Backwards compatibility is one of the go-to requests by gamers on consoles. After all, making the previous catalogue of games playable on current consoles not only incentivizes people to buy new hardware but also removes the headache of owning unplayable games.
Nintendo and Xbox are two companies that have consistently provided the feature. And Nintendo director acknowledges it has become easier than ever.
In the latest financial result publication, investors enquired if the company is discussing offering backward compatibility on newer hardware. Shigeru Miyamoto, the director of Nintendo and famed game director, acknowledged that it is easier than ever to provide backwards compatibility.
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Unfortunately, Miyamoto didn’t state in which direction future Nintendo consoles will go.
“In the past, we provided a service known as the ‘Virtual Console’ that allowed users to play older video games on new consoles with newer hardware,” Miyamoto said (translation via VGC). “As long as the hardware remained unchanged, those games could continue to be played.”
“Of course, video games developed for dedicated consoles were created in different development environments for each console,” he continued. “As a result, when the hardware changed, the development environment could not necessarily be reused, and so the video games that had been released on older consoles could not be played on newer consoles without additional modification.”
“Recently, however, the development environment has increasingly become more standardised, and we now have an environment that allows players to enjoy older video games on newer consoles more easily than ever before.”
He concluded by saying that the strength of Nintendo lies in creating new video game experiences. He also said that with future hardware, they would like to showcase games created with pre-existing hardware.
