why is “backwards incompatibility” a problem on consoles and not on pc when they’re basically just the same electronic parts (cpu, gpu, ram)
In: 7
Hardware is different from old consoles and in most cases not available nor compatible with old game media. This results in a form of emulation needing occur to play the old games.
Electronic components have evolved rapidly over the last 20 years, resulting in old stuff getting replaced. Hardware is not just some sort of magical Lego block you can toss together and have it function like somthing else. (Not a suitable ELi5 topic imo)
On a PC we have access to niche third party input methods and data replay methods making emulation of hardware a breeze.
For a console it’s all proprietary hardware and software, so the companies who make modern console either just can’t justify increase costs or size by adding old hardware into them. As far as let’s say CD based game media they could read the data then emulate the old hardware to play the games using the original media. Essentially it’s cheaper for them to just port that all over via software so it functions similar to the wii-u or switches virtual consoles as an example.
TLDR: it’s niche and costs more/takes up more space/ old hardware isn’t available, so console creators just don’t do it.
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