Most of us here at PCU are long-time gamers – some of us having been doing so since the days of the Atari 2600 & Commodore 64.  In that time, we have seen a lot of consoles come and go, and remember a lot of our favorite games quite fondly.  This brought to mind the topic of backwards compatibility.

With the recent release of Xbox One’s ‘Backwards Compatibility’ list, we started discussing whether or not we were fans of backwards compatibility in consoles.  Some good points have been brought up, but I am still a bit put off that consoles like the PS4 were not backwards compatible upon release.  Here are a couple of reasons why I wanted to see it:

Replay Value

With the release of the PS3 in 2006, came the age of a lot of open-world, multilinear games (the Mass Effect series, Hard Rain, Infamous 1 & 2, etc.) where the choices a player made during the game actually affected the outcome.  This type of storyline added a lot of replay value to the games, and kept a lot of us coming back to them over & over again.

Additionally, there were a lot of games for that generation of consoles that were just so much fun to play, that I really couldn’t see giving them up.

Less space taken up by more consoles

Let’s face it; some of us live in relatively meager places (apartment dwellers unite!).  When we own more than say, 2 consoles, things can get a bit cluttered.  Lots of shelf space gets taken up with multiple consoles AND games, so having a console that is able to play games from the previous generation is a pretty good use of physical space.  That, combined with the ability to swap out your HDD for a bigger version, keeps us all in the games we love, without taking up a lot of our living space.

We automatically have a library of games that we know we like

We’re all gamers here.  We all have genres & series that we like, and are sometimes hesitant to go out on a limb for a game or series that we have never played before.  Let’s say you’re about to go buy your first current-gen game, simply because your father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate recommended it to you, and you end up hating it.  Well, with a backwards compatible console, you can still go back & occupy your time with the games you KNOW you enjoy, and not have to worry about the one on which you just spent your money (hello, trade-in!).

Trade-in values for games on backwards compatible systems are usually higher

This is simply a matter of supply & demand.  If more consoles were backwards compatible, the trade-in value of the previous-gen games for those consoles goes up.  More people would get to discover a genre or series from its previous iterations, thus creating a bigger fan base.  In my opinion, this is a win-win for consumers AND developers.

Backwards compatibility does several great things: It offers gamers with limited physical space access to their already-paid-for library of games (without the need for a huge set-up).  It keeps support & communities alive for older favorites, and it lets us continue exploring worlds that we know and love.  We’d love to hear your thoughts on this.  If you’re pro-backwards compatibility like me, or just want to tell me why you think I’m wrong, let me know in the comments!