this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2025
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Does emulation count?
It should! It's allowed me to play so many games that are hard to find or expensive these days.
The survey question seems to make it seem like it's referring to original hardware, but I imagine a lot of respondents didn't limit it that way.
With emulation being common even officially these days (NSO, emulated games on Steam, etc), I think it's fair to factor that in as well.
I still own my real SNES from circa-1995, but I'd rather play on an emulator than put wear and tear on it, so yes.
Yes, the survey summary below shows no exceptions for physical hardware vs emulation in the question
https://article.images.consumerreports.org/image/upload/v1718112414/prod/content/dam/surveys/Consumer_Reports_AES_May_2024.pdf
The percentage should be way, way higher, then, since lots of people use the emulators on Nintendo Switch Online.
It's May 2024 data from 2022 respondents, biased towards people willing to respond to pretty long consumer surveys. I have similar suspicions you'd see a higher % from a larger sample size or reporting from video game platform and store owners who can differentiate that better than your average consumer.
A lot of people using official channel emulators probably don't think of it as emulation. I have one of the original style PS3 systems where it had PS2 hardware to play the older games. Does that count as emulation or using an older system? Hard to say where one draws the line.
I've been tinkering with Canoe (the emulator the SNES Classsic and NSO both use) for years, so it's very much emulation to me. Compatibility is so-so, but performance on weak hardware is really good, better than any unofficial SNES emulator. The launch PS3 does not count as emulation for PS2, but every version after does.
Only if you use an emulator released before the year 2000.