• lennivelkant
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    3 months ago

    Why would you want backwards compatibility? To play games you already own and like instead of buying new ones? Now now, don’t be ridiculous.

    Sarcasm aside, I do wonder how technically challenging it is to keep your system backwards-compatible. I understand console games are written for specific hardware specs, but I’d assume newer hardware still understands the old instructions. It could be an OS question, but again, I’d assume they would develop the newer version on top of their old, so I don’t know why it wouldn’t support the old features anymore.

    I don’t want to cynically claim that it’s only done for profit reasons, and I’m certainly out of my depth on the topic of developing an entire console system, so I want to assume there’s something I just don’t know about, but I’m curious what that might be.

    • john89@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      It’s my understanding that backwards-compatible PS3s actually had PS2 hardware in them.

      We can play PS2 and PS1 games if they are downloaded from the store, so emulation isn’t an issue. I think Sony looked at the data and saw they would make more money removing backwards compatibility, so that’s what they did.

      Thankfully the PS3 was my last console before standards got even lower and they started charging an additional fee to use my internet.