this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2026
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Steam could, but it would be an extremely dangerous decision. One of their biggest competitive advantages is they they break users out of the console generation gaps.
Why buying a Steam Deck with all my old games (to say nothing of emulators) was more appealing than a Switch 2.
It’s only a matter of time until consoles make the jump from x86 to ARM. They will kill off the PS4-PS5 generations.
x86 is too inefficient. ARM CPUs match x86 system performance while using a fraction of the energy. This will give future consoles a chance to use a larger GPU.
Edit - that might be the reason why they’re going all digital for PS6. PS6 should run x86 code natively. Maybe PS7 will use an ARM cpu which will not be able to play any PS6 games natively but they will have a streaming service for the older consoles.
We can already run x86 code on ARM, that wont be a viable backwards compatibility excuse for next gen consoles. Xbox and Playstation may try to claim it is a reason, but it will be clear cut bull shit from the start.
Console makers will have little to no incentive to crate or maintain a compatibility layer or emulator. They want to charge extra for it.