http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/20/sonys-adding-playstation-2-backwards-compatibility-to-the-ps4/


My reaction:

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!

...do you add Backwards compaibility to PS2 and NOT PS3 games :P

And now that whole HD updating of PS2 games for PS3 was all for naught :P

Quite obvious. They mention it will be based on PS2 emulators (probably ripped from PS2 emulators running on PCs), and there is no working PS3 emulator AFAIK, at least not yet.

Anyway, who knows how it will be done, ie. will you be really able to run your old PS2 discs on the system, or do you need to acquire some online-only emulated version of the game, after you have convinced the service that you own the original PS2 DVD, or what.

EDIT: In fact, Sony's comment doesn't say even that, they just say they'll be bringing PS2 games to current generation... Maybe you need to buy them again from their service, and they will be emulated, just like the PS2 Star Wars games mentioned in the article?

My reaction:

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!

---don't you add backwards compatibility for PSOne games too (emulated of course)? Or is it there already?

That would solve my dillemas about Christmas gift for me...and my son :-D

I doubt we'll be able to use our old PS2 discs on the PS4. They will most likely make us buy the select games they decide to bring over digitally from the PSN store. But being able to use the old discs would be sweet!

Lol, stick an emulator with an ISO and call it "backwards compatibility". Does that mean PC is backwards compatible with every single game ever made for every console/computer ever made?

Haha yeah pretty much!

I usually think of PC as the place where old games from all past systems go to die, only to find a new life there. Everything from early Commodore VIC-20, Apple IIc, Atari VCS, Mattel Intellivision, Colecovision, Amiga, MS-DOS, old coin ops etc. all the way up to PS2, Nintendo Gamecube etc... Most of those would be completely dead and forgotten, if it wasn't for emulation on PCs.

Some console companies have taken the hint from that, so we are seeing more emulation there too. But don't expect to be able to play old Vectrex or Philips Odyssey or Amiga games on new consoles.

The current state of PS2 emulation on the PC is sad. Like, very sad. Here I am with a Core i7 and a Nvidia GTX840m and what, I can't run GTA Liberty City Stories at the framerate the game was designed to run at, even at the indented resolution?

If anything, this might somehow get the PS4 another selling point, is that its backwards compatible with these PS2 games, and properly. As for, err PS3 games, guess we'll have to wait. But I've got a PS2 so there's nothing to be gained here for me.

You really need to ask the question, of course they are going to make you pay for it somehow, the question should be how. Most likely repurchasing "enhanced" versions of the games you already own I would suspect.

Why are consoles (ps3, xbox360) not backwards compatible in the first place? Its a deliberate ploy by Sony/M$ to make you buy everything anew each time, simple. No other reason. Its about the only impressive thing with Nintendo, that I can play Cube games on the WII.

Worthless if you can't play your PS2 discs.

To answer the question as to why PS2 and not PS3 that the OP asked- that's simple. The PS4 just can't do it, it doesn't have the excess processing power needed to run not just the PS3 operating system, but emulate the entire PS3 CPU and GPU architecture (and an oddball processor at that), and then a game on top of that. People may find it hard to believe, but even your i7 probably couldn't do it well enough.

For old PC games you only need to emulate the OS and just run on maybe a single core.

Yup. This exactly.

But if it allowed one to just put the dang ps2 disc in that might be a very very good move.

It seems like to me, it's an attempt to salvage and get the number of users up more so than anything else.

All through E3 back in 2012-2013 they were pushing there would be no backwards compatibility, and it's obvious it was a mistake to push that. They also wanted to push always-online-DRM (well MS did, while Sony planned to as well and discreetly backed off). And after telling the gamer fanbase and the community at large that backwards compatibility would be a waste of time and money... Now both of them are pushing backwards compatibility...

You know... When the PS4 launched, IF it had backwards compatibility, i'd have really considered it. IF FF7 remake had been released near the launch of the PS4, i'd have gone for it. However i've since lost interest. Sony & SquareEnix have waited too long and... well... it's too late for me. 3-5 years ago, that is a different story. I'm sure there will be quite a few other gamers who feel the exact same way (Although i couldn't tell you if they got out of the consoles).

As for using emulation... ISO or physical disc for PS1 & PS2... Full fledged emulators, allow for cheats, upres resolution/scaling, Anti-Aliasing options, common widescreen hacks, fast save states/reloading, video capture (if applicable). Also to allow custom or hacked discs/ISO's. I've heard some people hacked guitar hero games to put on different music, fixes/re-translations, game difficulty tweaks, etc. If hacked ISO's aren't allowed, then a patch system that works in memory and leaves the ISO/Disc pristine, and have the patching/hacking system publicly available.

It took them this long to figure it out, and why just PS2? Might as well include PS1 emulation. Hopefully we'll get disc compatibility as well, but that's really unlikely at this point. Backwards compatibility for PS3 games is out of the question for now, and PS Now is the only remotely decent alternative (I guess) if you're really desperate to play PS3 games on PS4 and any other device.

Because PS3 is difficult to emulate with the Cell architecture and all....