How important is backwards compatibility to you?

[Wendy O. Koopa]

@KingBowser64 Ok apparently it's a real term LOL: I looked it up:

forward compatibility

[H3]noun[/H3]

1. Capability of interoperating with anticipated future systems.

 

[Thomas the Tank Engine]

>No one wanted it

I iunno bout you, but theres lot of weebs including myself who love the vita cause of the niche games that are on there.

And i was refferring to physical media i mean technically lot of consoles do but i'm a stickler to physical media.

weebs are not everyone

you cannot sell a console just by catering to nerds who watch anime

 

[Wendy O. Koopa]

@khaoticnoize187 Logically and statistically, if you please only one particular group with a product, especially one that is small and niche, and most other people don't want it, that's probably not going to be enough to make you even be able to "break even" on it. Just saying. I don't know if the anime crowd is small or niche, but still, you need a lot of other people and groups of people to be interested in a console for it to be able to sell well.

 

[khaoticnoize187]

weebs are not everyone

you cannot sell a console just by catering to nerds who watch anime

You say that like its a bad thing.

 

[khaoticnoize187]

@khaoticnoize187 Logically and statistically, if you please only one particular group with a product, especially one that is small and niche, and most other people don't want it, that's probably not going to be enough to make you even be able to "break even" on it. Just saying. I don't know if the anime crowd is small or niche, but still, you need a lot of other people and groups of people to be interested in a console for it to be able to sell well.

It ain't niche as it used to be thats 4 damn sure.

If it was super niche than ff would have had very low sales expectations.

 

[Thomas the Tank Engine]

(Wasn't this thread about how important backwards compatibility is to you? Why are we talking about anime and if it's niche or not. The answer is 'yes' and 'no' to that question, by the way lol)

 

[Wendy O. Koopa]

(Wasn't this thread about how important backwards compatibility is to you? Why are we talking about anime and if it's niche or not. The answer is 'yes' and 'no' to that question, by the way lol)

I have ADHD and I got distracted LOL. Let's get back on topic. So yeah. Backwards compatibility isn't a requirement for me, but it sure is nice to have and I desire it almost as much as having something that can play the newest games personally. Like seriously...as much as I like the newest hardware, have to admit if it is not backwards compatible, as a retro gamer that's slightly disappointing to me. Just my personal feelings though. Is the Switch 1 backwards compatible? If it's not, that's unusual for Nintendo, as previously all their stuff has been backwards compatible. That might unfortunately mean the Switch 2 won't be backwards compatible, either.

 

[MegaBowser64]

I have ADHD and I got distracted LOL. Let's get back on topic. So yeah. Backwards compatibility isn't a requirement for me, but it sure is nice to have and I desire it almost as much as having something that can play the newest games personally. Like seriously...as much as I like the newest hardware, have to admit if it is not backwards compatible, as a retro gamer that's slightly disappointing to me. Just my personal feelings though. Is the Switch 1 backwards compatible? If it's not, that's unusual for Nintendo, as previously all their stuff has been backwards compatible. That might unfortunately mean the Switch 2 won't be backwards compatible, either.

The Switch 1 isn't backwards compatible because the Wii U takes discs and the Switch takes cartridges. However, there's a good chance that the Switch 2 will be backwards compatible with the Switch 1 because it will probably also take cartridges

 

[Thomas the Tank Engine]

If it's not, that's unusual for Nintendo, as previously all their stuff has been backwards compatible.

Sure if you ignore the SNES not being backwards compatible with the NES, the N64 not being backwards compatible with the SNES, the GameCube not being backwards compatible with the N64, later models of the Wii dropping GameCube compatibility, the Game Boy Micro dropping GB/GBC compatibility, and the DSi dropping GBA compatibility, then all of their previous systems have had backwards compatibility.

The only Nintendo consoles to have backwards compatibility and never drop it in a later revision are the Wii U and 3DS. (I'd have said 'I bet if the Wii U hadn't been a flop, they'd have released a cheaper model that removed Wii compatibility to save costs' but I doubt they would have by virtue of the Wii U supporting Wii Remotes and accessories and the fact that there were some Wii games rereleased on the eShop. It ain't like the Wii where they dropped GameCube support along with the removal of the ability to use GameCube controllers and accessories lol)

Some people say it's not really fair to talk about how the SNES didn't have backwards compatibility with the NES but I mean when the Mega Drive was backwards compatible with the Master System (and if you have a Japanese Master System or Sega Mark III [the console that became the Master System outside Japan, much like how the Famicom was redesigned into the NES, and was later reverse imported into Japan], it's backwards compatible with SG-1000 games), I think it's a fair point to make.

 

[Renjamin]

Generally the trend is consoles have them initially then drop it. I'd really hope the next console does this as it'd mean they'd need to remake/rerelease new games instead of selling the same ones again

 

[Thomas the Tank Engine]

Generally the trend is consoles have them initially then drop it. I'd really hope the next console does this as it'd mean they'd need to remake/rerelease new games instead of selling the same ones again

You say that and yet it's not really true.

I'm thinking of all the console that I know are backwards compatible and, other than Nintendo's own trend of dropping backwards compatibility with redesigns of their consoles, the only consoles I can think of that later dropped it are:
- The Sega Mega Drive, which dropped Master System compatibility with the Genesis 3 revision. But tbf the Genesis 3 was a hella cheap budget revision released by the company Majesco under license from Sega and not Sega directly and isn't even compatible with the Sega CD or 32X either.

- The PlayStation 3, which eventually dropped all PS2 compatibility entirely. Which some people say was done as a cost-cutting measure because, even with the high price of the PS3, Sony was still selling it a a loss (IIRC) and the original models of the PS3 released in NTSC regions literally had PS2 hardware inside it (whereas the PAL PS3s used partially software-based emulation for backwards compatibility - which was to save costs) but yet the actual reason why it got dropped completely was because they were releasing a new budget model PS3 system (relatively, we're talking $399 here) and they wanted people who were going to be buying the new cheaper PS3 system to buy games made for the console and not PS2 games lol (And, of course, the PS3 never dropped PS1 backwards compatibility)

Every other console I know of with backwards compatibility never dropped it.

And really considering how much we know Nintendo wants to keep people in the ecosystem they've built up starting with the Switch, I cannot imagine a scenario where they release a Switch 2 and then a later revision of the console drops it. (Especially so because, in my opinion, it's very likely that we'll have a DS/3DS situation with their next console where they have one cartridge slot that's compatibile with both cartridges and it'd be weird to remove such a feature in that case)

 

[Renjamin]

I should clarify when I said consoles I meant Nintendo ones

 

[Goombuigi]

Although I don't use backwards compatibility a lot (I've only used it with a couple games on Wii U and not at all on 3DS), it's a nice feature to have nonetheless. I hope the next Nintendo system includes it, assuming that it's a straightforward successor to the Switch.

 

[Wendy O. Koopa]

Sure if you ignore the SNES not being backwards compatible with the NES, the N64 not being backwards compatible with the SNES, the GameCube not being backwards compatible with the N64, later models of the Wii dropping GameCube compatibility, the Game Boy Micro dropping GB/GBC compatibility, and the DSi dropping GBA compatibility, then all of their previous systems have had backwards compatibility.

Ah, yeah. I did kind of forget about that-how some of them didn't. LOL.....well, some of them did, at least. Like, I can remember most of them that did.