Why is it that a PC can play games from the Xbox generation of games -> Xbox One generation of games, yet the Xbox One cannot do the same thing?

I'm not trying to troll, it just boggles my mind that people fully justify the Xbox One and PS4 for a lack of backwards compatibility, yet the PC has been doing BC for generations of games.

Especially now that the new consoles are pushing digital when PC games are mostly digital (and digital games on PC have no problem with BC).


Edit: To clarify, my real problem is not with physical disks but more with digital BC (XBLA, PSN games). I don't understand why the architecture of the new consoles is so much different to prevent BC when the PC can easily play games from multiple generations of consoles. The value of digital content is ease of use and availability through backwards compatibility. How can you give these new consoles a free pass for short changing its customers and double dipping on digital content?


What is the incentive to buy a digital game on the PS4 when it might not work on the PS5? In this area the PC is a far better value to the consumer because anything they buy digitally will transfer to any PC they buy in the future.

Originally Posted by SaraAB The 360 backwards compatibility works with the most important games, yes it doesn't work with every game, but there isn't too much you miss out on (except for broken sword :( I have definitely gotten use out of the feature. For the other games an original XBox is cheap enough, but it helps if you need space in your entertainment center. My entertainment center for what it is has a ton of space in it, however I only have 2 HDMI ports and they are both full, so for something to come in, something has to go. I even have a whole separate setup with a CRT TV and old systems, its still not enough. I am not really interested in Pokemon Rumble U, I am playing Pokemon Rumble blast on the 3DS and its pretty good (especially for $10 at BB) but I am not sure if I would want to play another installment of this game especially if I have to buy toys that are contained in random capsules. Basically when you are playing Pokemon rumble blast you can't level up your Pokemon and you have to switch Pokemon as you progress, and abandon the old Pokemon so I am not sure how this would translate to purchasing toys. Hopefully you wouldn't have to purchase toys and have to abandon them to purchase higher level toys...

You need a surround sound system. My tv has 4 hdmi in and my receiver has 4 in. That means I can use 7 hdmi devices.

Originally Posted by antlp89 Why is it that a PC can play games from the Xbox generation of games -> Xbox One generation of games, yet the Xbox One cannot do the same thing? I'm not trying to troll, it just boggles my mind that people fully justify the Xbox One and PS4 for a lack of backwards compatibility, yet the PC has been doing BC for generations of games. Especially now that the new consoles are pushing digital when PC games are mostly digital (and digital games on PC have no problem with BC).

The PC isn't using the "Xbox game". It's been ported to PC architecture. They aren't going to then port that again. No one is going to port a port of a 3 year old game.

That's the real reason, there's no profit in it and there IS profit in stopping you from selling your games.

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Originally Posted by antlp89 Why is it that a PC can play games from the Xbox generation of games -> Xbox One generation of games, yet the Xbox One cannot do the same thing? I'm not trying to troll, it just boggles my mind that people fully justify the Xbox One and PS4 for a lack of backwards compatibility, yet the PC has been doing BC for generations of games. Especially now that the new consoles are pushing digital when PC games are mostly digital (and digital games on PC have no problem with BC). Edit: To clarify, my real problem is not with physical disks but more with digital BC (XBLA, PSN games). I don't understand why the architecture of the new consoles is so much different to prevent BC when the PC can easily play games from multiple generations of consoles. The value of digital content is ease of use and availability through backwards compatibility. How can you give these new consoles a free pass for short changing its customers and double dipping on digital content? What is the incentive to buy a digital game on the PS4 when it might not work on the PS5? In this area the PC is a far better value to the consumer because anything they buy digitally will transfer to any PC they buy in the future.

Because they're designed and coded to run on a wide variety of combinations of processor, video card, and any other various parts on a PC whereas console games are designed and coded for just one spec. If that next system isn't built on similar hardware as the prior system, then the ability to emulate or run that older software gets much harder.