- 2,219
- Tennessee
- NoStopN
I believe that both Sony and Microsoft have said that the percentage of people who take advantage of backwards-compatibility on previous consoles was fairly low. However, that backwards compatibility is still an extra feature for consoles, which potentially means extra money on the table. It attracts "older" players to newer consoles, since they don't have to worry about their older games being useless and, depending on who you are and where you live, it really helps in saving space (I pretty much have 7 gaming platforms corralled to 3 devices) and keeping things relatively organized. While I am very much a believer of "go where the games [you want to play] are" and have no real allegiance to any one company, I do think that Microsoft's openness to BC titles is one of the very few areas where they 100% wipe the floor with Sony, and I am still frustrated that Sony still seems to barley get the hints.
I know that many people keep some of their favorite older games (hell, I do) & whether I have to hold onto older consoles or buy a new one that can play many older generations of games is not a losing proposition. Sony has already sold us the PS1, 2, 3, or however many each of us has owned. They've made their money. Allowing backwards compatibility is a sort of "buddy feature" if you ask me. It's like Sony's saying, "Hey, if you buy our new console, you can still play all of those other games you enjoyed." Some people like a trip down memory lane. I still have GT2, GT4, GT5 & 6. I have a PS2, PS3, PS4 Pro. Like many of you, I don't have room to store all of these. And that's not counting the retro console to play my NES, SNES, & Genesis games.