How much do you REALLY care about backwards compatability?

[Siresly]

It's always a cool, fun thing that's nice to have, especially for games beyond the past generation, or as the games grow more distant.
Think my EU PS3 is software emulation, but it was really cool to put those PS1 demo discs in it and have them work.
Bring back black backs of discs, Sony. And make the PS5 play PS1 games.

And I get the appeal of backpat during this initial transitional period for consoles.
The performance and visual upgrades for "last-gen" games you're still playing or that are still coming out, can be quite immense.

I'll get the same effect when I buy a new PC.
This PC is basically in the process of becoming minimum spec. Descending down the settings while the game continues not running great, bums me out and kind of puts me off playing some games. So it'll be real nice just nonchalantly flipping all the settings to max for all games 2018 and beyond.

For consoles I've generally not used it much. Perhaps in part because support has been far from 100%. I think that's made me kind of dismiss it as a thing. Gets sorted into the "it's early access work in progress beta not a real thing yet" section of my brain.

But it is why I still have my copy of Hulk Ultimate Destruction.
And I wouldn't have bought a WiiU if it wasn't for its full Wii backpat. Never had a Wii, so being able to play that whole library was significant value to me.

Suppose I care a lot. But it depends.

 

[AndrewDean84]

More than any generation before.

 

[yyr]

I love backwards compatibility!

I have a very, very long backlog spanning multiple generations. I have already taken advantage of XB1's BC many times, and my Vita is chock full of games, many of which are PS1 and PSP games I never got around to. These are the two platforms I play on the most, and BC is a large part of why.

As far as your Diablo III question: I think it'll depend on whether you want the portability that Switch provides. One could argue that XCloud might provide access to the XB1 version of Diablo III in the future, but at the moment, only Game Pass is being promised, so I don't think we can count on that. Plus, I'm not sure how you feel about latency, but I'll always prefer a local game to a streamed one, unless it's turn-based, a visual novel, or something else that doesn't have much action in it.

For three generations, spanning GameCube through Wii U, Nintendo used the same type of hardware in their consoles. This saved them money and enabled easy backwards compatibility. I would hope that they see the value in continuing this approach going forward, and that we'll be able to play our Switch software for a very long time. But in all the years I've been playing video games, one thing I've learned is that you can't predict Nintendo, ever.

So I would say the answer to your Diablo III question, OP, depends on whether you place a greater value on portability or backwards compatibility. But the game is on sale for $24 on Xbox at the moment ($20 if you have Gold), so if that sways your decision, go nuts lol

 

[Gold!e]

A lot.

Let's put it this way, when I built my PC back in 2015 I was way more excited to finally be able to use PCSX2 + Dolphin than actually buy any games on Steam/EGS.

Even then, I'm pretty sure most of the games I've bought & beaten on Steam are games I already owned on old consoles.

Sony & Nintendo having such a long legacy of systems and classic games, imo it's pretty shameful how they're handling BC compared to Microsoft. With it being the 20th anniversary of the PS2 soon, I'm hoping for a crumb of acknowledgement from the former.

 

[Mokubba]

I only care for PS4 back compat, for older games I prefer either remasters or remakes.

Click to shrink...

This right here

 

[skeezx]

my idea of reasonable BC is to span the past gen vis a vis "plug n play".

going forward it should be standard given the similar architecture. like i expect ps7 to play everything i bought on the 'playstation' platform from 2013 onward

but i find it weird people scream and throw beer cans about not being able to play a disc they bought in 2006 today on modern hardware

 

[Mr. Nice_Guy]

A lot. It's a reason why I haven't really purchased a lot of multiplatform games in the last few years. Once I'm done with school I'm planning on building on gaming PC, and then I'll never have to think twice about how I'm going to revisit an old game.

 

[Shadow of the Void]

A lot. There are still a fair amount of older games I replay at least on occasion. Because of compatibility issues, many of them I have to still play on the original hardware. Some of them have been re-released on newer systems, sometimes in a remastered form, and I have bought a few of those, which means my copy of the original doesn't see much if any use, but not all got that treatment.

But in general, I have made regular use of backwards compatibility whenever it's been an option. I replayed PS1 games on my PS2. I replayed Halo 1 & 2 on my 360 on a regular basis. I replay 360 games on my XBO. And there are current-gen releases that I would like to be able to keep playing on PS5 & XSX (and the near-certain promise of performance boosts and possibly other improvements for at least some titles is enticing). While I don't ever get rid of old consoles, BC would allow me to free up space in my entertainment center and consolidate as much of my library as possible into fewer systems.

 

[rokkerkory]

I care a fair amount. I want to be able to play games I bought for generations and not have to keep so many plastic boxes.

 

[QisTopTier]

With the rise of digital sales I feel like backwards compatibility is more important than ever before.

 

[civet]

What about games you missed?

Click to shrink...

That's right, you've surely got a point there! Althought it didn't happen that I've missed a game I was interested in so far. I always keep my gaming systems, only the Dreamcast has died on me but I played everything I wanted on it before that happened. Ports and remakes have rescued most of "must play" games.

 

[ShivereZ]

I care about Gen 8 compatibility. Beyond that, I don't really care... I don't play much of Gen 7 or older. In a couple of years, I might no longer care about Gen 8 as well.

 

[Deleted member 31817]

That's right, you've surely got a point there! Althought it didn't happen that I've missed a game I was interested in so far. I always keep my gaming systems, only the Dreamcast has died on me but I played everything I wanted on it before that happened. Ports and remakes have rescued most of "must play" games.

Click to shrink...

Yeah like for me I lost my PS1 somehow, my PS2 broke, my Wii is eternally at my dad's house because of Wii Sports Golf (lol) and my GBA broke as well.

 

[Stoof]

A lot, my base PS4 needs to never to touched again.

 

[Stinkinmushroom]

I don't. I never played a game from a previous generation on a current console

 

[THube]

It's not even about replaying games for me-- there's just so many games on these old systems that I never got to play in the first place that are still worth dipping into. I'm doing my first playthru of RDR1 on my Xbox One right now, since I was Nintendo-only a decade ago. And I was able to snag a disc from a local shop for 8 bucks. Amazing stuff.

 

[The Lord of Cereal]

I really like it. I'm only 19 right now, which means that there are a lot of great 360 and OG Xbox games that I missed out on the first time around (not to mention the PS2) and I really like that any time I'm at my local retro game store I can easily play a good majority of the 360 games on my Xbox One with increased performance and anti-aliasing, and I like that I can play a good majority of the OG Xbox games on my 360 with increased anti-aliasing and better upscaling to my TV. In the past couple of years, I have played through the Splinter Cell series for the first time (and they are all 4k on Xbox One X!!), a good amount of the Assassin's Creed games (though to be fair, I have gotten all of them for free anyway through Xbox/Ubisoft giveaways on PC), Panzer Dragoon Orta, Psychonauts, Black and various other amazing games.

I picked up a fat PS3 like 4 or 5 years back and have gone through four of them. Eventually last year I bought a bunch of cheap broken PS2s (9 systems in total, 4 regular 5 slim, none of which are the same model...) so that I can finally play my PS2 games with some manner of relief that I am not going to lose the system for long if it breaks. I love being able to just pick up any interesting looking PS2 game at either of my local game stores and playing it. I had even said for a good while before the next gen systems were revealed that despite being an Xbox first guy, I would gladly buy a PS5 first if it had an Xbox One or even just PS3 like (software, not hardware btw) approach to backwards compatibility to it's legacy systems and allowing me to use my own disks. It sucks that I can't play all of the old Jak and Daxter games, the Ratchet and Clank games, the God of War games etc on PS4 or 5.

 

[brawndolicious]

I think everybody cares about BC for at least 5% of the games they play. There are certain games that just enter your Forever Library.

 

[Eugene's Axe]

If the PS5 enhances PS4 exclusives I care a lot. If not, I still care somewhat because I probably want to get rid of my PS4.

Click to shrink...

Exactly this.

 

[Phendrana]

I care quite a bit, but I'd still be getting a PS5 even if it didn't have backwards compatibility.

It's just massively convenient. I still have a decent backlog of PS4 games to get to, and don't want to have to keep the Pro set up just for that.

I probably wouldn't be considering getting the PS5 close to launch if not for BC, though. It being there means that in the absolute worst case scenario if most games get delayed, that I will essentially have an even better PS4 Pro in the meantime.

 

[Chuck795]

Only care about it being BC with PS4. I've played the older gens enough and don't need to revisit anything. More BC is nice, but it doesn't really entice me at all.

 

[Green]

Care level highest than ever.

 

[Castia]

Very little. Been playing video games for 30 years and the amount of times I've revisited an old console/previous gen game is next to none.

 

[Storm]

A lot. I still have my 360 hooked up for the few games that never transferred across to Xbox One

 

[MZZ]

Looking forward to playing/replaying my PS4 games on PS5. It's one of the biggest selling point to me and reason why I am going in day one.

I am excited to see what improvements are done to PS4 games. I did the same when I got a PS4 Pro, testing each of my games and seeing the improvements. I love doing that kind of stuff on PC whenever I made an upgrade.

So yeah, I am glad that at least PS4 BC with potential for improvements is there. I'd love to have a boost mode as well even if there will be bugs.

 

[Alienhated]

The day i will only care about the next big games coming out i'll know that i've become yet another braindead consumerist.

There's an huge patrimony of timeless masterpiece on PS1, PS2 and PS3, even just the ones that are already on PSN, and not being able to enjoy them on PS5 is going to be terrible and against every kind of ecosystem talk Sony is going to use to get people on board on their next console.

 

[EloKa]

I'm mostly playing on PC and only sometimes on PS4 / Switch / mobile atm. It happens quiet often that I play something that is 10 or even 20 years old mostly to satisfy my nostalgia for my all-time-favorite PC games even if I play those games only for 10 minutes until I get tired of the graphics. It's not the biggest advantage of PC gaming but beeing able to play pretty much anything from the last 30 years is still a nice feature and creates the biggest game library in the world.

Just imagine beeing able to play all the Nintendo / Sony / Microsoft / Sega / NeoGeo (and so on) that you bought years ago but on the newest hardware revision.

 

[LongLivePlay94]

Full backwards compatibility on PlayStation 5 with enhancements from PS1 to PS3 software is my dream.

 

[Marengo]

I used to think it was important to have. But when I had it on the PS2 & PS3, I found that I didn't use it at all. So now it's not important to me at all.

 

[shintoki]

A shit ton.

1. Nice to sell the old system and keep the few games I'd like to play again.
2. Primarily playing on PC, I've played Dragon's Dogma, Doom 64, Quake Live/Champions, Rocket League, Diablo III, CSGo, FFXIII, and one or two other games. I think Quake Champions is the newest game I've played. Rocket League, CSGo, Diablo 3, Quake Live/QC, Dragon's Dogma, and FFXIII are all titles I played previous as well.

 

[Pleasant!]

I would say not much, but then looking back at the last 10 games or so I've played, half of them are old or remasters/remakes. I'd say i'm satisfied having this gen on next gen consoles, anything additional, like in Xbox's case is just an added nice bonus. And on my pc this has never been a big problem anyway.

I'm a sucker for remakes though. Still have my ps3 and a copy of Demon's Souls stored away and looking forward to the remake.

 

[Matesamo]

The graphics and gameplay this generation are so good, backwards compat with faster loading opens up tons of great games. It's not like PS1 to PS2 where the games for the most part were not worth revisiting. Hell, even playing 360 games on an XBox One X is great, enjoying Arkham Asylum for the first time as I play through the trilogy before the new Arkham Knights game hits.

 

[Azriell]

A ton. It's great to be able to play older games without holding onto extra hardware, or without having to worry about consoles breaking. I love playing older games, and every generation there's always a lull where I want to revisit the last generation's library.

 

[cardboardboxer]

I bought a Xbox One X after not owning either a PS4 or XB1 because I was so impressed with 360-era 4K compatibility from a technical standpoint.

 

[Naner]

My first contact with a lot of GameCube games was on the Wii. And throughout the lifespan of the 3DS, I still played DS and GBA games on it.

Nowadays, it's mostly a matter of convenience. I'd much rather play a classic game on my Xbox One than having to procure the original platform and physical game.

 

[TechnoSyndrome]

I mainly play on PC but I own an XbonX literally just because of the backwards compatibility program. I would buy a PS5 in a heartbeat if it had full PS1 and 2 compatibility (and 3 would be nice too but i understand that's much harder) but as it stands right now I have zero plans to get a PS5.

 

[indosmoke]

A lot more than I thought I would.
But imo it's the kind of things you have to experience at a large scale.

I downloaded the original Psychonauts on my X1X the other day and I wasn't even impressed (by the BC I mean - the game is a joy to play).
It's a 15 year-old game that I was able to find, download and start playing just as easily as any other modern games, but I've been doing that (for OG XBOX and X360 games) for so many years now that is seems perfectly normal - so I wasn't impressed.
I've got dozens of games like that, sitting in my digital library right next to newer games, and it looks absolutely normal.

I've reached a point where I think it's perfectly normal and expected that I am able to play (some) OG Xbox games and (a lot of) X360 games seamlessly on my X1X, it just seems natural and it's the way it should be. I just cannot imagine going back to a system that can *only* play its games and none of the older ones, it's honestly unthinkable. That's how much I care about BC.

 

[super moustique]

Honestly, close to zero.

I barely have time to play newly released games, let alone replay old games lol.

Click to shrink...

BC also means you'll be able to play games you never played before! :P

 

[Deleted member 22750]

Very important to me.

Especially when games have improved graphics and performance.

Absolutely

 

[Otakunofuji]

I can only assume people that think they don't care probably didn't experience it on Xbox One. It isn't just being able to play your old games, now it's about making your old games even better. Playing 360 or OG Xbox games on Xbox One was a huge improvement in overall experience versus playing them on the original hardware. I fully expect the same enhanced experience with BC on XSX and PS5.

 

[dabri]

It's very nice to have. Especially for the first year or two. After that it starts lose as much importance.
I say this but I've been playing the hell out of some older psx games on vita.

 

[RedSwirl]

It's one of the main reasons PC is my primary platform. I probably play retro games and modern games about equally.

Outside of PC, I'm still buying PS1 games on PSN with the intention to play them on a PS3 hooked up to a CRT.

 

[supernormal]

After playing mainly on PC this gen, I definitely feel like all should be BC at least from this point on. It's so great that I can discover a game from any year, buy it, and just play it on PC.

 

[GrinWithoutaKat]

Over half the games I play in a year are usually from a generation previous to what is current, so not having to keep many old consoles hooked up is a pretty big deal to me.

 

[goodretina]

Backwards compatibility is pretty much the only reason I am considering getting the new Xbox.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

Software? Depends. It was super valuable for PS3 since we were changing over from analog video feed to digital, and thats the gen we started to lose it.

This upcoming gen though, for software. Not much. I still have a PS4 and will still have a PS4, and the 5 wont add much.

Hardware (peripherals) backwards compatibility, I care a fuckload though and its fucking shit to see sony being so terrible about it again

 

[Wulfric]

It's a nice bonus. But old consoles and discs are cheap enough that it usually isn't a hot issue for me.

 

[Darren Lamb]

 

[Good4Squat]

A lot. I regularly go back and play old games I've missed, so backcompat is a very useful feature to me.

 

[Gush]

super important for me. one of the major reasons I gravitated toward PC