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Backward Compatibility in Next-Gen Consoles?
jvm writes "A new article at Curmudgeon Gamer speculates on the prospects for backward compatibility in the upcoming generation of video game consoles. Sony's PlayStation 3 will reportedly play both PSOne and PlayStation 2 games, but how it will achieve this is unknown. Building from the facts we know and the rumored specifications, can we look forward to replaying Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker on the GameCube 2 and Halo on the Xbox 2?"
Maybe Infinium can get a jump on things and label their console the Phantom 5. Consumers will buy into that.
Ken Katsuragi (I think that's how you spell it), has previously stated in an interview that PS3 and ALL consoles following will be backwards compatible forever! For as long as Gran Turismo is released on Playstation, I'll for always be a Sony fan...
*604x
The nice thing about backwards compatibility is it makes your machine 'usable' if the launch titles suck, and generally they do. After that.. well who really mucks with it? I mean, I could see somebody who doesn't own a PS1 enjoying playing the $5 bargain bin games on the PS2. But really, both systems were so successful that it's hard to imagine the compatibility feature being that big of sell.
Nintendo got it right. Don't lock your system into a groove. I mean, really, what if the GameCube had held on to N64 games? Would it be a cartridge based machine as well, or would it be significantly bigger than it is today?
Frankly, I see backwards compatibility as a fad. At least with the PS2, the PS1 games had an option of 'improving' the graphics. But how is the PS3 going to do that? It's not going to invent higher resolution textures. It isn't going to have much spiffier polygon drawing capabilities other than sheer number of them. I doubt they can go back and add real-time shadows to the games. (That'd be neat if they did actually..) Meanwhile, the cost of the system goes up *or* the quality of the older games goes down.
Nintendo's approach is more interesting. Take the classic games, update them to what the new system can handle, and resell it. Yeah, you're out a few extra $$$, but you gain a more interesting game. Super Mario All Stars anyone?
Call me cynical, but I firmly believe that Sony's going to discover within a generation or two that backwards compatibilty ain't all that hot anymore. Now, if you can make a portable system that plays previous generation games, then you've got a gold mine brewing. Too bad Playstation(N) discs are 5" wide.
"Derp de derp."
PSP?
Since they have effectively (with a few minor differences) managed to squeeze a PS2 into a handheld, they probably have a single chip that they can just drop in the PS3 maybe thats how they will manage it.
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The point is that if I'm a casual gamer and I don't care whether I buy a Playstation X or a Gametorus, I'm more likely to buy a Playstation X after I find out it can play a whole bunch of old, but still fun, games that I can buy used for $10.
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You forgot the shelving aspect.
Japanese homes are tiny. Really tiny. You wouldnt believe how tiny they are.
As such, near everything in Japan is designed to save space. The gamecube is incredibly tiny, while the ps2 can be mounted vertically, giving it an EXTREMELY small footprint. The xbox is a gargantuan monster.
Yes. This design aspect may seem trivial to Americans, who can throw a console in a closet and forget about it until they want to dig it out to play some oldschool games. But in japan, size is a MAJOR issue.
Think about how much space backwards compatability can save. I wouldnt say its the #1 selling point, but its worthwhile to note.
On another note, the xbox is not selling well in Japan at all. This is interesting because it has always been the most graphically impressive system that catches the Japanese gamer's eyes. They love their pretties. But, for some reason, xbox didnt sell. Could be the "its not japanese" aspect.
Of course, noone really points out that one of the major reasons that the ps2 sold well in japan was because of its dvd capabilities. DVDs had not taken off in japan at the time, and when the ps2 was released it was the most inexpensive DVD player.. and it played cds, ps1 games and ps2 games.. and everyone HAD a ton of ps1 games already.
I expect the next gen of consoles to be boring.
no
IMO, there are four reasons to have a console with backwards compatibility:
1) People who DID NOT buy the previous console might be draw more toward the new version. The reason for this is obvious: they now have an 'excuse' to go back and get all the 5 star games that came out for the old console.
2) Your old console stopped working, and you didn't pay to fix it or buy another one.
3) The new version has the capability to play the old games 'better,' meaning faster or nicer graphics.
4) You don't have room for both the new and old consoles.
At this point, I think that #1 is the most important. Why? First of all, #2 is a fairly rare occurance. Sure, you hear about broken PS2s and Xboxes, but what is the ratio of failures to sold units AFTER considering the service plans that were used to repair said failures? I'll put my money on 'Very Low.'
#3 was implemented by the PS2, and of the games I've tried playing, the difference was negligable, if the game worked at all.
#4 is just sad. If you are hardcore enough to want to go back and play those old games that often, you'll make room. Or you'll pack it up, and pull it out to plug into those front RCA jacks on your TV when the need arises. I personally just trickle the old consoles down to the next smaller TV in the house. They're still available, and they're not in the way.
Having said all that, I do not own an Xbox, but on several occasions have been on the verge of buying one (standing there at the counter in EB, asking how much they go for, CC in hand). If the NeXtbox were to be backwards compatible, and reasonably priced, I'd buy one as soon as I could get my grimey paws on one.
I have an original PS, a PS2, a DC, an N64, and a GameCube. If PS3 and GameCube v2 were backwards compatible, I could care less. Why? I can already play the old games. If anything, the new consoles would get packed up after playing through the initial (most likely crap) libraries, until something reasonably good were to be released!
All Your Memory Are Belong To Java
I don't believe that any of the PSOne games support the PS2 Memory Card. That was the only majojr problem with it.
PSOne games used the PSOne Memory Card
PS2 games used the PS2 Memory Card
In order for a PSOne game to used the PS2 Memory card, you would probably have to rewrite the game to support, that since there is a huge library of PSOne games already, it is not cost effective for the company to do such a thing.
You could also partition off a space on said memory card and format it like a PSOne, but then you would be stuck with the PSOne's old memory slot formated system (Where savefiles took a number of slots of memory space on the PSOne memory card). I don't think we want that either. If you could adjust the amount of slots on it, then there would be no problem, and all will be right with the world.
Personally, I used my PS2 Memory card to house all of saves for the PS2 and the PSOne games. Haven't filled it up yet, and I have not deleted a save file to this day, and I do own a sizeable portion of games from both consoles.
I don't think anyone was saying that it was flawless BC, but it was pretty darn good for the time being. It will be interesting to see how Sony handles the saving issues with the PS3
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From what I've heard here and elsewhere, between the internal hardware changes, and dropping two (important!!) buttons from the controller I don't see how the XBox2 could possibly be backwards compatible.
I think this is total folly on Microsoft's part, especially considering that despite better graphics they are still way below being the console market leader, so we've already seen that better graphics != bigger marketshare. When a new system comes out, what I ask myself is - ok, so what does this system give me that my current one doesn't and how much is it gonna cost me? Experience tells us the MSRP on this new X2 is gonna be at least $250, and by the time it comes out original XBoxes will be selling for $150 or less. The XBox is still a kick-ass system, and provided a major leap from N64 and PS1 (and personally I feel PS2 as well). So what could the X2 possibly be offering to encourage consumers to buy a new console and a whole new suite of games to play on it? Just getting the system and enough games to enjoy it will cost probably somewhere in the neighborhood of $500+. Unless the X2 gives 3D (as in holographic) graphics, or is just so liquid that the real-time graphics look like the ray-traced FMVs from recent Final Fantasies then there's no reason to upgrade to the new system. Hell it makes more sense to go out and buy a used xbox and half a dozen used games and you'll still spend less than upgrading and still have a great console.
-- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
It's been said before in this thread, but:
It's a safe bet that the MS's new console won't have backwards compatability. Here's why:
1) Different cpu architecture, Intel PIII->IBM G5.
2) Different graphics chipset nVidia->ATI
3) A hard drive is pretty much out of the picture
4) No black and white buttons on the new controller
Now, even if the new cpu is sufficiantly powerfull to emulate a 700-odd MHz PIII, there is a lot of proprietary nVidia graphics whiz-bang that won't translate to the new ATI chip, increasing the cpu's software emulation load significantly. If the new CPU manages to handle all that, there is still the matter of no hard drive, which many games relied upon. Using 256 or 512MB memory cards to fool the games doesn't seem economically feasible at the rate they would need to be used. Now finally, the lack of the black and white buttons on the new controller: They were a bad aspect of a crappy controller, good riddance! But, they could just use the same controller port and have you use the old Xbox controllers, or add them back into the new controller design.
If anything, (considering the specs) it will be easier for the new MS console to emulate Gamecube games than Xbox games. Hell, given the shellacing they endured this round (3rd overall world, $Billions$ lost), and the fact that they are now essentially COPYING Nintendo's design, MS should just try to co-brand the new Nintendo.
Honestly, think about how good this partnership could be: Nintendo will make a good console that won't sell at a huge loss and will sell in Japan (an important point), with great 1st party games - it's what they do best. MS can do what they do best - market to the "If I can't kill hookers or blow up convents, it's a kiddy game" demographic that Nintendo sorely lacks, and use their mountains of cash to buy companies that make good 2nd party games (ie Rare). God, even though I don't have much love for MS, I would love it if that happened. That console would have Sony in the brown trousers.
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