Nintendo: "Why do they not simply charge a monthly subscription to access 40-year-old games people have already bought three times?"

IDK, MS really went all the way with backwards compatibility. They literally built emulators for the 360 and OG Xbox in order to let people play old games using old disks they already owned.

I'd be shocked if they didn't stay committed to this.

They could stand to make a bunch of money reselling old games with 4k, vrr, HDR, and calling it remastered.

It was still running?!

They are loosing to Sony so they have to find new ways of competing for business. You know, how it's supposed to work.

Wish it worked that way more often.

It’s future backward compatibility.

Ensuring that future titles have a preservation plan as part of the development?

I think that just means not making any crazy technological decisions that will likely make games incompatible on future hardware. A great example was the PS3's cell processor. It was excellent tech when used properly, but absolutley not "forward compatible"

I mean Computers basically kind of have it

I should be able to play any games that releases in the next 5 years on my current set up

Think of all the old games that are no longer playable because the master servers are no longer online.

Right? Like isn't that a joke in Homestar

Which they walked back and hacen't tried again since. Their latest console is also still backwards compatible with games from the first xbox.

I'm legitimately hopeful. Won't ever stop the best option from being piracy and open source emulators on PC, but Microsoft's track record for backwards compat is sparkling.

Sure, it's not true hardware based backwards compat. It works by using the disc as a key to download and run a full copy of the original game + an emulation layer customized for the specific game, so if you don't have internet or they pull the plug on their store servers you can't just use the disk alone. If you lose the disc or it breaks, you have to buy the game again from their online store. Also, I've encountered some crashes and minor emulation issues with some titles. Poor, poor Kotor.

It's sad, but that's still leagues better than their competitors in the console market.

Sony makes you buy the old games again on each platform. Standard "Virtual Console" type shit. Thankfully, they usually do this by making a general emulator that homebrew folks can later shove non-supported games into.

Nintendo. Nintendo. Are you shitting me? An ongoing subscription to keep access to the same 30 year old games you've been reselling since the Wii?

You can use homebrew to shove other games in, but you risk a ban from their online services. Also, if you're already doing homebrew, the consoles they offer games for this way on the Switch are more than easily handled by Retroarch running as homebrew.

Mario 3D All Stars? Take all the time and money to get a half port half emulation solution working on the Switch for one Gamecube and and one Wii game, sell it as time limited, don't include the direct sequel to the Wii game that was built on the same fucking game engine in the package... and then never use that tech again? Are you fucking kidding me?

That last one shouldn't surprise me too bad though. They managed to emulate the N64 on the Gamecube, and only used it for Legend of Zelda. Once in a limited preorder bonus for Wind Waker, and also in a limited Nintendo Power magazine bonus disc for subscribing.

To be honest they’ve been doing this for a while with backwards compatibility so it’s continuation to make it forwards compatible as well. It’s a bummer they’re not following up with physical copies but it’s clear there’s been a lack of demand for Xbox games. Seems like they want to go the Steam route which I’m all for.