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[DGrayson]

Given the rumor a couple days ago that the PS3/Vita store will eventually shut down, and I am sure the Wii U/3DS store wont be too far behind, can we assume these will be the last digital stores not to offer backwards compatible games on future consoles?

IE - Will all my digital Switch games work perfectly and be availabe on my account for the Switch 2? Same question with PS4/5/6 and Xbox although (it seems) this is already in place.


I dont mind about physical games disappearing as long I wont be shut off in the future.

 

[cireza]

IE - Will all my digital Switch games work perfectly and be availabe on my account for the Switch 2? Same question with PS4/5/6 and Xbox although (it seems) this is already in place.

Why would you suppose this, when said manufacturers are ditching everything when moving from Wii U to Switch, or from PSP/PS3/Vita to PS4/5 ?

Of course they will throw by the window everything, again, if it is a better business decision for them.

 

[DGrayson]

Why would you suppose this, when said manufactures are ditching everything when moving from Wii U to Switch, or from PSP/PS3/Vita to PS4/5 ?

Of course they will throw by the window everything, again, if it is a better business decision for them.

Digital PS4 games transfer over to PS5 right?

PS3 and Wii U were a bit old so I can kind of understand. I just hoep going forward from Switch/PS4/XBox One it will be more like Steam where you will always have the games you paid for (mainly).

 

[akaFullmetal]

Sony and Microsoft have displayed BC the only one that hasn't yet is Nintendo. Hopefully they allow it after the switch.

 

[Calverz]

Ps4 onwards fine
Xbox onwards fine
Switch....who the fuck knows. (Probably not, always go physical with nintendo)

 

[Captain Toad]

PS3 and Wii U were both BC. Xbox 360 too. So was PS2.

 

[DGrayson]

PS3 and Wii U were both BC. Xbox 360 too. So was PS2.

Im not talking about physical backwards compatibility. Im talking about the transfer over of digital games to new systems and digital backwards compatibility. IE - I own a digital game on my Switch will I still own (and be able to play) this digital game on Switch 2.

 

[Captain Toad]

Im not talking about physical backwards compatibility. Im talking about the transfer over of digital games to new systems and digital backwards compatibility. IE - I own a digital game on my Switch will I still own (and be able to play) this digital game on Switch 2.

Anyone who says they know what Nintendo will do about anything is just lying. They are random as hell. But, Switch isn't BC, so PS360 wouldn't be the last no matter what.

 

[Kupfer]

I own a digital game on my Switch will I still own (and be able to play) this digital game on Switch 2.

That is where the mistake lies. You do not own the digital games, you have only acquired a right of use that lasts until the provider decides to take the games or the entire store offline. That's why I continue to rely on physical copies.

You can't be sure, future consoles will be backwards compatible for the games you buy now nor stores will be online forever.

 

[DGrayson]

Anyone who says they know what Nintendo will do about anything is just lying. They are random as hell. But, Switch isn't BC, so PS360 wouldn't be the last no matter what.

But im talking about going forward from the Switch gen... so it is irrelevant that the Switch isnt BC.

 

[DGrayson]

That is where the mistake lies. You do not own the digital games, you have only acquired a right of use that lasts until the provider decides to take the games or the entire store offline. That's why I continue to rely on physical copies.

You can't be sure, future consoles will be backwards compatible for the games you buy now more stores will be online forever.

Yes I am using "own" in a colloquial not legal sense.

To be technical I have a license for hundreds of games on Steam. And even if the games are removed from the Steam Store my license continues to be valid if I get a new PC. I know its not an exact analogy but I am wondering if consoles will not operate like this going forward. I think yes, there is too much pressure now to do otherwise but we cant be sure.

 

[Captain Toad]

But im talking about going forward from the Switch gen... so it is irrelevant that the Switch isnt BC.

You asked if the PS3/Wii U gen would be the last. I'm just saying it couldn't be the last, since it's happened again since (Switch is either PS4 gen or PS5 gen, depending on how you look at it).

But, hopefully, Switch will be the last. I doubt it though. Look how much money Nintendo made reselling last-gen games this gen. I can't see them giving that up.

 

[DGrayson]

I am just saying I hope that from Switch forward, PS4 forward and Xbox One forward, I hope all digital games will be available and working on future systems. I wouldnt be surprised if physical games disappear sooner than later so "buy physical only" wont work forever.

 

[MeatSafeMurderer]

IE - Will all my digital Switch games work perfectly and be availabe on my account for the Switch 2? Same question with PS4/5/6 and Xbox although (it seems) this is already in place.

Depends entirely on architecture. On Sony / MS side they seem to have settled on x86...finally...which if they stick to it guarantees backwards compatibility. You might run into the occasional title that doesn't work properly because a programmer did something immensely stupid, but 99% of titles should work fine. Nintendo side...well...fuck knows. They used PowerPC for 3 generations in a row, then switched to ARM for the Switch.

Edit: Fun fact - The WiiU can run Gamecube games natively. Why can't it read GC discs / were GC games never offered on the store? Fuck you, that's why.

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

I can see digital Switch games carrying over one generation at best to the Switch 2, after that I doubt it.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

If consoles continue to exist (they will), they need to make the switch from x86 to ARM (or something equivalent) in the future. This will pose a problem considering backwards compatibility. It's not unsolvable, but you'd need a HUGE overhead to emulate x86 on ARM properly for games.

 

[sublimit]

For Sony and MS it's a guarantee that they will always be digitally BC from this gen and onwards.

I wouldn't be so sure about Nintendo lol

 

[JimboJones]

Nintendo generally go with one generation of backwards compatibility so I'd say Switch 2 is probably safe in that regard but after that who knows. Architecture of the hardware may change and they have never been as keen as Microsoft in emulation backwards compatibility.

 

[gooner4life_uk]

I wouldn't bank on PS6 being backwards compatible with PS5/PS4 games if they move away from x86 to ARM CPU's

 

[LordBlodgett]

I think that more and more people will expect to be able to always have access to their digital libraries as time goes on. There are probably quite a few people that own no physical games at all. For this reason I can't see Microsoft or Sony going back on backwards compatibility. If one of them keeps BC and the other decides to forget it then the PR will be amazingly bad. Nintendo is unique though. The Switch is popular because it is mobile, and who is their mobile competitor? If they don't have some type of digital BC on their next console they may have to deal with some shitty PR, but people will still buy their system. Where else are you going to get your Mario and Zelda games?

 

[LordOfChaos]

Ps4 onwards fine
Xbox onwards fine
Switch....who the fuck knows. (Probably not, always go physical with nintendo)

Yep. We're probably in a digital BC world from here on out, with the unknown being Nintendo who are run by alien people.

 

[Mokus]

It depends a lot by the hardware (and maybe software too). Most of the time, backwards compatibility is included when certain hardware components from the previous generation is included or it's very similar. We have a few cases done with emulator, but it's less desirable. Digital or physical, the game code is the same and on consoles it's optimized only for one specific hardware.

What could happen, is that with PS6 or the next Xbox they will support the previous generation, but not the PS4 or Xbox One.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Astral Dog]

We can only speculate, but yeah its a safe bet a lot of stuff will carry over to Switch 2, including digital games

 

[The Gorby Congressmanz]

Given the rumor a couple days ago that the PS3/Vita store will eventually shut down, and I am sure the Wii U/3DS store wont be too far behind, can we assume these will be the last digital stores not to offer backwards compatible games on future consoles?

IE - Will all my digital Switch games work perfectly and be availabe on my account for the Switch 2? Same question with PS4/5/6 and Xbox although (it seems) this is already in place.


I dont mind about physical games disappearing as long I wont be shut off in the future.

GFWL 3.0

 

[Agent X]

PS3 and Wii U were both BC. Xbox 360 too. So was PS2.

The thread title was worded oddly, I think what DGrayson meant was that the follow-ups to PS3 and Wii U (being PS4 and Switch, respectively) had no backward compatibility. Sony and Nintendo both made hard breaks when they released the PS4 and Switch systems, due to the architectural differences.

That being said, while it might've been a tall order to ask for PS3 games to be playable on PS4, or Wii U games to be playable on Switch, there was no reason why they couldn't have carried over some of the downloadable "classic" content, like PS1 and PS2 games from the PS3/PSP/Vita, and Virtual Console games from the Wii/Wii U/3DS.

Im not talking about physical backwards compatibility. Im talking about the transfer over of digital games to new systems and digital backwards compatibility. IE - I own a digital game on my Switch will I still own (and be able to play) this digital game on Switch 2.

As others have said, the future actually looks good in this regard. Microsoft has been on the right path for the last few years, and Sony has seemingly got the train back on the rails with PS5's ability to play PS4 games. Nintendo is still an unknown, but if their next system resembles the Switch (and not some radically different design), then it's likely the games will carry over.

I'd like to see all three companies make an effort to beef up their retro offerings. They should add more classic content (even from other companies' systems--Atari, Sega, NEC, SNK, etc.), and ensure that these games can be carried over to any future systems that they sell. This would go a long way to bring the video game industry in line with what consumers expect from other forms of digital media, such as movies, music, and books.

 

[Captain Toad]

The thread title was worded oddly, I think what DGrayson meant was that the follow-ups to PS3 and Wii U (being PS4 and Switch, respectively) had no backward compatibility. Sony and Nintendo both made hard breaks when they released the PS4 and Switch systems, due to the architectural differences.

That being said, while it might've been a tall order to ask for PS3 games to be playable on PS4, or Wii U games to be playable on Switch, there was no reason why they couldn't have carried over some of the downloadable "classic" content, like PS1 and PS2 games from the PS3/PSP/Vita, and Virtual Console games from the Wii/Wii U/3DS.



As others have said, the future actually looks good in this regard. Microsoft has been on the right path for the last few years, and Sony has seemingly got the train back on the rails with PS5's ability to play PS4 games. Nintendo is still an unknown, but if their next system resembles the Switch (and not some radically different design), then it's likely the games will carry over.

I'd like to see all three companies make an effort to beef up their retro offerings. They should add more classic content (even from other companies' systems--Atari, Sega, NEC, SNK, etc.), and ensure that these games can be carried over to any future systems that they sell. This would go a long way to bring the video game industry in line with what consumers expect from other forms of digital media, such as movies, music, and books.

He later clarified he meant digitally.

 

[StateofMajora]

I don't know, Sony are pretty big assholes. Wouldn't surprise me if ps6 didn't work with 4.

This post doesn't mean the other 2 wouldn't drop BC, but yeah. Sony I have the most doubts on

 

[lordrand11]

That is where the mistake lies. You do not own the digital games, you have only acquired a right of use that lasts until the provider decides to take the games or the entire store offline. That's why I continue to rely on physical copies.

You can't be sure, future consoles will be backwards compatible for the games you buy now more stores will be online forever.

The suckiest part of even buying physical is that games are shipped in broken formats so unless you have the original update data backed up you're still SoL or at the best with a game that's tolerable. This isn't the N64 and GCN days where they would just issue a rev 1.1 to fix a small technical or gamebreaking issue.

 

[Kupfer]

The suckiest part of even buying physical is that games are shipped in broken formats so unless you have the original update data backed up you're still SoL or at the best with a game that's tolerable. This isn't the N64 and GCN days where they would just issue a rev 1.1 to fix a small technical or gamebreaking issue.

That's true, my Cyberpunk CE without an update will be unplayable in the future...but luckily, most games aren't that broken.