gaming Will there ever be a backwards compatible Playstation 4?

[Sazama Ichida 2,367]

There really should be...I mean they use the exact same technology with a blue light and everything...Why was it not made backwards compatible in the first place? There is no excuse for this...

[Admiral Regulus 2,769]

Because then they can't make more money from selling you remastered editions of games you already paid for.

[Koukatsu 5,899]

Why make a backwards compatible PS4, when they can charge you outlandish prices on a monthly basis to "stream" PS3/PS2 games from their upcoming service?

My answer is "No", by the way.

[Megas 28,099]

Nope, Gotta whore out those remasters instead

[Mand'alor Dash 2,225]

Seriously, guys? Does nobody remember what happened with the PS3 when they made it backwards compatible? Even selling it at a loss it was $599. That was far too expensive for the average consumer. Nobody bought it, and why should they? They were paying extra for the added PS2 chip, when most gamers already owned a PS2. Sales only picked up when Sony switched to cheaper models like the Slim.

 

The same situation goes with the PS4. By eschewing PS3 compatibility, they can keep the attractive pricepoint of $399 (which, may I remind you, is the central reason PS4 is outselling the XBOX ONE by such a wide margin), gamers who already own PS3s can simply keep the system, and those who want one can simply buy it on Amazon. They aren't that expensive anymore. Aging PS3 games are also dirt cheap these days. Look, I found the entire Resistance Trilogy (great games, btw) for $22, and The Last of Us for $27. You don't even need the remaster.

 

Not everything is a vast corporate conspiracy designed to drive sales of Call of Duty DLC.

[long gone 8,929]

Why should they when they can make more money off of selling last-gen ports and charging for game streaming services?

[Discordian 6,020]

Backwards compatibility is more expensive than most people think. Whether it's emulated, which causes programming headaches and errors, or just straight hardware, which raises the cost of the console, backwards compatibility isn't as easy to implement as people think.

 

It's not as simple as just popping in the disc and playing an old game. It's called compatibility for a reason. If new systems were working on the same old technology then there would be little reason for there to be new consoles at all.

 

Have you ever tried to play an old game on PC? Not the ones you buy off Steam or GoG that come with an emulator to play on but an old disc or something? It doesn't work because the game runs on systems that no longer exist or are altered to work differently so when the game tries to find a connection to the hardware or a particular graphical file that doesn't have the exact code needed for the game to run or something it doesn't find it and the game crashes immediately. It's the same with new consoles. They may function similarly and they may look similar to the previous console (at least in the case of the Wii and Wii-U and possibly the PS3 and PS4) but inside things are very different.

[PoisonClaw 8,174]

Probably not, especially when they can make even more money just selling virtual copies of older games on the Playstation Network. 

Edited April 14, 2015 by PoisonClaw

[EddG 554]

PS4 and PS3 backwards compatibility will never happen.

The CPU Architecture is way too different.

PS3. PowerPC based CPU @ 3.2GhZ Single core

PS4. AMD-64 compatible (x86-64) based CPU @ 1.6GhZ Octocore

 

The only way they could do it is

A) Build a PS3 inside the PS4 (Kinda what SEGA did with the Mega Drive (Genesis)'s Backwards compatiblity with the Master System) Which would be very expensive and push the cost of the system up.

B )Try to make a PS3 Emulator.

This (Under the PS4's specs) would be very time consuming writing a JiT (Just in time Interpreter) to emulate the CPU and then it also has to be tested with as many PS3 games as they can to make sure it works (Expensive as they have to hire testers) and then it will not work with every game and then again the cost is going to be pushed back to you guys in console cost and they may even put it behind a pay-wall to fund the cost of the emulators development.

 

Why can't they just make the games run?

This is due to the differing CPU archetectures.

It is kind of how you can't run a 64-bit program under a 32-bit operating system. It just isn't compiled for the processor to run the commands in the program.

 

So yeah! It isn't for monetary reasons that they aren't enabling backwards compatibility, it is because the processors are too different.

Edited April 14, 2015 by Roboto Mk II

[Light Diamond 950]

There's a lot of negativity in here, anyway, it's not going to happen as what Roboto Mk II wrote, the architecture is too different to each other. PS3 was based of the Cell Processor and PS4 is using the X86 PC architecture.

 

Sony went with the X86 for PS4 as the Cell was too difficult to develop and programme for, this is why PS3 games were running at a worser performance compared to their Xbox 360 counterparts for some time. It would have also been too costly to go with it again, so they decided to go with something more cost effective, common easier, and simple to use like the x86.

 

Also the original 60GB PS3's were backwards compatible due to the Emotion Engine chip that it had, these were taken out quickly in a bid to bring manufacturing costs down because they were too expensive to produce and they wanted to cut the price as not many people were buying them due to the high price. It was also losing a lot of money for the company. They could make an emulation chip for the PS4, but i don't think that will happen as it will drive the cost of the PS4 up which isn't good for consumers and the price advantage is the main reason why it's the best selling next generation console so far

 

If PlayStation 5 is using an architecture similar to AMD/Intel. That will most likely be backwards compatible when it comes out in a few years time.

 

Also PS4 Slim is on the way

[Discordian 6,020]

There's a lot of negativity in here

Welcome to the internet gaming community. We're a little vindictive.

[Adorkable 2,737]

I recall hearing about a program currently in the beta called "PlayStation Now" that lets PS4 users play PS3 games on their PS4. That, and I heard that Sony will be bringing PS1 and PS2 emulators to the PS4 in the future. So, to answer your question, I believe so.

[Azure Envy 1,093]

I recall hearing about a program currently in the beta called "PlayStation Now" that lets PS4 users play PS3 games on their PS4. That, and I heard that Sony will be bringing PS1 and PS2 emulators to the PS4 in the future. So, to answer your question, I believe so.

PlayStation Now is a service designed to stream PS3 games from the cloud. Not quite the same. There were rumblings of PS1/2 emulation locally on the 4, no doubt to sell you FF7 yet again.

[Adorkable 2,737]

Well, I'm mostly an Xbox guy, so I don't really dig as deep into this stuff as I should, haha. Still though, it's probably as close to having PS3 games on your PS4 as we'll ever get. 

[Littlecandylulu903 415]

How big would the Ps4 need to be the play games from the 3 Playstation consoles before it?

[LittleMac 3,085]

I want there to be >.<

I get that there's probably all this techno lingo behind why there's no backwards compatibility, but that doesn't make me like it any more xc

[Zyfer 21]

Different CPU architecture so it can't happen. Most consoles are x86 (32bit). PS3 was some kind of custom architecture that isn'y widely used or available.

 

Future tech is moving to ARM for mobile and Intel pretty much dominates PC. Most consoles use AMD processors because consoles can't be cutting edge.

 

I haven't even seen any PS3 Emulators either which is probably because you'd need either hyper threading or go AMD with lots of cores but a lot of ppl don't like AMD because they are generally slower.

 

Recompiling the game is really the only option and this usually is done before for different platforms or done much later with extras like all the HD remasters/remakes/collections. Recompiling usually entails different problems and bugs that needs to be fixed. With extras being added in and some models/textures being HDified it might be too expensive with little profit.

 

Go PC master race!