EA Expects New Consoles Aren't Backwards Compatible

[rob_simple]

That's actually really interesting, but I still have to assume that there is a reason behind Sony and Microsoft (yeah, you guys can drop the dollar sign; it was never clever) not pursuing it, beyond the many cynical ones people are presenting in this thread. I'm assuming it's down to the fact that building a new console doesn't leave much budget left to R&D fitting components of the old one in, too; no matter how cheap it would be to do.

I dunno. Half the reason R&D for the PS3 was so ungodly expensive is because they spent so much money trying to push the Cell processor as the next big thing. I think Cell ended up costing them something like $400 million.

This time around, they're apparently using off-the-shelf components. That alone should be a massive saving compared to the PS3's clusterfuck of customised parts bodged together in a weird way. If so, then would it really be that difficult to sit down with AMD and work out how it integrate the functionally necessary parts of the Cell processor into whatever CPU the PS4 is using? Again, Nintendo managed to (alongside a whole host of other custom jobs), and Sony is worth a few billion more than them. It's a 7 year old processor now. It's not even a real multi-core, more a single core with 7 or 8 SPEs to help with computational stuff. Surely it couldn't be that hard to compress that functionality into a modern CPU?

So, if you'll forgive my ignorance on the technical side of things, does that mean essentially they're building a high-grade PC that you won't be allowed to upgrade? I know that's what everyone says the current gen is, but if they're not even making any new components this time then I don't see what I'd be getting from a next-gen console that building my own PC wouldn't provide, and better.

 

[rob_simple]

So, if you'll forgive my ignorance on the technical side of things, does that mean essentially they're building a high-grade PC that you won't be allowed to upgrade? I know that's what everyone says the current gen is, but if they're not even making any new components this time then I don't see what I'd be getting from a next-gen console that building my own PC wouldn't provide, and better.

Erm... essentially so, yeah. Obviously we'll have to wait until the console come out, and people can actually rip the insides apart, before we know one way or the other. But where the PS3 had a whole host of custom parts, everything I've heard about the PS4/Orbis says it's using standard AMD Radeon stuff, perhaps tinkered with a little to gel better as a console GPU, but otherwise pretty off-the-shelf.

It's all about exclusives. You should never get into consoles for graphics, as they're always going to get outclassed by PCs. You should get consoles for the exclusives they have that you can't play anywhere else. And to their credit, Sony do have a good roster of exclusive titles for the Playstation. You're never going to play Uncharted or Killzone or Resistance on PC, so it just depends on how much you want to play those titles in future.

Yeah, graphics aren't a huge deal for me, I'd have been happy with PS2-era graphics and using the more powerful hardware to create huge, huge games.

Exclusives, for me, haven't been that great this generation. I like all the games you mentioned, but when you compare it to the huge library of IP's that were born on the PS2 and PSX, this gen's haven't really done much to impress me, short of looking pretty.

 

[Kinitawowi]

As somebody who's been avidly following the MAME project for decades, I can promise all of you that emulation isn't the simple matter that everybody here seems to think it is.

 

[klaynexas3]

...I can't take a PS2 or PS1 game and play it on a PS3...

Now hold up just one second there. I'm calling bullshit on this. The PS3 can run PS1 games without the game having to be altered. I have played the entirety of my PS1 library(while small, it's still a fair amount of game) and all of them run perfectly fine, with exception to Croc, as that has multiple scratches and wouldn't run at all on todays discs. Seriously, go try and play one on your PS3, it will work.

OT: No surprise here. While I'd like it, it's hardly a shock to the system that it won't run PS3 games. It was apparently too expensive to do it for PS2 games; I don't see how on earth they could run PS3 games(and it still have a decent price that most people want) on the PS4. As long as we get some damn good games for it, I'll buy it. I'm partially hoping that in the announcement, they confirm some games other than the ones that I've seen so far for the PS4. Come on Versus XIII.

 

[RicoADF]

In my experience, backwards compatibility is a myth

it may be many things but it's not "a myth".

there's no reason at all consoles can't emulate prior generations. it's not particularly hard to write an emulator especially if you are as technically familiar with the hardware as the actual hardware manufacturers.

But the current generation isn't backwards compatible - having to download a patch to play a game, having to download a special version, having to emulate is not backwards compatibility. I can't take an XBox game and play it on a 360, I can't take a PS2 or PS1 game and play it on a PS3... at least not without the game being adjusted to work on the new hardware. Nothing would be cooler than having real, 100% backwards compatibility, but it doesn't exist, not in the way that Sony and M$ claim.

*pulls out his first game he ever owned, V-Rally on PSX, puts it in PS3 and plays a race. Takes game out and puts back, then pulls out Killzone from PS2 and proceeds to play that for a few mins*...... I don't know what backwards comparability means to you, but PS3 was quite capable on the first generation of consoles.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Okay, where is it? I'm more a console gamer, but I still have a computer, so...

*clicks stopwatch*

Aaaannnd...2/3rds down the first page.
Kind of slow today.

Though it is kind of sad that someone will inevitably post that picture in response to any mention of PC gaming dying.
Like clockwork.

(And it's still as meaningless as the first 500 times I saw it)

ON TOPIC:
Anyone expecting added value out of an actual next-gen* console via backwards compatibility is in for a learning experience or should know better already.

When posed with the question of "Backwards compatibility?" in the last generation of consoles, each company's response was different:
-Sony flip-flopped on it throughout the PS3's life.
-Nintendo opted to recreate the Gamecube so compatibility wasn't an issue to begin with.
-Microsoft dodged the question altogether.

The next generation of consoles will unquestionably involve the internet in a more intimate manner, especially for DRM policing and marketing. From what I keep hearing, it appears more and more likely that the last thing the consumer should expect from the next generation of consoles is added-value from the last.

This strikes me as odd, considering how strong both the 360 and the PS3's game libraries are.
Of course, this also surprised me when Sony shuffled their feet, despite their system producing arguably the best library in the history of consoles (maybe this was Sony's Endgame?)

[sub](*apart from WiiU, but I'll let people decide for themselves whether that's "Next-Gen" or if Nintendo is merely playing catch-up)[/sub]

 

[FalloutJack]

Timing?

Well, as I stated before, I'm really a console gamer who branches out and this is the perpetuation of a running gag. I'm not in it for meaning. I'm in it for a quick chuckle. You'll note that it was not the main focus of my post, but rather there as an opening kid-around.

 

[Yopaz]

I see this creating a bottleneck effect for the people buying the new consoles. When we have plenty of games that we like and a new platform with maybe 2 or 3 in the start migrating will take some time. Sony did a great thing with the PS3 where they removed the backward compatibility when the library had got some time to grow since it allowed the console to be cheaper. Maybe this will happen this time around too.

 

[Strazdas]

Snip

The image is a time-honored running gag played for laughs. YOUR argument is invalid.

i am well aware of the origins of the image, however the argument you were making was invalidated by this image due to misuse of the image.

 

[FalloutJack]

Snip

The image is a time-honored running gag played for laughs. YOUR argument is invalid.

i am well aware of the origins of the image, however the argument you were making was invalidated by this image due to misuse of the image.

No it wasn't. Your argument to invalidate my argument is invalidated by the total validity of my proper use of the images, which is valid. So HAH!

 

[Vausch]

Ok, new rule Microsoft and Sony:

IF you're not going to make your consoles backwards compatible for the hard copies, you must put the majority of all previous titles from at least 3 previous generations prior on your downloadable network, and make them available for 3.99 or less for all n-2 gen games and 99 cents for each n-3 gen game, rarity be damned, it's downloadable now so it matters not.

 

[Strazdas]

Snip

The image is a time-honored running gag played for laughs. YOUR argument is invalid.

i am well aware of the origins of the image, however the argument you were making was invalidated by this image due to misuse of the image.

No it wasn't. Your argument to invalidate my argument is invalidated by the total validity of my proper use of the images, which is valid. So HAH!

Your attempt to confuse me was unsuccessful.

 

[FalloutJack]

Snip

You're a very silly man and I'm not going to interview you.

 

[surg3n]

In my experience, backwards compatibility is a myth

it may be many things but it's not "a myth".

there's no reason at all consoles can't emulate prior generations. it's not particularly hard to write an emulator especially if you are as technically familiar with the hardware as the actual hardware manufacturers.

But the current generation isn't backwards compatible - having to download a patch to play a game, having to download a special version, having to emulate is not backwards compatibility. I can't take an XBox game and play it on a 360, I can't take a PS2 or PS1 game and play it on a PS3... at least not without the game being adjusted to work on the new hardware. Nothing would be cooler than having real, 100% backwards compatibility, but it doesn't exist, not in the way that Sony and M$ claim.

*pulls out his first game he ever owned, V-Rally on PSX, puts it in PS3 and plays a race. Takes game out and puts back, then pulls out Killzone from PS2 and proceeds to play that for a few mins*...... I don't know what backwards comparability means to you, but PS3 was quite capable on the first generation of consoles.

Pulls out Oddworld for PS1 because he misses it, and his PC can't run it... not work.
Pulls out Killzone for PS2 because it's awesome... not work.
Sits and wonders why Sony hates him, why my PS3 has to be less functional than other peoples.
Pulls out an XBox game that isn't Halo2 and tries it on his 360... not work.
Sits and wonders why M$ hates him as well.

I know what backwards compatibility means to me, it means the ability to play previous generation games on current generation hardware. If that works for you, then awesome - hope you have a blast. It doesn't work on my PS3, simple as that - I'm not lying or exagerating.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I've been around long enough to remember when both new PS3 and PS2 games were being released at the same time as the PS2 slowly lost popularity and new titles. Apparently I'm either older then everyone at EA, have a longer memory then them, or am better at predict the future based on the past because I can only think "well... duh".

EA doesn't make consoles and its voodoo futurists as just as inaccurate as anyone else's so I don't particularly care about there predicts especially since its based on information that is only rumored.

 

[Strazdas]

Snip

You're a very silly man and I'm not going to interview you.

What are those words coming out of your month, they dont seem like words.

 

[FalloutJack]

These words of mine are not words, but that of...BAKING!


This commedic aside was a public service. We now return you to your normmal thread topic, already in progress.

 

[Vault101]

was that "ever-dieing" remark tounge in cheek? otherwise ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?