Hardware Why make a console that is backwards compatible ?

[Guild McCommunist]

PS3 does play MP3 files, what are you babbling about?

Wii U plays discs so therefore it does technically play CDs, that being, Nintendo's own BD discs.

I meant PS4, sorry.

My point is that you're criticizing the PS4 for not playing MP3's when the Wii U can't even play a music CD. The PSX could do that. C'mon.

 

[emigre]

Just read this thread. It made me giggle.

 

[WiiCube_2013]

I meant PS4, sorry.

My point is that you're criticizing the PS4 for not playing MP3's when the Wii U can't even play a music CD. The PSX could do that. C'mon.

Even the Saturn could play Music CDs which neither PS4 or XO can to this day which is awkward because it should be playable since day-one.

I don't mind the Wii U not being able to play because I use it for games not media.

 

[Foxi4]

...people still buy music on CD's from... like... stores?

...do you also buy cassette tapes? Should the XBox One and the PS4 have a cassette deck built-in? What about vinyl records?

 

[Qtis]

Even the Saturn could play Music CDs which neither PS4 or XO can to this day which is awkward because it should be playable since day-one.
I don't mind the Wii U not being able to play because I use it for games not media.

So let me get this straight. You're criticising the the PS4 and XBOne for not being able to do X and saying it doesn't matter the WiiU doesn't do the same X since you use it for games? Good luck with that. The WiiU is being advertised as a media box just like the rest of them. Both officially (retailers and ads) as well as unofficially (users, reviews, etc).

Also at the previous comment of the PS4 not having games coming out, you're wrong. It has quite a few notable games coming out in 2014. Just like the XBOne. Both games from first party developers and third party developers. If your only critique for Sony's and Microsoft's consoles is lack of games, you could just as well kill the WiiU. It's in the same situation or even, according to some, in a worse situation after about a year more in the market.

ps. I've got a PS4, but not a WiiU or XBOne. Still I've played more than 200 hours, probably closer to 300 hours on the WiiU. Probably more titles than the average WiiU owner due to a friend doing reviews for one of my country's largest gaming shows (TV, online, magazine, etc).

Being critical is not a bad thing. If it's baseless critique, then it's a completely different matter. One of the reasons I see merit in many people here. Not just baseless bashing (albeit bashing does happen too). Opinions have some kind of factual base for them.

pps. CD =/= DVD =/= BD. You don't call a bicycle a car even though it's meant for moving from a place to another :3

 

[osirisjem]

Should the XBox One and the PS4 have a cassette deck built-in? What about vinyl records?

Me
Want
8 track

8 track for the youngins.

 

[Foxi4]

Saying that the PS4 and the XBox One have no games coming up for 2014 is the equivalent of being completely delirious lol.

 

[RodrigoDavy]

With nowadays technology letting us easily plug our laptops in our TVs to watch full hd movies, is it even necessary to discuss console's support to obsolete disc formats?

 

[WiiCube_2013]

Probably more titles than the average WiiU owner due to a friend doing reviews for one of my country's largest gaming shows (TV, online, magazine, etc).

If he's really doing reviews then it's no wonder that she should play them for long amounts of time.

Still, I wouldn't trust him, I'd rather listen to Angry Joe because he's honest.

 

[Qtis]

If he's really doing reviews then it's no wonder that he should play them for long amounts of time.

Reviewing WiiU games usually requires more than one person, especially due to the local multiplayer options for many games. I was talking about myself playing that amount of time. My friend has played a lot more (having a review WiiU before launch and all), but as he owns the games (the review versions (complete versions, but not for resale in any situation) aren't much use after the review anyways), I get to play quite a few games .

 

[blaisedinsd]

I love it.

I loved it on PS2 and its alright on PS3. On PS2 I went ahead and gave some one my old PS1 since I could play all my games on my console.

I never would have played some great GBA games if it were not for DS lite backward compatibility.

I never would have played some great Gamecube games if it were not for Wii backward compatibility.

Some people are only about the newest latest and greatest games, but I love to keep my games and go back and play them and to go ahead in to the re-sale market and find great games I missed out on.

 

[osirisjem]

I never would have played some great Gamecube games if it were not for Wii backward compatibility.

If the Wii U 2 doesn't have backwards capability, you could always buy a Wii U.
Xbox 1 is out, but Xbox 360 is outselling Wii Us by a significant margin.

 

[blaisedinsd]

Say what?

 

[osirisjem]

Say what?

Consoles don't need backwards compatibility.
If you want to play the old games, buy the old console.

Nintendo needs to release a good home console that people want.
The last thing on their minds should be backwards compatibility.

 

[Foxi4]

Consoles don't need backwards compatibility.
If you want to play the old games, buy the old console.

Nintendo needs to release a good home console that people want.
The last thing on their minds should be backwards compatibility.

To build up on this idea, I'm just going to say that any and all customers in any way interested in PS3/360/Wii games had time to acquire a PS3/360/Wii - 8-9 years in fact. If you still haven't then you're not interested and don't have a solid argument. If you are and have a stack of games you'd like to play, you also probably have the system to go with them. If you want to trade that system in for the next generation one and stay capable of playing your collection, both Sony and Microsoft released budget editions of their previous generation systems specifically for that purpose.

If you're still unconvinced then you're just picky, really - it's not like you'd get big bucks for trading the system in - likely less than it'd cost Sony or Microsoft to implement it, and by proxy, it would cost you. Abandoning backwards compatibility allowed for slashing the prices of next gens substantially. If you were to have backwards compatibility in the XBox One or the PS4 and keep the specs they have now, you'd practically have to add the price of a 360 or a PS3 on-top of the current price, inflating it to a ridiculous level for the sake of the very small benefit of backwards compatibility about which you'd almost immediately forget once next generation games start rolling out.

To summarize, backwards compatibility appeals to the small niche of game collectors who stack up their oldies, but those keep the systems anyways so what's the point? It does have general appeal, but it's only brief - once new games come out, users generally forget about the old ones.

 

[FAST6191]

Backwards compatibility as a means of feeding off a less than successful previous console... an interesting idea.

 

[RodrigoDavy]

Gbatemp's double standard:

- You don't need Backward Compatibility because you can buy the older console for a low price.
- DVD/Blu-Ray playback is absolutely essential despite the fact that you can buy a DVD/BD player for a low price.

 

[Foxi4]

Gbatemp's double standard:

- You don't need Backward Compatibility because you can buy the older console for a low price.
- DVD/Blu-Ray playback is absolutely essential despite the fact that you can buy a DVD/BD player for a low price.

How is that a double-standard? When a console is equipped with a BluRay drive, there's absolutely no reason on Earth why it shouldn't support BluRay playback. The average user doesn't want to have a quadrillion boxes connected to the TV - just one is sufficient. In addition, the average user doesn't buy a next gen system to play last gen games... because they're last gen.

In the case of backwards compatibility, you have to design the system to support it when its specs make emulation impossible, which is the case with the PS4 and the XBox One, and this inflates the price. To support a disc-based media format when the drive already supports it, you just have to enable it in the OS and pay a small royalty fee. It's sort of a Scourge McDuck move not to allow for its support in this case.

I see what you're driving at though and it's a good point.

 

[blaisedinsd]

Consoles don't need backwards compatibility.
If you want to play the old games, buy the old console.

Nintendo needs to release a good home console that people want.
The last thing on their minds should be backwards compatibility.

But i don't need to buy a gamecube or a GBA to play those old games and I don't want to.

Your arguments are silly. Backwards compatibility adds value. Whether or not it's important to you is irrelevant.

If anything, it is becoming a better and better proposition for the consumer since launch game libraries are pretty lacking and the jump between console generations is becoming smaller and smaller.

I hear all the time how annoying it is for PS4 and Xbone owners to have to keep their old consoles around when they would rather not. You have things like walking dead still coming out on the older consoles and not the new ones yet and having your games saves tied to your old hardware. Heck God of War 2 came out for PS2 and not PS3 and the developers were like well you can play the game on your PS3 too. Are you actually trying to say these people would not want to be able to play their old content on their new consoles? Those old systems are not dead yet, and not having BC is an annoyance.

 

[the_randomizer]

Sure there is, it's called paying royalties and licensing fees. They don't want to pay them.