could try to go the emulation route (360 and Xbox OG), but that's the weakest option.

Why is emulation the weakest option?

Their are tech experts and wannabes on this site who can explain it far better than myself, but it essentially comes down to it being that with emulation, you're taking games that were designed with one console's hardware/architecture and mind and porting it to another's that it has little in common with. It's no different than porting The Last of Us from PS3 to PS4 or any other HD remake, or Nintedo's VC, from a logical standpoint. But the difference is that HD remakes and TLOU remake are done with the point of selling new copies and making more money, so more care is put into them. Same with Nintendo's VC: even though each game is essentially an emulation that required man hours to port over make work, money is being made from them.

WIth emulation done with the purpose of BC, every game from the previous generation has to be done one-by-one for real cash benefit, so when does such a feature start to become too much of a hassle for the console manufacturer? That's why many of the original Xbox games BC compatible on 360 didn't run very well: why put a lot of time and resources into a game you're not making money on for a system you're trying to get people to move on from? That's why MS quickly abandoned BC support for the 360, and why Sony and MS didn't even attempt it with the current consoles.

 

*for no real cash benefit