E3: Wii U To Lose Gamecube Compatibility, Friend Codes
After the announcement of the Wii U on Tuesday at E3, people have been clamoring for as much information about the new Nintendo system. Well today I have some good news and bad news for you. Which do you want to hear first?
Ok then, the bad news is the Wii U will have no Gamecube backwards compatibility. Giant Bomb dropped the…story yesterday. In an interview with the head of Nintendo PR, Mark Franklin, word came out that Eternal Darkness fans might not want to hear. This is a bit of a disappointment, but there has yet to be a game console to allow backwards compatibility for games two console generations old (other than the various Game Boys and their titles), so I guess it’s not a surprise.
And now the good news: Wii U may possibly do away with friend codes. MTV Multiplayer came across this bit of info yesterday during a demo of the Wii U’s Ghost Recon Online. Ubisoft producer Adrian Blunt was quoted as saying that, for GRO at least, “rather than using friend codes, which we’ve had in the past, we’re able to connect players in a much easier way.” While it would’ve been nice for Nintendo to get rid of those awful friend codes in this current generation, it’s at least nice to hear we may not have to worry about that the next time around.
News Tags: E3, friend codes, gamecube, Ghost Recon, Wii U
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“but there has yet to be a game console to allow backwards compatibility for games two console generations old (other than the various Game Boys and their titles), so I guess it’s not a surprise.”
So you’ve never heard of the Playstation 3, but you write for a gaming site? Regardless, previous consoles’ backwards compatability status has no bearing on what a current console will do. The entirety of this quoted, false, factoid reads like useless filler to pad out word count.
“but there has yet to be a game console to allow backwards compatibility for games two console generations old”
I play PS1 games on my PS3 all the time… ;) just sayin’.
My PS3 can’t play PS1 discs…. can it?
Every PS3 can play PS1 games. As can every PSP.
How does the disc fit into the PSP? And how does my PS1 storage unit and controller fit into my PS3?
I think Jon’s saying no console gives simple, full backwards compatibility (where you use the old storage devices, controllers, discs and don’t have to pay extra) for the current gen and previous two generations. Which is correct as far as I know.
I can get old Nintendo games on the Wii’s virtual console, but I wouldn’t regard that as backwards compatibility.
You create a virtual memory card on the PS3. It works, I’ve been partial to tony hawks pro skater 2 now and then.
@Ben Stead: but still, I can’t use my old game saves can I? I’ll stop now before I get too pedantic here. I just wanted to defend Jon and point out it’s not a black and white thing :)
When it launched, a card reader also launched that let you transfer your PS1/PS2 saves to the PS3 HDD. The Sixasis worked for both previous generations. PS1/2 saves just natively went to the hard drive if you started from scratch.
John, your argument is crap and is simply just trying to justify your buddy’s use of “never” without knowing what the hell he was talking about.
@darklordjames: “your argument is crap”? Hey now buddy, I (and I guess Jon) was just saying the PS3 isn’t backwards compatible out the box with either PS2 or PS1 games, which it’s not as far as I know (if I have a PS1 game and a PS1 memory unit, then I go to the shop and buy a PS3, I can’t play my game).
No need to pretend like this is super important, or be rude, or an arse. This isn’t YouTube.
Well now, this discussion got interesting while I was away.
John is right, I meant hard-copy backwards compatibility only goes as far back as the previous generation (except with the original DS). I do realize that you can get NES games on your Wii, PSX games on the PS3, and arcade games on Xbox Live. But that’s different than being backwards compatible.
“I meant hard-copy backwards compatibility only goes as far back as the previous generation”
And again, you can put your original PS1 disc in to a PS3 and it works just fine. You can’t plug in your PS1 controller, but who cares, as the Sixaxis/DS3 is the same thing but without the wire and hopefully one came with your PS3. I can walk downstairs right now, take my Dragon Quest VII disc out of my PS1 and place it in to my PS3, watching it boot up just fine. If I had cared to buy an original PS3, I could also then do the same thing taking my original Shadow Of The Colossus disc out of my PS2 and place it in to my PS3, again watching my game boot up beautifully. If I had then bothered to pick up the dirt-cheap $15 card reader, I could even use my original saves from both previous generation consoles.
It’s fairly simple. Your original statement was factually wrong. Instead of weaseling around, all I ask is that you own up to your error.
Of everything that Sony got shockingly wrong on the PS3, and still struggles with to this day, their two-generations-back backwards compatibility was done beautifully. Well, until they broke it in later hardware revisions, that is.