So, I made a post on Facebook yesterday that seemed to have rubbed a couple people the wrong way. "So the Switch can play GameCube games... did you misplace your GameCube?" I figured I'd write a blog about that, although I already intended to, just to clarify why I made that post.
I would just like to state that I acknowledge the importance of backwards compatibility and have been a proponent since Sony started removing the Emotion Engine chips from later generation PlayStation 3s, thus slowly ending backwards compatibility for their products. I still wish the PlayStation 4 had full backwards compatibility and still scoff at MS for such a low number of backwards compatible 360 games. Why then, did I make that comment?
Because apparently, playing GameCube games on the Switch is the most important feature of Nintendo's new system, and I just think that's sad. People should be buying new consoles to play new games, because really, if you just wanted to play GameCube games, you should go buy a GameCube, or have kept yours if you had one. True, the Switch will now let you play GameCube games on the go, which is a great feature, but at the end of the day, you bought a new system to play old games.
As I said before, I'm a proponent for backwards compatibility and tried to champion for Sony to have BC for their PlayStation 4, but what I found out after I bought the PlayStation 4 is I started playing PlayStation 4 games with it. My PS3 remained turned off for the most part. Not having BC on the PlayStation 4 wasn't that big of a deal after all, because they did a decent job of keeping games coming out for the platform. Personally, if I wanted to keep playing my Xbox One, I would have seen BC being a far more important feature, because I still have plenty of 360 games left to play. With Nintendo and their Virtual Console, they have quite a large library of games to play on the Wii U, but not nearly enough Wii U games.
So I'm back to BC being a crutch. People are saying that now that the Switch can play GameCube games, they'll now buy a Switch. THAT was the selling point? THAT was the clincher? You didn't want a Switch for... I dunno, Switch games... but now you want one because it can play 15 year old games? That's like buying a car, but you're still riding the bus.
Of course, it could just be that people are excited to talk about the GC BC because Nintendo has released virtually nothing about their launch library, so what else is there to talk about, and that's another can of worms entirely. It is worrisome that with a system so close to release, we still don't know what the exact date is, the price, or what the launch titles will be. What is 2017 going to be like? How many Switch games are planned, and how many of those are NOT ports? It's been more than four years, and the Wii U's four month launch window drought still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I guess if I get a Switch and there's no new Switch games coming out, I could just play a GameCube game...
Honestly, though, the main drive for a new system should be new games. If you put out a new system and highlight the fact that it's backward compatible and will have a large library of older games, you're attracting more people to your console, which is a good thing. At the same time, you're relieving pressure to make new games to attract people to your console who don't care about older ones, which is a bad thing, and we all know Nintendo takes forever to make games. It really does suck for all of us. Just remember, if you bought a Switch to play old games, you only have those old games to play because Nintendo had to keep making new games to sell their older systems. I doubt you're going to have many Switch games to play on your new Nintendo 20 years down the line...
