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I bought a bunch of games for console over the years that I can't play any more.

I have about a dozen games on the switch. In another console generation, nintendo will make all my existing switch games unplayable again. I feel like you don't really buy console games. You rent them for one console generation.

I mean, I can't tell whats worse - that Nintendo has the gall to try and sell me the same game for switch that I already bought retail on the Wii several years ago. Or that I can't play a lot of my old Wii games at all any more.

But every year I end up picking up more and more games on steam. So many games. I have hundreds, and so do most of my friends. And all of those games keep running on every PC I own.

That's the value proposition of a steam box. It ships with hundreds of games that I already own and already enjoy. Fancy playing bioshock again? Sure. Factorio? Yeah hit me. Dota? Cyberpunk? Terraria? Stardew Valley? Lets go.

How do the console makers compete with that?



Switch 2 plays all* switch 1 games.

Xbox series plays all xbox one and even a bunch of xbox 360 games

Ps5 plays all* ps4 games

Every console has moved to essentially off the shelf soc so backwards compatiblity comes as a side effect


Once burned, twice shy. It’s going to take a few more generations to see how long they actually maintain that compatibility for going forward.

I suspect consoles will move to arm chips at some point. When they do, will Sony and Nintendo bother making a Rosetta type layer for backwards compatibility to play the games they’re selling now? I doubt it. We’ll see.


It wouldn't be the first time.




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