B/C is not necessary and only adds to the cost of the consoles. Only a handful of consoles excluding handhelds have been fully b/c with their predecessors, and that was only because the hardware architecture was similar enough to do it.

If you want endless backwards compatibility with your entire library of games, then buy a PC.

No other digital media has software specifically designed for exclusive use with proprietary hardware.  All your VHS/DVD/Blu-Rays work with their respective players, and Blu-Ray is b/c with DVD because the technology is essentially the same.  All music CDs work with both regular stereo and CD-ROM drives as well as DVD/Blu-Ray players for the same reason.  Software specifically designed for proprietary hardware does not work with any other hardware by definition.

Is it a dick move that the videogame console industry is the only multimedia and entertainment industry in existence where you CANNOT use software and media across multiple platforms?  Imagine DVDs and Blu-Rays by Sony Pictures and its affiliates being playable ONLY on Sony hardware, or only being able to stream certain TV / internet content like Netfilx on specific devices rather than just about anything with an ethernet or Wi-Fi connection that meets the minimum hardware requirements.

There's a stronger case to be made for XB1 games  being playable on PS4 than their is for PS3 games to be playable on PS4.

To be fair a game system requires a certain GPU, RAM, and CPU. disc media doesn't. different beast. Emulation isn't possible on the next system because horsepower needs to be several times more than the actual hardware.

It saves space. I use a 83 inch wide TV stand. Just to connect and house all my game systems I play. And that's only for all Nintendo and Sony systems. And a Sega Genesis.

I fully understand the difference in architecture and costs associated. But, by the time a new console is releasing you can have a very small circuit designed that could be added to your existing hardware for BC. Then adjusting the cost of the console by $20 (or eating that cost) would be greatly worth it.

Going forward I think MSony and Nintendo are laying the ground work where digital games will be BC. Then likely adding a cost system to allow physical to digital upgrades, etc ... that would be great.

PC

It's a selling point, I wanna get a WiiU because I never owned a Wii and with the WiiU being bc I will get the most out of my purchase.

Personally I don't care for BC. But I can understand why those that does do. On the bright side, I think the PS4/XBO marks the beginning of the last non BC consoles. Who knows, it may even be possible that you can sun PS5 games on the PS4, albeit at 720x480p@30fps resolution without any changes to the PS5 game code.

The reason you don't know what your talking about is obvious.

Unless you have very similar archetcture, you have to emulate via software which is many orders of magnitude more difficult. Simply having better specs doesn't amount for anything if its a different architecture. Hence why, PS Now uses PS3s to emulate and send game streams. A high end pc could do it in theory given enough power and a compatible game, but I don't know how far PS3 emulation is.

Regardless, emulation has zero to do with power. Which is why consoles only have backwards compatibility through hardware something that drives up the price of the SKU unless no significant changes to architecture are made.

Because it's great ammunition to use against the "other console", even if they were unable to implement backwards compatibility.

People complain and yet sell their entire collection for $50 in store credit anyways. Sigh