• 23May 13

  Backwards compatibility - conflict of generations

  After reading Don Mattrick's statement that "backwards compatibility equals to walk backwards for the game industry", I must say: tradition is something that is no longer important in some circles.
  From a business perspective (and it's my wild guessing here), backwards compatibility allows players to keep lighting the old flames for good old games and that's not what devs and publishers want because how they'll keep gamers interested in their new IPs if they still can play old ones on the system? Too bad! So let's get rid of it.
  I have no idea if there's another reason for eliminating it but this alone seems enough.

  

  I remember the first time I played PSX games in my PS2 (that I still have) and that seemed so natural to me and a plus for the PS2; I mean, I've sold the PSX after getting the PS2 and that never became a problem because the PS2 was a "better version" of the PSX and it still could play its games, so, why keeping both, right? It was like having two in one. That made PS2 one of the best systems ever and I think I'm not alone in this but, even after tons of games being launched for PS2, I've still played PSX. Then along came PS3 and, I don't know if most of you have read PS2's manual but it's not compatible with HD TVs, and PS3 is an HD system, so, the first models still had PS2 backwards compatibility but, after we saw very pixelated graphics from PS2 games on the PS3 because of HD, Sony stopped making PS3 with PS2 compatibility.
  This "limitation" didn't affect PS3 that much and later we entered the era of HD versions of some popular PS2 games, like God of War but, if you ever played an HD version of PS2 game, you can tell that IS a PS2 game because it can't get that pretty in HD. Only crispier and clearer.

  

  Talking about another ways to make old games "compatible", let's not forget what Nintendo did and that nobody complained about or pointed fingers to them. After the SNES era ended, we got N64. Was N64 compatible with SNES games? No! Did we get ports of SNES games for N64? No! But, during the N64's years, Game Boy Advance was launched and it had ports of some classic SNES Mario and Zelda games, among others. Then when Game Cube appeared, what we got? Some ports of N64 games and PSX games (including RE series) and a Game Boy Player that could be attached for Game Boy fun but, still, not a full compatibility.
  Aren't we still alive in spite of it all? Yes! With Wii and Wii U, Nintendo decided to make available lots of games from the past through download... for a little price. But, by the time I got Wii, I just had GC and I was still regretting for having sold SNES and N64, which I tried to cope with emulators...

  

  I hated Mr. Mattrick's for saying that but, coming to think of it, he may get a point. Of course, his reasons are completely different for ours to reject backwards compatibility. But, in the long run, aren't we just asking or expecting too much from next generation while deeply attached to the old one?

  • Posted May 23, 2013 6:42 am GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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