Sony had a cracking E3 conference, there’s no doubt about that. Yet earlier that day Microsoft made an announcement in a rather good conference of their own that struck a cord with a lot of gamers.
Backwards Compatibility. And now Xbox One has it.
Every time a console is announced these days BC is usually high up the list of questions and demands. Sony led the way with PS2 and PS3 being backwards compatible, that was until flagging sales forced Sony’s hand and saw them cut out the feature on all later models of the PS3. Since then both Sony and Microsoft had chosen to keep the feature of the new generation of consoles. In Sony’s case it was mainly due to that stark reminder of what a higher cost machine with such features did for them last time. To be the leader of the pack this time would mean to go in cheaper from the start, and it’s fair to say it worked.
Then, at E3, Microsoft decided to bring back the ability to play the last generation of games on the Xbox One, starting with a limited (but impressive) lineup of 360 titles to try and convince those still in the last gen to come on up. While it was yet another backpedal by Microsoft, it is a move that clearly won them favour with some corners, but the lingering question remains… do we really need it on PlayStation 4? Does either console need it for that matter?
I’m of the opinion that while it is a nice thing to have, I don’t find it all that important. I’ve still got my PS2 and PS3 and I play them now and again for things like Manhunt and XCOM, but more and more of my time is split between PS4 and Vita (it has games don’t you know). The list of games from the past I know I’d play again more than once is small at this point and I have access to all of them a few button presses away on old consoles, handhelds and personal computer alike. I’m getting a decent fill from the PS4 personally, so I’m less fussed about what I’ve got in my extensive PS3 library I do get that for some space and money means keeping those old consoles to play games is difficult and that backwards compatibility is a great way to trade off on that.
So say you do want this feature for PS4 -and we know the only answer is through PS Now thanks to infrastructure issues- how do Sony make it work in a competitive sense?
The popular suggestion seems to be that you should be able to stream any games you’ve previously bought for free. It makes sense as a concept, whether Sony could move quick enough to actually find a way of implementing it is another thing. The next best option would be to make PS Now an aggressively-priced subscription model. £9.99 a month for unlimited streaming of the whole catalogue would be just about the sweet spot, but still leaves the problem of relying on internet connectivity that doesn’t just give up the ghost at 6pm on a Friday (or a Monday, Tuesday etc).
So I turn the question back to you fine folk. Do we even need backwards compatibility?