32-Bit OS: The New PS3 Limitations?

[KisaiTenshi]

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To address your question of whether support for 32-bit systems in the future, though, I doubt it. If Microsoft had released Win10 as 64-bit only, it might make sense in a few years, but they didn't. So even people running the latest version of Windows might not have 64-bit capability. That'll make it hard for SE to assess the number of affected customers. Few serious gamers would be affected - the restriction on RAM is a deathblow for more demanding games, so 64-bit versions of Windows are required - but casual ones might be.

The problem is that every version of Windows since XP have had a 64-bit version, the only reason 32-bit versions are still available is because enterprise (business) don't like to upgrade hardware.

So many software companies of critical things (eg the lack of 64-bit flash held back Chrome and Firefox, and only this year have the browser vendors moved to just disable it) just dragged their feet until there became more pressure to allow 64-bit security features. (Did you know that 32-bit software can have their memory space inspected by ANY other 32-bit software?) This isn't true for 64-bit software.

Firefox dragged it's feet forever to put out a 64-bit version. So did Chrome. You know who had the first 64-bit browser? Microsoft. Linux and FreeBSD have been able to build firefox and chromium in 64-bit mode since the beginning, but it was never a supported build.

Anyway, it's being dragged off topic, but the idea that "just upgrade your hardware hurrrr" doesn't fly on the PC platform, otherwise every game would only be designed for the highest-end hardware available, instead of the average. The "average" PC hardware is weaker than the PS4.

One of the other more viable reasons to terminate 32-bit software support is to make it harder for bugs to be exploited since memory randomization prevents being able to targeted.