As a result, I would expect all companies to either invest in backward compatibility on unprecedented level, or more likely start porting their games to PC (because they will keep being produced), even if that meant selling copies to be used with emulators. When there is money on the table, or perspective of losing money, corporations are really quick to find solutions.
We’re already there. Backwards compatibility is the highest it’s ever been. With the rise of digital stores, popular retro games are on every platform that publishers think they can make money on. Re-releases of popular classics seem to happen all the time.
However, the sad reality is vast majority of those 87% wouldn’t be profitable to release. They are the games that sold poorly on release or have been out of the spotlight for so long that most people have forgotten they even exist. There needs to be work porting the release to new platforms, there are licenses to pay for music and licensed characters. I have no idea if residuals are a thing for video games but if they exist they cost money too. If a game hasn’t been re-released at this point, it’s not becuase there is some backwards compatibility issue; it’s because the bean counters have decided the cost of porting outweighs any sales it may generate. There is no “money left on the table” for them as it would cost more to port than they believe the game’s re-release would ever make. Those games will never be legally re-released and should fall into some sort of public domain.
That’s pretty much what emo/scene was back in the mid 2000s. The more things change, the more things stay the same.