Why Backwards Compatibility Matters More Than Ever

Backwards compatibility hasn't always been around - but now it matters more than ever.

[Malice-Flare]

so now people appreciate BC when it's finally gone. where were you when Sony gave PS3 full hardware BC for $599 and the the 360 had partial SW BC for $499? everybody valued price more than BC, and to keep these new machines having lower launch prices relative to PS3, BC had to go. buy a PS3/360/Wii U if you need to play older games, i'm sure a price cut will happen soon...

[LOGICWINS]

The people who usually complain about these things are the hardcore. Most of the hardcore Sony fans who wanted BC got a 60GB PS3 early on. Hence, there weren't many complaints.

The difference here is that we may not even have the OPTION this time around to buy a limited edition BC PS4.

I've always appreciated BC, thats why I was happy to plunk down $600 for my PS3 because I was essentially getting three consoles in one...plus a Blu Ray player. At the time, a Blu-Ray player ALONE went for upwards $1000.

Sony should release 800,000 limited edition BC PS4s for $600 in each territory and let people fight like animals for them on Ebay. They would sell only on the pure notion that they are hard to find.

[caseh]

'The difference here is that we may not even have the OPTION this time around to buy a limited edition BC PS4.'

Too true, say hello to Gaikai - The system that allows you to pay for those games you love and already own...

[DragonKnight]

@caseh: Oh really? Where's that link that says Gaikai is "The system that allows you to pay for those games you love and already own?"

Would love to see that.

[LOGICWINS]

I'd like to think that Gaikai will somehow track the games you already downloaded on your account via PS3 and assign free cloud versions of them via PS4. But even then, theres no way we will get free versions of the disc based games we have. I think your right caseh.

EDIT:

And on top of that, I bet Sony will charge a yearly fee just to use Gaikai. It'll probably be tied into PS Plus. I strongly doubt that Sony would let millions around the globe use Gaikai's cloud servers for free.

[MRMagoo123]

Logic usually does win but you dont use it often, i bought a ps3 at launch for $1000 AUS i didnt use BC on it once i didnt even care if it was there, i have a ps1 and a ps2 for the old games and i will have a ps3 for the ps3 games too, i dont need them connected all the time so i therefore can get them out when i feel the need to play an old game.BC is a perk but its not needed for anyone at all.If you have ps3 games you will have a ps3 keep it its that simple, the same as the 360 games keep the 360 if you have one that still works.

[caseh]

@DragonKnight

Lol, just being sarcastic is all. I quite like that tagline though. They could have re-introduced BC on the PS3 quite easily, instead retail prices are kept high by adding bigger HDDs on each new revision. I for one would have taken a smaller HDD with BC present as I had to throw a 500gb drive in within a few months anyway and it worked out a lot cheaper than buying the latest model with a 500gb HDD.

They then make that stack of PS2 games you own available on the PSN or some of them at least, leading you to potentially buy them again.

@Logicwins

I'd like to think it will be like a streamlined PSN+. Subscribe and you get a few free games a month or something plus beta access etc. Non-subscribers can buy but don't get the free games.

A nice thought but I guess the jury is still out on what Gaikai will actually bring us.

[LOGICWINS]

Right! Thats what Sony will do. PS Plus members will have digital BC. Over the next 6-7 years, Sony will rebuild peoples libraries with "free" PS Plus titles. The only difference this time around is that you will never run out of space because everything is in the cloud.

Effectively, you ARE paying for BC, but your getting back your old games are a deep discount($50-$70 a year would net you a few PS3 games a month).

At E3, I bet Sony will announce that they will offer the entire Killzone, GOW, and Uncharted franchises for free on PS Plus if you sign up for Gaikai this year.

[GamersRulz]

If Sony release a $600 PS4, they will never see the end of it. Media will eat them alive.

Just like PS3, $600 for PS3 was very justifiable, the machine had blu ray, wifi, HDD, BC. it was fully equipped compared to MS embarrassing early X360 model that lacked even an HD port, no HDD, no wifi, DVD only. but guess what happend?

Media started an all war @ Sony without any consideration of what PS3 offered, for the simple fact that its a Video game console, it shouldn't be expensive. and MS got a free pass for its engineering embarrassment (early X360 models).

[thehitman]

@ Logic actually Sony did a poll for the people who bought original PS3s asking if they use their PS3 to play PS2 games and they didnt use them to play PS2 games. I was one of those who didnt use it and was honest in the poll. People make a bigger deal out of it, mostly the people who never intend to buy the consoles near launch. Because console architectures are unique, which makes it so they can be optimized fully for gaming while being more affordable then a gaming rig there are some sacrifices. I believe that eventually backwards compatibility will make it back into consoles but not when there will be such a night and day difference between architectures.

Also at the end of the day just keep your PS3s if you want to play them still. If your one of those trade-in people its probably not worth it anyway getting like 40-50 dollars for a 150-200 dollar ps3.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

@caseh

*******"They could have re-introduced BC on the PS3 quite easily, instead retail prices are kept high by adding bigger HDDs on each new revision. I for one would have taken a smaller HDD with BC present...

They then make that stack of PS2 games you own available on the PSN or some of them at least, leading you to potentially buy them again."*******

PS2 BC for the PS3 was done via hardware. I don't know how they would be able to the put the PS2 hardware into the revised PS3 models as one, they were smaller which means less room and two, since the console is revised I doubt it's built the same exact way as the original model was which would mean possible over heating issues and other possible conflicts of trying to avoid making the PS2 and PS3 hardware interfere with each other while at the same time using cheaper parts and making the console size smaller.

In short it's not as easy as you think it is. People keep saying that they remove it to make you repurchase games, but then why do the have PS1 BC yet still have PS1 games in the PS store? Also have you ever repurchased a PS2 game you already owned? I haven't bought any PS2 game off the PS store and don't plan to unless a game on there is one that I want to play and I don't currently OWN it. I know most people have this stance as well as it wouldn't make sense for you to buy a game you already own. Just play it on the PS2 if you already own the game and want to play it sooo badly.

@BitbyDeath

I don't mind the idea of individual pricing for games on Gaikai, but only if Sony could some how make it so that games that you already own are free. That is true BC.

[BitbyDeath]

Sony are quite generous with free games on PS+ but access to hundreds of thousands of games for a once a year fee through Gaikai does not sound very likely. IMO

I'd imagine the games will just be individually priced.

[GuyThatPlaysGames]

I still have my original PS3 that has backwards compatibility. At least 5 times a week I pop in a PS2 game and play it. It's always a good thing to have with any system. It's better than Xbox or Sony charging for the game again just to buy it from the Marketplace or the PS Store.

[jc48573]

imagine what will happen if Sony came back with backwards compatibility. It's over for Microsoft.

[LOGICWINS]

.....

Yes, Sony giving the PS4 BC will end things for Microsoft, a company that has dominated the computer industry for three decades and has multiple other sectors that don't involve gaming

/s

Back up for a second.

Even if Sony were to comeback with disc based BC, the only thing that would change is that the PS4 would be more expensive than it would have been without BC. Even if BC is important to you, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll run out and buy a BC PS4. It would still be cheaper to simply pay nothing and keep your PS3.

The PS2 kept selling very well despite the original PS3 having BC.

[jc48573]

I am well aware of the "cost," but I don't think Microsoft is dumb enough to reduce the price just for the lack of BC when they got TV going on now.

[GamersRulz]

its over already.

Sony PS3 performed better than xbox360 and sold more despite.

-More expensive
-year an half later to market.
-media bashing
- manufacturing problems at launch.

Now, all these problems are fixed plus.

-Superior hardware
-Similar price point.
-same time launch.
-easiest console to develop for.

MS will end next gen last....as usual, but this time the gap will be huge!

[Tonester925]

But wouldn't it be more time consuming and expensive to convert every PS3 game over to the new hardware. Since the PS3 was using The Cell and the PS4 is using "the other thing"*

*I don't know the correct terms. Yes this is a footnote.

[Oldman100]

The PS4 should have an expansion bay that allows you to insert some sort of a backwards compatibility dongle. I'd definitely buy one for $99.

[yugovega]

guess everyone now loves nintendo again since they are the only ones with bc. /s glad i stick with nintendo consoles as well s the others. i can play my old games without having the older system.

[jrbeerman11]

The best wiiu games are the old wii games unfortunately

[yugovega]

considering some wii games are the highest rated games ever thats not all that surprising. ps2 games were better then the ps3 first years titles too. and same for xb360. at least with wiiu u can still play those. ps4 and xbone you will be stuck with year one games which most will be ports same as wiiu.

[FITgamer]

I have no intentions of ever selling my PS3, so bc on next-gen is a non-issue for me.

[McScroggz]

When you buy a game digitally you know you won't be able to resell it or get trade credit for it, so regardless of if the PS4/Xbox One were backwards compatible you still couldn't get credit for it. The only issue I have with no BC is that I simply don't have the space on my PS3 for the amount of digital content I have, but if it means enough to me once the PS4 comes out I'll do something about it. Otherwise I'll keep the best stuff downloaded on my PS3 for all time.

[One4U]

its great that sony is trying the backwards compatability thing with gaikai ! i dont really mind about the ps3 games but PS1 and 2 would be awesome to replay !

[BillytheBarbarian]

I still use my 360 to play NFL2k5 with free roster updates. The game runs in HD and still holds up well. NFL2k5rosters.com

I also use it for Shenmue 2, Manhunt, Halo 2, MLB 2k5, Spiderman 2, and the Splinter Cell series. I for one will be holding on to the 360 for years to come.

[DaReapa]

Here, here. I use my 60gb PS3 to play NFL2K5. And nice find on the roster site.
I also use it for 007:EoN. Love that game.

[NYC_Gamer]

I'm not worried because will have my 360 and PS3 for old games

[animegamingnerd]

its important cause when the eventual droughts happpen that happen with every new console like at this moment since there are pretty no new core Wii U games until pikimin 3 i am playing Wii games on my Wii U that i didn't finish or play starting with no more heroes 2

[Bakkies]

For Sony and MS it's about the investment they have to make to emulate the Cell and PowerPC architecture. Also the amount of people needed to continuously update the emulators for problematic games.

MS did it with the 360 and gave up after a while.

[BillytheBarbarian]

I was just happy that they got NFL 2k5 to work before they stopped.

[elhebbo16]

No it doesnt. If you really want to play your old games, play it on your old system. I couldnt play my PS2 games on my PS3 and I didnt rant about it like a whining bitch.

[BillytheBarbarian]

Sometimes its nice to just have one console hooked up instead of cluttering up a tv stand with 4 or 5.

[elhebbo16]

true, but i've seen ppl just go crazy over BC. and its really annoying

[Revolver_X_]

Clutter? Its called a closet. Things go in there when your not readily using them.

[nigelp520]

Sony should just make a secong SKU that can play ps1 ps2 ps3 games on it

[UNGR]

In this economy backwards compatibility is huge. If Microsoft put it in the X1 at least people wouldn't be bashing that part of it. It was a simple thing to do for them, and they ended up not doing it. The cell processor screwed Sony over for backwards compatibility and they're still doing it. Take note Microsoft, backwards compatibility is a great feature, and guarantees a lot of sales. I love my PC just for this reason, I can play almost any game made for PC, plus emulators for old consoles and handhelds as well. It's a big deal these days, every console should support it, in one way or another.

[ShaunCameron]

Um. Sony isn't even doing BC either. The PS4 won't have the Cell processor.

<Take note Microsoft, backwards compatibility is a great feature, and guarantees a lot of sales.>

Take note of what? The PS3 didn't start selling until Sony got rid of BC to reduce both manufacturing and retail costs.

[UNGR]

Short version, Gaikai. Sony has already promised legacy support through other venues such as Gaikai. So you're wrong there. The PS3's outrageous price was due to it's prohibitively expensive Blu-Ray drive, and custom Cell processing chip. So you're wrong again.

Now that the gaming market has expanded hugely this generation the amount of people keeping games and wanting them playable on the next console will be bigger than it was. Emulation wouldn't be expensive for the X1, if my $200 laptop can emulate a GBA, PS1, PS2, and the N64, I doubt the price is the problem. It's the one thing Microsoft could have nailed at the conference. You should do some fact checking. The 360 leads in software sales by tens of millions, backwards compatibility would have been a huge bonus for the 360 user base.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

Yeah... you don't understand how BC works. BC is not an easy thing to do like everyone thinks it is.

Each console has it's own architecture. So in order to do BC you have to start from SCRATCH, making an emulator that works for that particular architecture. You can't just use a PC emulator because the emulator on the PC is designed to work on the PC not on the console.

I don't understand why people are surprised MS doesn't have BC with the XB1. The 360 doesn't even have full BC with the original Xbox. The PC doesn't even have a decent emulator for the Xbox. So if the original Xbox is very hard to emulate now imagine the 360. Yup, that would be super hard.

It took over a decade for the PC to be able to emulate the PS2 for ALL PS2 games. Now imagine how long it'll take for 360 and the PS3 which has the cell? I don't think there is even anyone that is even trying to emulate it because of how difficult it is.

They could just put the original Xbox and 360 into the XB1 like Sony put the PS2 into the PS3 initially, but that would jack up the price for the a ton. Not worth it all and after all we did see the result of how well a $600 priced console will sell.

The cloud is the only realistic and economically efficient solution to BC, but it all depends on how it's done. If I can't play games that I already own for free on my latest console it's basically not BC, not to mentioned that you have to be online in order to use it, but like they say it's better than nothing and when understand how difficult emulation is you can't really complain.

[UNGR]

It is an easy thing to do when Microsoft has billions to throw at it.

OT: Nice picture, absolutely fallen in love with that show. Drives me mental waiting for another episode every week.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

Throwing money at it isn't going to speed up the process at least not at a suitable amount. Like I said it took over a decade to get a fully working PS2 emulator for the PC. So you can imagine how long it will take for the 360 and the original Xbox doesn't even have a decent one either.

**"Nice picture, absolutely fallen in love with that show. Drives me mental waiting for another episode every week."***

Yeah I love it too. Best action anime ever imo.

[ziggurcat]

BC has never mattered to me because i don't buy a system to play the previous system's games.

[PerryCaravello]

Every new gen it's the same thing lol.

We just have to accept that backwards compatibility is not going to be present in any of the new machine.

They'll force you to stream the games for a price.

[Chevalier]

I was wondering if Sony could do something to allow people to play their old games. through Gaikai. I don't know how things are encoded, but, I assume every disc has some basic form of recognition of a game. If there is some kind of verification on a disc like I put in my ps3 game Uncharted 2, couldn't they just let you put your old ps3 game in and verify you own the game and allow Gaikai to stream it based off of recognizing the disc? Not actually reading the whole disc or rendering anything just veriftying the disc and then allowing you to stream.

Basically just having some software verify the disc in the drive and then based on recognizing the disc start streaming.

[TheDivine]

Nintendo is the only one of the three doing what I want. A main focus on games, no paid online, no subscription for certain features, no online checks, no blocking used games, no online passes, and full BC with disk games and dd games. The only thing the others have is a little more power but im not sure having to play with Internet for sp and no borrowing games is worth it for the Xbox. I'm not sure Sony wont charge for used games and make me pay for ps plus to use cloud bc and neither will let me redownload dd games. This is a huge problem IMO.

I'm totally shocked Xbox has no bc because they could easily being a great software company and the 360 had it. The cloud bc for ps3 sucks ass but its better than nothing. At least you can collect physical disks and play if you have decent enough Internet. We're entering uncharted waters here people. Anti gamer consoles. If Nintendo packed in enough hardware to be comparable to the other two the core would flock back to them due to the missteps of the rest. As it is people will swallow shit because the graphics are pretty and it has a new COD.