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This-gen gaming consoles and backwards compatibility

Will the old games play on the new consoles? Some games that didn't play now do. Others that did, now don't. Can't these companies make things a little easier on us?

Joystiq reported that the Microsoft people recently added compatibility for more old Xbox games to the Xbox 360. This is kind of odd news since the Xbox 360 has been out for a long time (long enough for the updated Elite to be released), so you'd think they'd put the back-compat issue to rest. Still, it's cool to play the old games, especially if you have some you like, but weren't popular enough to warrant subsequent sequels.

Although, that news wasn't as odd as the news out of Sony saying the new 80GB version of the Playstation 3 will be less back-compat than the first version PS3. How do you manage to update a system but make it less usable? It's no wonder that the Nintento Wii is outselling both these companies. The Wii takes back-compat to religious levels with support for Gamecube, N64, SNES, NES, and Genisis.

All this just confirms my earlier decision to sit out on this generation of consoles. It has not been easy, but I'll wait for the next-gen or until the prices for this-gen come way down. A Jostiq commenter summed it up nicely:

All I have to say is that both MS and Sony are making buying a gaming console much more complicated and difficult than it should be. Hopefully this gen turns into a dismal failure for both so they learn and go back to simplicity on the PS4 and Xbox 3.