In a move that is both disappointing and quite irritating, Sony is planning to bring a select few PS2 games to PS4. Games that customers will have to pay for again, rather than re-using their old copies, and there’s no word of extending that backwards compatibility to disc based games either.
In short, this is new money for old rope. As instead of simply allowing gamers to use their prior library of PS2 games on the PS4 they will have to pay for new versions via the PlayStation Store on the system. Even if they have the games on disc already.
Admittedly, the approach being used by Microsoft MSFT +1.82% is still limiting the number of 360 games available to play on the Xbox One but you don’t have to pay for them again. As you can use the original 360 discs on the console.
Considering the depth and breadth of the PS2 games library, this move is a callous one. It’s clear that the system can easily emulate PS2 games via software, so to not open that up to customers is palpably frustrating.
While there was an argument that hardware based backwards compatibility was more costly, something that was sadly ripped out from the PS3 shortly after its launch, the same excuse for the absence of software emulation on the PS4 won’t fly here.
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We’re already seeing a large number of classic games remade to prop up the still quite generic PS4 game library and this is something that needs to stop. Opening up backwards compatibility on the system would help with that and would also cement the PS4’s standing with gamers.
Whether anyone uses backwards compatibility is not a valid argument here. As its effect on the perception of a console is more important, even if people don’t use the feature it would still factor into their decision to buy said console. After all, would someone buy a console with fewer features that didn’t support their older games or one that did?
Microsoft understands this and is leveraging backwards compatibility on the Xbox One very well. The sad thing is that Sony used to be great at things like this, after all the PS2 supported PSone games back in the day. It was smart move then and it would be a smart move now.
This, on the other hand, is just plain disappointing.
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