Sony May Add Backward Compatibility to the PS4

[Misterian]

That has to be the smartest move Sony's made since choosing NOT to shove DRM down our throats.

It's official, the PS4 is the next-gen console I want most.

 

[Roxas1359]

Wait a second...

Is he talking about:

1) New PS4s having backwards compatibility.

2) PS1/2 titles showing up in PSN for the PS4?

Because if it's the former, then this is really spitting in the face of the early PS4 adopters.

I mean, this is awesome and I'd love to play old PS1 Spyro games on the PS4, but this seems a bit late to implement. Still, better late than never.

It would be added in via an update, it wouldn't be built into new PS4's. Basically think PSX2, only made by Sony, if the first one turns out to be the true cause. It raises the price of the system to include an actual version of that system in the new consoles, and it's why PS3's were so expensive to produce ($900 to make the 20 GB models, $1100 to make the 60 GB models).

 

[SeventhSigil]

On another note, if both this and the rumor on The Last of Us 2 turn out to be false, and Sony DOESN'T see the widespread positive reception and think 'Huh! Maybe we should do this!' I'm going to facepalm so hard my ears will be launched into orbit. I think someone mentioned, either in this thread or on another site, the possibility that leaks such as these were also intended to try and gauge interest; the Internet community has turned into a useful source of wider consumer interest, (with the possible exception that I generally see CoD sneered upon, and yet it still sells millions of copies.) So even if backwards compatibility, or The Last Of Us port aren't already well underway, it's possible that the positive response will finally convince them to pursue it.

 

[Roxor]

I've got a better idea: Make a service which is essentially Steam for past Sony consoles. Sign up and get access to every version of every game for every Sony console, complete with documentation and box art. Pick one out, download the ISO/ROM/whatever and load it up in an official Sony-made emulator.

Sony could have two possible approaches to making money out of this: either make you pay on a per-game basis (maybe inconvenient if you want to play a lot of different games), or pay a monthly fee and get access to the entire library as long as you keep paying.

 

[Lightknight]

That's pretty darn good news. I've been wanting to finally play a few ps2 games that I missed on the generation change.

Local backwards compatibility sounds a lot like disks will work. That'd be wonderful.

 

[Lightknight]

The reason why emulation is necessary instead of original code is that the original code is looking for actual hardware to utilize. Proprietary hardware. That requires a chip and increases the cost of product unnecessarily. Ps4's could be backwards compatible with ps3 if you slapped a chip in there but that's money out of everyone's pocket. So emulation it is.

Oh yeah, it's almost like that whole "hardware difficulties" issue was a load of bullshit in the first place.

You know, like many others have said when they first announced PS4 wasn't backwards compatible. But hey, some people have to justify their choice of spending $10 again on a game they bought for their PS3.

The PS3 is absolutely not emulate-able on the ps4. We'll be lucky if it's compatible on the ps5. The hardware was SOOOO proprietary that developers had to split up assets into various categories and specifically allocate resources. Emulating x86 architecture on x86 hardware is simple. PS2 emulation on the PS3 required a chip but the power disparity was large enough to make it happen. But the ps3 is so different that good emulation of it may never really happen without hardware. We'll see, but it's not the same.

The whole debacle of backwards compatibility wasn't regarding ps1 or ps2 games. That was purely ps3. So Sony is going the streaming route to resolve that issue as best they can in the short term.

That we've finally moved to an x86 setup is fantastic. It means that "backwards compatibility" can never be called into question again. I mean, maybe some games won't be compatible with drivers or something but that's something that should be easily fixable.

Interestingly enough, we'll finally have real data on how often people play previous generation games.