FF:Enhanced_Reality
Member
Got into a random Twitter spat with a troll who may as well change his user name to "Transcendent Gaming Expert" as he tried to maintain that nobody cares about backwards compatibility.
This person used the fact that PlayStation 4 selling 110 million units was proof of the fact and that PlayStation 3 sold much better without it. I made the point that the PS4 was a very well supported device which was priced well, better designed than it's opposition, a huge improvement on it's predecessor, much better supported and capitalising on the misfortune of the competition. I also stated that the success of the PlayStation 3 wasn't due to the removal of a feature nobody wanted, it was due to the fact that removing the hardware required to do so in the PS3 Slim re-design lowered the price and barrier to entry significantly. Also considering that Sony started to pump out first party gold at this time and they were getting third parties back on good terms was a huge change of fortunes also. But nope, apparently we just got rid of something people didn't want and we printed money.
But I would argue that, that simply isn't true.
The closer we get to the new consoles, the more I find myself becoming envious about the backward compatibility Microsoft offers. I'm an avid PlayStation fan at heart and PlayStation was my childhood. I was old enough to be there when Sony were revolutionising the console business and I've been here since. But as an adult with children, a fiancee, a mortgage, a car etc. I find my finances limited and can only afford one console. I tend to stick to what I know but also in part, because Microsoft never really had a first party line-up where I had to break the bank and get an XBOX.
However, I do have an extensive collection of games from PS1 to PS4, including both PSP and Vita. Looking at what Microsoft is doing with backward compatibility is really to be applauded. If I really want to enjoy my PS2 collection in better quality, I either have to dig up my 60GB behemoth PlayStation 3 that currently sounds like a jet engine taking off or spend hours pissing around with an emulator on my moderately powerful PC, though the emulation offers much better quality visually and in terms of performance which is what I want really. There are so many great games that aren't going to get remade or sold again because nobody knows who holds the licences. Publishers and developers from days gone, Midway, Acclaim, Probe, THQ. Too many to count. These aren't going to be listed to an online store and honestly the PS2 selection of games is embarrassing on PlayStation 4.
Now for me, it isn't a deal breaker that there isn't universal backwards compatibility here. But the fact that this new console is powerful enough to be able to offer me the ability to play all of my games in a much higher quality through emulation is quite disheartening. I have well over 1,000 games. I enjoy playing older games. A great example is The Darkness, 2K clearly have no intentions of remastering the PS3/360 games, nor make a sequel. But wouldn't it be great to pop it into my PS5 and see HDR added, the frame rate stabalised or increased and resolution increased? I really want to play InFamous 2 like that but somehow Sony haven't remastered those games. Maybe if I could do that when I fancy playing Ghost in the Shell on PS1 or PS2, when I pick up Nightmare Creatures, Persona 4 or even Persona 4 Golden. Those many games locked on platforms gone where we can't reasonably enjoy them now like Soul Sacrifice or Crisis Core.
How do you feel about backward compatibility in the modern climate of gaming? Is it a must? Do you care? Discuss.
This person used the fact that PlayStation 4 selling 110 million units was proof of the fact and that PlayStation 3 sold much better without it. I made the point that the PS4 was a very well supported device which was priced well, better designed than it's opposition, a huge improvement on it's predecessor, much better supported and capitalising on the misfortune of the competition. I also stated that the success of the PlayStation 3 wasn't due to the removal of a feature nobody wanted, it was due to the fact that removing the hardware required to do so in the PS3 Slim re-design lowered the price and barrier to entry significantly. Also considering that Sony started to pump out first party gold at this time and they were getting third parties back on good terms was a huge change of fortunes also. But nope, apparently we just got rid of something people didn't want and we printed money.
But I would argue that, that simply isn't true.
The closer we get to the new consoles, the more I find myself becoming envious about the backward compatibility Microsoft offers. I'm an avid PlayStation fan at heart and PlayStation was my childhood. I was old enough to be there when Sony were revolutionising the console business and I've been here since. But as an adult with children, a fiancee, a mortgage, a car etc. I find my finances limited and can only afford one console. I tend to stick to what I know but also in part, because Microsoft never really had a first party line-up where I had to break the bank and get an XBOX.
However, I do have an extensive collection of games from PS1 to PS4, including both PSP and Vita. Looking at what Microsoft is doing with backward compatibility is really to be applauded. If I really want to enjoy my PS2 collection in better quality, I either have to dig up my 60GB behemoth PlayStation 3 that currently sounds like a jet engine taking off or spend hours pissing around with an emulator on my moderately powerful PC, though the emulation offers much better quality visually and in terms of performance which is what I want really. There are so many great games that aren't going to get remade or sold again because nobody knows who holds the licences. Publishers and developers from days gone, Midway, Acclaim, Probe, THQ. Too many to count. These aren't going to be listed to an online store and honestly the PS2 selection of games is embarrassing on PlayStation 4.
Now for me, it isn't a deal breaker that there isn't universal backwards compatibility here. But the fact that this new console is powerful enough to be able to offer me the ability to play all of my games in a much higher quality through emulation is quite disheartening. I have well over 1,000 games. I enjoy playing older games. A great example is The Darkness, 2K clearly have no intentions of remastering the PS3/360 games, nor make a sequel. But wouldn't it be great to pop it into my PS5 and see HDR added, the frame rate stabalised or increased and resolution increased? I really want to play InFamous 2 like that but somehow Sony haven't remastered those games. Maybe if I could do that when I fancy playing Ghost in the Shell on PS1 or PS2, when I pick up Nightmare Creatures, Persona 4 or even Persona 4 Golden. Those many games locked on platforms gone where we can't reasonably enjoy them now like Soul Sacrifice or Crisis Core.
How do you feel about backward compatibility in the modern climate of gaming? Is it a must? Do you care? Discuss.
