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How important is backwards compatibility to you?

Definitely not a deal breaker for me. I actually find it difficult to play PS3 games now after having had a PS4 since launch. Some are no trouble, like Gran Turismo 6 is still great, but I fired up Uncharted 2 the other night and got pretty bored pretty quickly - which I found odd because I used to worship that game only a few short years ago.
 
SonyToo!™;153220259 said:
Since I have no CRTs or SD adaptors in the house BC with Wii/PS2/OG Xbox and before is very import, I hate how both the Xbox 360 and slim PS3 half assed it's BC, top marks to Nintendo though.
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We tend not to give nintendo enough credit for the backward capability they provide. Both wii an wii-u had it.

Funny how little backlash there has been for sony basically doing this HD whatevers that don't really do anything as an excuse to resell you what you bought previously or force you to use the Now system. FF X remakes are ridiculous and VII is on the horizon Why the ps3 is still connected to my TV and gets used more than the ps4.
 
Not very important really.

It's a nice thing, but the cost of including the previous console architecture to fit such a small percentage of peoples need is just not practical.

If I want to play my PS3 games, I'll keep my PS3 (which ironically just died).

Keeping down the cost of the console is #1 in my eyes.
 
Kept my original 60gb PS3 for all the backward compatibility I need, so not so important on the PS4 for me as yet.
 
Not important whatsoever.

I buy new consoles for the new games. If I wanted to play old games, I would just setup the old systems (I don't get rid of my consoles /games)
 
At this point, the only thing that I think could really get me to bother with consoles again would be a move to a development system where software is designed to be run on an operating system rather than on a specific piece of physical hardware, so that compatibility is guaranteed on the console after that, and the console after that, and so on into perpetuity, without requiring anything so colossally dumb as needing to throw the old console's hardware into the new one.

I wouldn't hold my breath for console manufacturers to ever start that kind of forward thinking, though.
 
IT would be nice but if it means the console would be more expensive, Ill pass.

I still have my ps2, ps3, gaemcube, etc if i want to play those games
 
It's important to me. I would be okay with at least BC for digital games but at the same time I know that would mean I would have to re buy the physical games I already own at stupid prices. This is why I only buy console exclusive games for my consoles and everything else is PC. Much better pricing and usually less of a feeling I'm getting screwed.
 
JNT said:
Playstation 1 games might be doable on PS4, but the PS2 CPU was about 300 MHz while the PS4 CPUs are 1.6 GHz. At face value, that's nowhere near the stated 10x raw frequency requirement per core (although it should be noted that different architectures can't be directly compared like that). Unfortunately, emulating serial code on parallel machines can be really hard.
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The PowerPC core in the PS3 was an in-order CPU. When benchmarked running normal software (as opposed to carefully optimized media algorithms) performance was closer to a 1.6 GHz PPC cpu from the same era. I could be wrong, but I don't think emulation software can be optimized in a way that runs well on an in-order CPU. In that case, the Jaguar cores in the PS4 are at least as fast as the PPC in the PS3. The PS3 had little trouble emulating the PS2's CPU, but struggled with the graphics chip. The PS4's GPU should have no problem, in that regard even the open-source PS2 emulators would be happy with the PS4's GPU.

And seriously, the PSP could emulate the PS1. There's no excuse for us not having PS1 games at least by now.
 
Depends on the games. I keep my 360 just so I can one day go back and play red dead redemption, and KOTOR. I really only need it for red dead. Other then those too its not too important. But it has kept me from trading the 360 towards a PS4 or xbox one.
For handhelds it is important though. I can play a bunch of pokemon games from the ds on my 3ds.
 
It's important to me, because it's always a plus to have a large catalogue of games.

One of the reasons why I like the PS Vita is because it's digitally backwards compatible with PSP games. And also has PS1 games.

Honestly, Sony Computer Entertainment always did a fantastic job with backwards compatibility and emulation-based BC. (On PS2 [PS1 games], PS3 [PS2, PS1], PSP [PS1], PS Vita [PSP, PS1]).

It's a shame that PS4 has none of that. :l PS3 games would be extremely hard to emulate of course though, so that's understandable. But hypothetically speaking, how amazing would PS4's catalogue of games be, if it could play PS1, PS2, PS3 and PSP games and of course PS4 games?

I really don't like that they seem to propose PS Now is an alternative to backwards compatibility. It's nice as an extra option, but it isn't backwards compatibility, it's a seperate subscription service that have no ties with games you already own.


No backwards compatibility isn't a dealbreaker, but it's certainly always a big plus. Of course if I had a PS4, I'd mostly play PS4 games on it, but still compatibility with games you already have is always nice since it doesn't render the games from previous gen (PS3 for example) you own worthless if you don't have your previous gen system anymore.


And this is also a reason why PC is one of the best platforms for video games, because games pretty much get preserved forever regardless of when they came out. The catalogue of games spans decades and is immensily large ultimately. There's no segregation by platform generations like on consoles/handhelds if they said console/handhelds aren't BC.


It's a shame that PS3 and PS4 have such a discrepenacy in hardware architecture, because it would be great to have a system that could essentially play all PlayStation games ever released.
 
Useless feature for me. I move to next gen, dont give a shit about old games, so will never play after I'm done.
 
Not having backwards compatibility is a complete dealbreaker for me.
If a company isn't going to respect my previous investment in their software, then I'm just not going to buy their new console.
 
BigDug13 said:
People who really give a shit about BC and complain about remastered editions should just go PC. There are enough people willing to rebuy remastered games to the point where manufacturers won't bother with BC ever again.

PC has been and always will be the platform of choice for BC.
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I agree. Don't really understand why people complain about PS3/X360/(PC) games getting ported to PS4/XBO.

redcrayon said:
It usually matters to me in the first year or so of a console's life, as I mainly play on portables and only want to carry one around.

It's not a dealbreaker though, but if a new piece of hardware isn't backwards compatible I'll hold off on buying it until I'm done with my old machine. I still don't have a PS4 as my PS3 has a shitload of games I haven't finished yet.
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I agree.


Theonik said:
It's very convenient and a good piece of security, my old systems aren't going anywhere but I cannot guarantee they will be working forever or that they will be compatible with newer television sets so while it's not exactly a dealbreaker not to have it, the convenience and security it gives to my existing library is worth paying a premium for in my opinion.

A box that could play the entirety of my (non portable) PlayStation disk library would be a fantastic value proposition to me even at $500 whereas the PS4 is still a poor proposition at $400. (conversely I paid more on my PS3 in 2008)
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I agree.

The PS3 was a fantastic value proposition at its time for €600 imho. PS3 games + backwards compatible across 2 generations (PS2 + PS1) + Blu-ray + cutting-edge hardware for its time.

The value proposition for PS4 for €400 on the other hand is a bit underwhelming.

It's a shame Ken Kutaragi doesn't work for SCE anymore. He's really a talented, forward-thinking engineer that always strives for top-of-the-line.
 
REDSLATE said:
Think they're saving them for their streaming service.
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PS Now should have PS1 games by now anyway.

Yoshida (and I think one other exec) has stated that streaming may not be the best way of handling older games for PS4 owners, but I fully expect PS Now to get older games eventually since I don't expect blu-ray players or smart TVs to emulate PS2 games. But for serving PS4 owners it's a waste of bandwidth and servers. The only point would be to sweeten the subscription, but taking away options is a bad way of doing that. Although they weren't shy about doing that with music, it killed their own service and had a fair amount of backlash.
 
Not at all

I would rather consoles not be hamstrung having to keep "old" technology in them

I'm also a play it and forget kind of person
 
It's very, very nice. If the latest version of the PS3 had full PS2 backwards compatibility I would have probably bought one at some point.
 
I would agree with the "just get a PC" brigade, that's the reason I buy most things on PC but that ignores the fact there are still a lot of games particularly Japanese ones that never saw a PC port and likely never will. It would be nice to consolidate as much as possible onto one console.

Been playing PS3 more then any other system lately thanks to good sales on the classics.
 
I've accumulated a shit ton of digital 360 games over the years, thanks to Bing and GWG. It would be awesome if I could play these on my Bone!

Considering all of the dirt cheap sales on 360 titles we see so often, you have to wonder if at least digital bc would've given X1 a big advantage? sure you could keep your 360, but wouldn't it be nice knowing you could slap a 3TB external on your X1, and transfer everything over? Slow month? Maybe grab Dragons Dogma, Ikaruga, Shinobi, or Daytona USA. I hope the next consoles have bc.
 
It makes life easier as I only have few consoles plugged in at time, but it's not a must-have for me.
 
androvsky said:
And seriously, the PSP could emulate the PS1. There's no excuse for us not having PS1 games at least by now.
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Yep, it was pretty impressive that they managed to get the PSP to emulate PS1 games I think.

I agree that PS4 should definitely have PS1 compatibility though.

Even though it's obviously more convenient on PS Vita, providing more options can't hurt.


androvsky said:
PS Now should have PS1 games by now anyway.

Yoshida (and I think one other exec) has stated that streaming may not be the best way of handling older games for PS4 owners, but I fully expect PS Now to get older games eventually since I don't expect blu-ray players or smart TVs to emulate PS2 games. But for serving PS4 owners it's a waste of bandwidth and servers. The only point would be to sweeten the subscription, but taking away options is a bad way of doing that. Although they weren't shy about doing that with music, it killed their own service and had a fair amount of backlash.
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I agree, but to be honest I don't really think the comparison with the music services makes sense.
 
Once a new generation comes out I rarely go backwards.

Since backwards compatibility has been a thing I've used it a handful of times. Its really not even a consideration when buying a new console.
 
Even if PS Now offered PS1 games it would surely make more sense to run them locally then bother streaming them the whole time.
 
gelf said:
Even if PS Now offered PS1 games it would surely make more sense to run them locally then bother streaming them the whole time.
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For the consumer, yes (as it's a one-time purchase). As the seller, it makes more sense for them to charge a reoccurring fee. They stand to profit more from streaming.

Atomski said:
I just don't worry about it being a PC gamer. Even if there's capability problems someone will find a fix.
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Usually, though not always. Even then, it may take quite some time (and likely won't be a perfect solution).
 
ShinUltramanJ said:
I've accumulated a shit ton of digital 360 games over the years, thanks to Bing and GWG. It would be awesome if I could play these on my Bone!

Considering all of the dirt cheap sales on 360 titles we see so often, you have to wonder if at least digital bc would've given X1 a big advantage? sure you could keep your 360, but wouldn't it be nice knowing you could slap a 3TB external on your X1, and transfer everything over? Slow month? Maybe grab Dragons Dogma, Ikaruga, Shinobi, or Daytona USA. I hope the next consoles have bc.
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If the One had BC, I would have gotten one at launch, since it would have basically meant getting a new 360 AND a next gen console at the same time.

They backed themselves into a corner clocking the console (ps4 as well) under their previous console's hz .
 
PS4>PS3 I don't care because if I'm online on PS3 I can get a message from PS4 friends.

But I really wish could play PS2 games and be online to recieve messages.

Plus, keeping so many consoles set-up is taking up a lot of space.
 
It's vital to me, as someone that really cares about game preservation. If we only get certain titles ported to future consoles then eventually the original hardware the game was made for will fail and without official emulation in the form of BC many many great games will be lost to time never able to be played again.
 
It's a sad state of affairs that I can purchase a new iOS or Android device and have access too older catalogs of titles and not have to start with an incredibly limited selection of games that were made solely for the new device. This is an argument that Gabe Newell has made in favor of PC gaming as well.

From a consumer point a view it's pathetic that retail stores are full of games for previous gen Xbox and PlayStation brands that do not work on the newer platforms. Last Gen if you Owned a PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii you could play just about everything a specialty store like Gamestop had to offer (console wise) without even looking the banner on the top of the case. Today that's not the case and it hurts retailers and consumers alike.

With game development taking longer and longer and the quality of early gen games being rather shit tier, even entertaining the idea of being an early console adopter is a strange proposition. Combine the small quantity and lower quality quality title availability with the exorbitant prices attached to the new platforms at launch ($300/$350, $400, & $500) and it's somewhat unbelievable that any of the Gen 8 consoles performed well. It seems that the manufactures absolutely needed the smaller scale Zeitgeist and wider breadth of location availability just to kick start this Console Generation.

Next gen will be very telling, especially if the value proposition is even lower in the console sector and the catalogs of devices that don't have engineered incompatibilities with older software continue to thrive stronger than the console space has ever seen.
 
androvsky said:
The PowerPC core in the PS3 was an in-order CPU. When benchmarked running normal software (as opposed to carefully optimized media algorithms) performance was closer to a 1.6 GHz PPC cpu from the same era. I could be wrong, but I don't think emulation software can be optimized in a way that runs well on an in-order CPU. In that case, the Jaguar cores in the PS4 are at least as fast as the PPC in the PS3. The PS3 had little trouble emulating the PS2's CPU, but struggled with the graphics chip. The PS4's GPU should have no problem, in that regard even the open-source PS2 emulators would be happy with the PS4's GPU.

And seriously, the PSP could emulate the PS1. There's no excuse for us not having PS1 games at least by now.
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If it is as you say, then it could of course be done. The fact that the PS3s processor is in effect comparable to a 1.6GHz PPC doesn't seem to be factored into Cerny's assessment though. GPU shouldn't be a problem except for maybe a few cases, but then again GPU is rarely the main bottleneck unless you are striving for accurate emulation.

And yes, PS1 should be doable unless there's some very specific reason why that wouldn't work. Given how closely related the CPU and GPU components in the PS4 are to PC hardware (that has been able to emulate PS1 successfully since forever) I see no obvious reason why it wouldn't be possible.
 
Well with nintendo t's amazing. (the amount of nintendo plastic i bought during my wii)so I can use them on the wii u.

With my ps4 they decided to "re release" all the games i have bought on my ps3.
I understand why.
Not everyone had an ps3 and they are a quick buck to make.

But at the end i think that the ps4 not being backward compatible is a bad thing at the end for previous owners from ps3.

So yes backwards compatibility is important for me.

But i totally understand why the didn't do it.

cash
 
Native backwards compatibility I considered a must in the past, but not so much anymore. Digital stores, remastered ports, and (based on the PS2/PS3/360) extended support for previous-gen consoles --up to the point of crossgen releases-- have considerably downplayed the need for backwards compatibility in my view. That said, I do wish my PS3 had some sort of native BC for my PS2 games, since my old PS2 stopped playing DVDs (the disc format all but one of my PS2 games used) years ago. In my opinion, this aspect of BC (native BC) is a nice feature to have but not necessary (though I say this as someone who has almost all of my old consoles, and admittedly doesn't play them much).

I think it's quite necessary for digital titles, though. I like the ability to play digital games I missed from the previous era(s) on the latest console. I'm very disappointed on how the Wii U VC is virtually barebones in comparison to the Wii VC even when looking solely at first-party titles (assuming that having Wii VC games available on Wii U VC may require renewing licensing rights or royalties, though I have a few doubts given how VC is a service spanning multiple platforms) and how the PS4 doesn't actually have previous-gen games directly available for purchase on the PS Store (PS Now is a nice feature, but I wouldn't want that to be the only method of playing previous-gen games on the PS4; especially with the streaming form being the only way to access any game in its current library and select games requiring the subscription in order to access them). This aspect of BC I'd definitely consider a deal-breaker.
 
Having full WiiU -> Wii backwards compatibility is awesome, especially with the huge Virtual Console library. Feels like I never lack anything to play on this console between the big releases.

Not having PS4 -> PS3 backwards compatibility sucks, especially with the huge "free" PS+ library. Feels like I always lack something to play on this console between the big releases.

So yeah pretty important I'd say.
 
It's not a deal breaker for me but it is pretty important. I will usually go out of my way to buy a BC console vs one that's not (I have the PS3 MGS console that's BC with both PS1 & PS2).

It's also one of the reasons why I'm still clearing my PS3 backlog instead of buying a PS4. If a BC PS4 version were to come out then I'd make the jump instantly (probably not going to happen though). I'll still buy a PS4 eventually, so as I said, not a deal breaker but pretty important.
 
Pretty important. It's why I primarily play on PC, back catalogue goes all the way back to the early 90s
 
It made the 3DS the GOAT handheld library so yes.

If the PS4 had BC I might have bought it at launch. Still have some PS3/2/1 games to scrobble through.
 
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