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
Windows PCs have been based on the same basic software for decades, Microsoft Disc Operating System, or MS-DOS. Even after moving fully to the Windows GUI systems of today, DOS has operated in the background and is still accessible via Console programs.
Everything from the file systems to the file types are just additions to the old system. Really old programs don’t work as well without tweaking, but that is just a matter of slowing the machine down to work with older clock speeds.
Consoles, on the other hand, are rebuilt from the ground up, usually. Xbox (not surprisingly a Microsoft product) built the new software and hardware close enough that the new consoles play old games. The Nintendo Wii and Playstations 2 both had hardware designed to play Gamecube and PS1 games, respectively.
But the architecture of a PS5 is so wildly different from the PS3 that the only way to allow for backwards compatibility is through Streaming. It would be like trying to install a Mac game onto a Windows PC. It just doesn’t work.
Latest Answers