Why can't I play my old games?

Say I live in an area with no or bad or expensive Internet - if I have hw bc and my game disc im free to play. Say I now have to download 25gb of data because gaikai is my only option, it could take hours, it could be expensive, it might not deliver that fresh from disc no lag experience.

Not everyone in every area or country has 60mb fibre. Don't forget that.
 
That's the whole point, why would they need both if they could get it in one box? Twice the shelf space. Do I need two bd players under the TV or to pay twice for them? No not at all.

I could sell my ps3 off and have one box does it all. The user console.

Oh yea did I mention they want to make you re buy all your peripherals? Monies monies monies. Couldn't have worked so well for Sony if you could use your existing arcade stick right?
 
Makes even more reason to keep your PS3 over BD if you can keep using your old peripherals. Still not seeing the eminent usefulness of BC outside of more shelf space

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
ps3ud0 said:
What stops these people buying a PS3 then?

ps3ud0 :cool:
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This - I really don't get all the fuss, if you have a load of PS3 games, chances are you have a PS3. If you don't and you would be prepared to pay an extra £50-60 for BC on a PS4, why not instead spend £50-60 on a PS3?

The argument for "I don't want to have another box under my TV" isn't a great one, it's not like the consoles are huge things, or worst case scenario, you keep it out of the way in a cupboard and when you want to play a PS3 game, plug it back in. Both consoles use the same 2 leads, so it'll take you a total of about 30 seconds to swap them over...

The Running Man said:
That's the whole point, why would they need both if they could get it in one box? Twice the shelf space. Do I need two bd players under the TV or to pay twice for them? No not at all.

I could sell my ps3 off and have one box does it all. The user console.

Oh yea did I mention they want to make you re buy all your peripherals? Monies monies monies. Couldn't have worked so well for Sony if you could use your existing arcade stick right?
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So why not moan that it also doesn't play 360/Xbone/Wii/Wii-U/N64/SNES/Megadrive/PC/Vita/etc./etc. games and play VHS & betamax films?

If you want something with full backwards and cross platform compatibility, get a PC ;)
 
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This thread is hilarious, he's on a tech forum and doesn't understand a simple thing about different architecture limiting the playback of old games.

Nevermind the fact he didn't spend 30 secs googling this to find out it can't be done, and instead bought it first. LOL!
 
The Running Man said:
if people didn't want BC why would Sony have bought and be offering gaikai streaming of games? The cost to buy a couple of games again and potential streaming subscription service AND the Internet cost to download and run this would make the additional cost of BC hardware on the PS4 look like a bargain.

Except with hw you have infinite chance to play the old games online and offline. With no lag or reliance upon the game being released to gaikai
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Gaikai can be used for a whole lot more than just PS3 games though, it has a lot of potential for future use whereas PS3 backwards compatibility is really only useful for the short period of time after launch when there are lots of PS3 games around people still want to play, and few PS4 games available. After that, nobody really cares about it because they're all busy playing PS4 games rather than their old PS3 stuff and if they do get the urge to play some old games, for the majority their old PS3 will suffice.

The Running Man said:
Except with hw you have infinite chance to play the old games online and offline. With no lag or reliance upon the game being released to gaikai
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Except backwards compatibility has in the past often plagued with bugs and incompatibility issues, which means it takes up even more software and hardware development time which could be better spent on other areas e.g. the actual PS4.

The Running Man said:
I could sell my ps3 off and have one box does it all. The user console.

Oh yea did I mention they want to make you re buy all your peripherals? Monies monies monies. Couldn't have worked so well for Sony if you could use your existing arcade stick right?
Click to expand...

If you have such a problem with SCE doing things in order to turn a profit, why did you buy a PS4? Sony don't even make arcade sticks at present so I'm not sure they care about that. The only odd one so far has been that you can't use the PS3 media remote, but then it's fairly useless without the ability to play media so it's probably not a huge loss.
 
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The Running Man said:
if people didn't want BC why would Sony have bought and be offering gaikai streaming of games? The cost to buy a couple of games again and potential streaming subscription service AND the Internet cost to download and run this would make the additional cost of BC hardware on the PS4 look like a bargain.

Except with hw you have infinite chance to play the old games online and offline. With no lag or reliance upon the game being released to gaikai
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You really don't get it. Please refer to my earlier post where I mentioned that they only make money on software sales not hardware sales. On every console sold be it a PS2, PS3 or PS4, Sony lose / lost money.

Adding BC would create even more of a loss on every console sold and for what? So people can play their old games on it, which would bring zero capital to help recoup those losses.

Another point to note is that like Kinect on Xbox One, many people don't want it and would rather the price was cut by £80 at retail. The same could have been said about the PS4. If people don't want BC would they have paid an extra £80 for it? I wouldn't, just like I won't buy a Xbox One until it comes without Kinect.

Another point worthy of note is that for example, if someone wanted to play The Last Of Us and could do so on a BC PS4, who would buy the 'HD PS4 version' that Naughty Dog may release? Nobody really, which would be bad business for Naughty Dog and bad business for Sony, especially after Sony had spent all that extra cash, effort and R & D getting BC in to the PS4.
 
I think you are both ignoring many points I have made and TheVoice I am well aware Sony don't sell arcade sticks or whatever. But do you think they don't get a royalty fee for each officially compatible device sold? Lol.

And no I did not buy a ps4 yet as there are too few games. Of course if it had bc I would have bought one and sold my ps3 to enjoy both worlds
 
The Running Man said:
I think you are both ignoring many points I have made and TheVoice I am well aware Sony don't sell arcade sticks or whatever. But do you think they don't get a royalty fee for each officially compatible device sold? Lol.

And no I did not buy a ps4 yet as there are too few games. Of course if it had bc I would have bought one and sold my ps3 to enjoy both worlds
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A backwards compatible SKU would be larger, and would increase the costs of the non-bc version as well.

You only have to look at this and the XB1 thread to see how important the price was.
 
The ther thing about lack of BC is that there are people like me who have both a 360 and ps3 (and a wii, amp and sky box) living under my tv. If i wanted the new consoles i would have to find space for them as well as keeping the old ones if you get my drift. Maybe people are so used to pc's bein very backwards compatible with regard to OS (apart from bf and a few other titles).
 
I dont see why BC s such a big deal, i bet 99% of people who have bought a PS4/Xbone already have last gens machine, I never used used PS2 games on the PS3 and would not see my self doing PS3 on PS4.
 
I've never understood how people get so passionate about BC on new consoles, I personally decided to make a clean break for the PS4, despite the fact I had several games for PS3 that I did want to play, but hadn't got round to (mostly from PS+).
If I was really bothered, I'd have had some 'overlap' time between the consoles to get those games played, but they can wait until the whole Gaikai thing is up and running in a couple of years.
As far as this thread goes, it looks to me that the OP is vexed at himself for not researching a purchase properly, and trying to transfer the anger to Sony, as if it's all their fault.
SNES didn't play NES games, N64 didn't play SNES games, Gamecube didn't play N64 games etc...
As someone said, BC is the exception, not the rule.
 
The Running Man said:
I think you are both ignoring many points I have made and TheVoice I am well aware Sony don't sell arcade sticks or whatever. But do you think they don't get a royalty fee for each officially compatible device sold? Lol.

And no I did not buy a ps4 yet as there are too few games. Of course if it had bc I would have bought one and sold my ps3 to enjoy both worlds
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I don't think anyone is ignoring you, in fact TheVoice has made some very detailed and helpful responses to all of your "points".
 
Modern gamers have very limited experiences; BC has ALWAYS been the exception, indeed go beyond the previous gen and you'd be hard pressed to find many other cases where it was true. I dont have time to research, but I cannot remember any products prior to the last gen to offer it in any way; handhelds or full consoles.
 
The GameBoy's did it, although I think GB games in a GBA were the only real BC as the rest were minor enhancements to the same core console.

I think you could put NES games in a SNES though an adapter. Maybe Master System in a Mega Drive? Or did I imagine that? There was the cross platform compatibility too, with GameBoy games on the SNES.

GameCube games work in a Wii to an extent too, don't they? No idea about the WiiU?

But the core thing is that this was always when the technology underneath was close enough to allow it. The PS2 did PS1 because it had the PS1 chip inside it. The 360 and the PS3 were significant technology shifts from their predecessors that means BC was always shoehorned in rather than easily doable. The 360 effort was all software emulate, and poo, from what I remember.

So to be fair, its not unusual when you look back at what has done it in the past. But, that's no reason to assume it should exist in all consoles. Sony and MS have decided not too, for reasons they understand and we are just assuming (although the technology shift is a pretty compelling argument). However, moaning it should have been done isn't going to make it magically happen. And claiming you would have bought a £400 console just to play your PS3 games on simply because it was backwards compatible is just ridiculous, your not fooling anyone.
 
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