While Nintendo has never said it’s working on a next-gen console, Shigeru Miyamoto hinted at better backwards compatibility when asked recently about his plans for a next-gen console.
In the Q&A session following the release of the latest financial report, attendees asked several Nintendo executives whether the company had considered backwards compatibility when developing new hardware internally.
While Shigeru Miyamoto did not specify which direction Nintendo’s future game console would take, he also said that from a technical implementation standpoint, backwards compatibility is easier to achieve than in the past.
Shigeru Miyamoto told the meeting, “In the past, we provided a service called” Virtual Console “(Virtual Console), which allowed users to play old games on new game consoles with newer hardware. As long as the hardware remains No change, these games can continue to be played.
“But as I said before, the publishing rights of games are very complicated and we will add the games only after we get the necessary rights,” he said.
However, games developed for different exclusive game consoles are made in different development environments. Therefore, these development environments may not necessarily be reused after hardware changes. As a result, games developed for older consoles cannot be played on newer consoles without additional processing.
Shigeru Miyamoto said, “But now the development environment is becoming more and more standardized. We now have a new environment that allows players to enjoy older games more easily on new consoles.” He explained that Nintendo’s advantage lies in the creating new games. Therefore, when Nintendo releases new hardware in the future, Nintendo hopes to showcase “unique” games, and these games cannot be created with existing hardware, and only then will new hardware be born.
