Can MS & Sony just simply make next gen fully BC?

[Mr Puggsly]

Kerotan said:

killeryoshis said:
You can make hardware completely Backwards compatible and not ask a single developer. When Nintendo made the Wii it was completely backward compatible with the Gamecube. You can play any Gamecube game on the Wii. Sony also did this with the PS2 as it was able to play PS1 games no problem. Developers can't legally stop the Xbox 4 and PS5 from being backward compatible like the Wii. However, Developers can pressure Sony and Microsoft to not do it by support means. Which means that they will treat the system with no backward compatibility with better support.

Honestly making a system backward compatible is a lot of work. You have to basically make two consoles in one. Which is why a lot of systems don't do it. Microsoft only has to ask developers to add a game to BC because digital rights are different from physical rights.

Thanks for the reply. I think ps5 will absolutely have BC because they don't want to give MS a selling point over them. Does digital BC work the same as physical? As in Sony don't need to ask devs to allow us to play our digital ps4 games on ps5? 

I know it took lots of effort in the past but if ps5 runs the same x86 architecture as the ps4 won't it be quite easy? 

Whether or not you'll be able to access your old downloads is an interesting question. Which seems to only be a problem for consoles. I mean when you consider other devices with stores let you access your digital purchases regardless if you change devices. I mean your move purchases can work on countless platforms and I can still access Android apps from like a decade ago.

I think we'll just have to wait and see. Has MS and Sony tweaked their deals to keep to allow people to keep accessing their downloads on future platforms? Does playing the games natively versus emulation make a difference? These are questions we won't know until talk about the 9th gen begins but I'm assuming we'll get the best case scenario, we can simply access our 8th gen purchases and play them natively on new specs.

Last edited by Mr Puggsly - on 31 December 2018