PlayStation 4 Abandons Backwards Compatibility

[SpAc3man]

PS1 mips cpu

PS2 mips cpu (backwards compatibility with PS1 super easy)

PS3 Power cpu (backwards compatibility only possible with PS2 with PS2 cpu included result increased cost = complaints of it's too expensive so it's dropped and sales increase).

PS4 X86 cpu (same as with PS3-PS2 only possible with additional hardware and increase in cost so they don't bother as people complaining on the internet does not effect sales cost does

This.

The huge effort required to build a software compatibility layer to translate to a different architecture is simply not worth the time and money. Embedding a second CPU is too expensive.

An emulator would not run smoothly for PS3 emulation and even PS2 emulation still requires a very decent amount of CPU power. My desktop can run a PS2 emulator fine but my laptop struggles. I would imagine that someone, somewhere will be able to get custom software running on the PS4 and recompile PCSX2 to run on it. Which should be mostly straightforward seeing as it is written for x86. That would give the PS4 backward compatibility with PS1 and PS2 games which is the best anyone could hope for.

 

[shadyh8er]

Sony....I've defended you for too long. Your $600 price tags and issues with hacking were one thing, but this? Just...no.

 

[carlh267]

It's disappointing, but expected. I can live with my fat PS3 sitting next to my tv plugged in next to my ps4.

I agree with the few people in this thread that point out that people whined when the PS3 was super expensive at launch (because it went with backwards compatibility), and now they're whining because the console won't have backwards compatibility (meaning the price should be more reasonable).

You just can't win with some people.

 

[JagermanXcell]

Ok soooooooooooo on a PC you can have an NES emulator.
The WiU has a Wii emulator.
But the PS4, being more PC centered, can't have any emulators?

I literally cannot facepalm hard enough.
Yeah yeah I know its "business", but staring at my dusty PS2, knowing that will eventually happen to my PS3, really makes me wonder why I even play video games as a hobby only to constantly CONSTANTLY get slapped in the face by the industry's obvious greed.

I don't want this freaking social networking bull crap and "supa weawistic gwaphics":

I. WANT. TO. PLAY. VIDEO. GAMES.

Did I just rant...

 

[Orange12345]

The lack of backwards compatibility on its own is pretty bad, but not being allowed to keep your games you bought on PSN? Yeah both those things combined are a major deal breaker for me.

I know right?, I was actually considering scrapping together some dough to buy one at launch because hey it'll still play my ps3 games so if the launch/post launch library is a bit stale I'll still have something, but now? what's the fucking point of buying early

 

[CardinalPiggles]

God dammit Sony. I really wanted to try all those PS3 exclusives I missed out on this past generation. And be able to play my PS2 games in my bedroom finally.

*sigh* Maybe I'll just borrow a friends PS3 when they get their next gen console.

 

[Jfswift]

That's pretty damn lame. Oh well, hopefully somewhere down the line they'll make a super tiny version of the PS3 and sell it for super cheap like they did with the PS2.

It is, I agree but that should reflect a lower unit price for the consumer too. (I hope..)

 

[Easton Dark]

Do a lot of people sell their consoles?

I keep all of them. It's like a museum of my life.

 

[Baresark]

This is the thing that is going to hurt it most. With backwards compatibility the transition is made much easier when a new system is coming out. Now I would need to keep a hold of my PS3 and have a PS4 in order to play newer games. But the newer games are going to be entirely too rare for quite a while after release. At best we will get some slightly enhanced versions of the PS3 games, and that will be rare because the architecture is ridiculously different. They should have tried to devise a way to emulate PS3 in order to make the transition possible. But their stupid worthless CELL architecture bites them in ass yet again.

 

[jthm]

And here I was thinking they wanted me to buy their system.

 

[RicoADF]

This is the thing that is going to hurt it most. With backwards compatibility the transition is made much easier when a new system is coming out. Now I would need to keep a hold of my PS3 and have a PS4 in order to play newer games. But the newer games are going to be entirely too rare for quite a while after release. At best we will get some slightly enhanced versions of the PS3 games, and that will be rare because the architecture is ridiculously different. They should have tried to devise a way to emulate PS3 in order to make the transition possible. But their stupid worthless CELL architecture bites them in ass yet again.

Considering the PS4 is more like a PC, multiplatform games would come out on that more likely than the PS3 once its out. Far easier and cheaper to port to.

Captcha - got my mojo , good for u captcha, did Sony give it to you?

 

[Baresark]

This is the thing that is going to hurt it most. With backwards compatibility the transition is made much easier when a new system is coming out. Now I would need to keep a hold of my PS3 and have a PS4 in order to play newer games. But the newer games are going to be entirely too rare for quite a while after release. At best we will get some slightly enhanced versions of the PS3 games, and that will be rare because the architecture is ridiculously different. They should have tried to devise a way to emulate PS3 in order to make the transition possible. But their stupid worthless CELL architecture bites them in ass yet again.

Considering the PS4 is more like a PC, multiplatform games would come out on that more likely than the PS3 once its out. Far easier and cheaper to port to.

Captcha - got my mojo , good for u captcha, did Sony give it to you?

Haha, great captcha. I used to get that shinglesinfo.com one all the time, I started thinking shingles was the worst possible thing that could happen to me.

OT: The only reason it presents a block is because when it fist comes out, it will slow down the sales significantly. Companies are far more likely to produce games for the system with the much larger install base. Sure, programming the games will be easier, but PS4 development will be on the back burner until the install base is a decent percentage as compared to PS3. If companies do develop a game for both the PS3 and PS4, it will be designing the game for a completely different console and probably require a good portion of the budget as well. The conundrum is, PS3 will have a much larger install base for the foreseeable future but be much harder to program for. I also wonder if a publisher will have to pay a license fee for both systems, which also bites into likelihood of them producing PS4 titles when the PS3 is still far more viable.

This is, of course, conjecture. I don't know for sure, no one does.

 

[bug_of_war]

This is...just...goddamnit Sony. If we never get a single console that can play every game ever made (which is pretty much impossible, I'd say), backwards compatibility is the only thing keeping older games in existence. Game companies can't seriously expect people to own every console ever, just to play some older, great game.
Imagine, if you will, that you want to watch Casablanca, a cinematic classic, and the only way to do that was to but an old, black and white, CRT TV with dials.
If that was the case, that movie would disappear, no matter how great of a classic it was. That is what is going to happen in the future unless we get some damn backwards compatibility.

Just wanna use this to point out to you and others complaining, we did have to buy new copies of old films. Remember going to watch a film and you had to insert a large tape into the VHS machine, and how there was no skipping scenes, only fast forwarding the tape. Then we got DVDs and as far as I am aware we can't shove a VHS tape into a DVD player. Now there is Blu Ray and if I have heard correctly you can't use DVDs in a Blu Ray player.

This goes for music too. You can't play vinyl in a cassette player, or a cassette in a CD player.

Stop crying about the lack of backwards compatability, it's not a crime to move forward and lack the ability to play old hardware. If you REALLY want to play a PS1, PS2 or PS3 game just keep the console and play it on that. Hell, I have my PS1 and PS2 both still working because I didn't just throw away the old product once the new one became available. I enjoy plugging the old consoles in and playing the old games on them, and I have no ill thoughts towards the PS3/PS4 and Xbox not being able to play my old games. They shouldn't have to, they're new, they should have their own collection of games for me to enjoy.

 

[Anchupom]

The Xbox next may be not as backwards compatable as the PS4. The 360 clearly wasn't. It had a "selection" of games at launch. hardly a fraction of it's full library. Switching over would prove noting and wouldn't save you any more or less money.

It's not a case of whether the neXtBox [small](I'm sorry)[/small] is going to be more or less backwards compatible than the PS4, as I don't own a 360 and never have. I'm just saying that if I'm going to have to go into the next generation whilst keeping my old PS3, then there's no reason I should stay with Sony.

 

[synobal]

PS1 mips cpu

PS2 mips cpu (backwards compatibility with PS1 super easy)

PS3 Power cpu (backwards compatibility only possible with PS2 with PS2 cpu included result increased cost = complaints of it's too expensive so it's dropped and sales increase).

PS4 X86 cpu (same as with PS3-PS2 only possible with additional hardware and increase in cost so they don't bother as people complaining on the internet does not effect sales cost does

Thank you for this post. It is possible to emulate the games via software but that sort of stuff is notoriously buggy and requires a lot more CPU than running it on it's native architecture. PC enthusiasts are typically willing to tinker to get stuff like that to work but most console players would only think the marketing was misleading, and or it would frustrate them.

Now if the PS5 sticks with a standard pc architecture x86-64 etc, then backwards compatibility will be super easy.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

Backwards compatibility does wonders for people that want to jump on the new console bandwagon but would otherwise wait until more than 1 game they want is released for it. I only got a 3DS because I could still play DS games on it, and because EO 4 and Prof. Layton were soon to be here.

I waited until Oblivion's Game of the Year edition came out to finally get a PS3 originally, and I was glad I could still play me PS2 and PS1 games on it too. My other consoles all still worked, it was just way more convenient to have one hooked up, and I wasn't going to spend $600 on a machine that I could only play that one PS3 game on.

Sadly the 2nd PS3 had to get to replace my yylod one had none of that customer pleasing nonsense, and now my Bravia crapped out after a couple years of sporadic use. So Sony isn't exactly on my "Quality" list of manufacturers at the moment.

I'm still slogging through all the PS4 news I opted out of yesterday though, so maybe I'll find something to interest me about this next generation as Nintendo and M$ aren't doing it.

 

[Jamous]

Captcha: Knock Back. How appropriate. I'm desperately not looking forward to this. The PS2 was my first real console and I've stuck with it since, but it's looking increasingly likely that I might just skip out on the next console generation entirely... It's starting to just not seem to be worth it to me.

 

[Jamous]

Captcha: Knock Back. How appropriate. I'm desperately not looking forward to this. The PS2 was my first real console and I've stuck with it since, but it's looking increasingly likely that I might just skip out on the next console generation entirely... It's starting to just not seem to be worth it to me.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

I currently own 2 PS3s and 1 PS2. **shrug** I kept my Fat PS3 when it's Blueray laser died because of it's backwards compatiblity and bought a new PS3 for my actual PS3 games. And my old PS2 is in a closet somewhere in case I ever need it.

Speaking of which, I should probably back up my Fat PS3 fake PS2 saves sometime, just in case something ever happens to it.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

It's not like I don't have a PS3, so a minor inconvenience in reality. If it was just going to make the system more expensive then I rather they not include it.