Random Post

[Nxs]

Since the PS4 'announcement' I have really been thinking about the backwards compatibility issue. For me, I would think that each new version would include bc every time because the technology is so much better from the previous generation of the console. Which makes me think that is should be relatively easy to include bc.

Take the PS for example. Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't the PS2 let you play every psone game right off the bat? That makes since to me because you want people to buy your new system and the new games for it but it takes time for games to come out on a new platform and most gamers do not want to have three versions of a console sitting around just to play a game they have already bought. So the PS2 plays the psone games and you store the psone or sell it. Simple! You still have the new hardware but can still play the older games as you wait for new games to come out.

Then we go to the PS3. It was capable of bc when it first came out and then they removed it citing price. That would have been fine, however you still could not buy PS2 games in the store. Finding psone games is easy, but all those damn sweet games for the PS2 are not in the store. Sure, there are some but not all like there should be. After they removed bc due to cost, one would think as the technology got cheaper over the years it would be cheaper and easier to add it back in.

The PS4. No bc at all. You can't even transfer your digi games to it. Their excuse this time is that the new architecture in the PS4 can't run the cell games from the PS3. This seems to make some sense. However, I could go look on the internet right now and find emulators for damn near every console ever made. It cannot be that hard or expensive to include bc in the PS4. They should have announced that you could play every damn game from everyone of their consoles right out of the box on the PS4. That would have instantly sold me on the console.

I understand that if it did happen, I would have to rebuy all of them, but as like as they were priced accordingly, all would be good.

It just boggles my mind that in this day and age you can not get your entire backlog of games to play on a new console! I can do it on the PC and the PS4 sounds like it is very close to a PC, so what the hell is the problem??

Due to the lack of bc, I will most likely not buy a PS4 at launch because I have a PS3 that still works and has a lot of games for it. There will be no reason, that I can see right now, that would make me go get one day one. Sure, Watch Dogs is coming out for it and I reallllly want it, but it will also be coming out for the Wii U, PS3, PC, and 360. I have those already. No need for a new console to play it.

Maybe in the coming months they will show something that will make me want a PS4, until then though, I am not ready to say that I will get one.

[RAY16]

The Playstation 2 was backward compatible with PSOne games on a hardware level, as the PS3 was with the PS2 in the fat models. I can understand the decision to stop including integrated PS2 hardware with every PS3 after a point as I seriously doubt the number of people who actually utilized BC regularly that late into the PS3's life cycle were large enough to justify the added manufacturing cost, but I don't really understand the decision to remove the software emulation that they used as a substitute after discontinuing hardware level BC.

I'd say that hardware level backward compatibility with the PS3 is unrealistic on multiple levels (power consumption, heat dissipation, physical space taken up on the PCB, manufacturing cost, and cost to the consumer), and software emulation just wouldn't be possible with the PS4's hardware. It takes a decent modern CPU to emulate the Playstation 2 at full speed in some of its more demanding titles, and that's mostly thanks to clever hacks implemented by the emulator developers. The PS4 is running on an AMD x86-64 CPU which runs at 1.6Ghz and has the equivalent of 8 cores (4 "modules" capable of handling two threads each)—now, I'm not a programmer or a hardware expert, but I'd shit several bricks if Sony could emulate the entirety of the PS3's hardware on that. If the PS4 were using an improved version of the Cell processor achieving backward compatibility would certainly be "easier", but there would still be an issues with trying to compensate for differences between the Nvidia GPU in the PS3 and the AMD GPU in the PS4.

The concept of backward compatibility didn't really exist outside of the PC space before the Playstation 2 did it, and now I feel like people are expecting it when they shouldn't be—namely when there are major architectural shifts between console generations. Hell, even on PC where it's the most realistic to expect such functionality it can still be a pain in the ass to get some old games running on modern hardware and operating systems.

If there was enough demand for it and Sony crunched the numbers and decided it was worth the cost they could theoretically use their Gaikai streaming technology to enable backward compatibility via rackmount PS3 clusters. This would be the most realistic solution and due to the cost involved with manufacturing and maintaining clusters of PS3's as well as the load balancing software needed to make sure that thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of users can access them to play PS3 games I imagine it would be a feature reserved for PSN+ subscribers.

*Edit*

Looking at their press release for the PS4, BC through Gaikai is one of their long-term goals.

Gaming in the Cloud
Launched in November 2006, PlayStation Network, a network service for PlayStation
users, now operates in 67 countries and regions around the world with the total number of
downloaded content of more than 2.8 billion. In addition to a variety of games available in
PlayStation®Store, PS4 users will be able to enjoy a variety of services offered by PSN, such
as Sony Corporation’s Music Unlimited, a cloud-based music subscription service and Video
Unlimited, a premium video service, as well as various content distribution services.

By combining PlayStation Network with Gaikai Inc’s cloud technology, it is SCE’s
goal to make free exploration possible for various games. In the future, when a gamer sees a
title of interest in PlayStation Store, they can immediately start playing a portion of the actual
game — not a stripped down version of the game. With Gaikai and PlayStation Store, gamers
will be able to experience appealing games and only pay for the games they actually love.
PlayStation Network and the cloud will offer additional value to PlayStation gamers. SCE is
exploring unique opportunities enabled by cloud technology with the long-term vision of
making PlayStation libraries including an incredible catalog of more than 3000 PS3 titles that
is unmatched in the industry, mostly ubiquitous on PS4.

SCE will announce new details of PS4 and its robust lineup of games from 3rd party
developers and publishers, the independent gaming community and SCE Worldwide Studios,
as well as further enhancements to the entire PlayStation ecosystem between now and the
holiday 2013 launch.

[Nxs]

The new SimCity launched today. Was curious if anyone got it and their impressions of it.

[Iczer]

Bahahaha, from what I'm reading on GamePolitics not many can answer that. Basically Origin's servers suck so badly that they're being crushed by the demand for the game, which is resulting in people not being able to unlock even the physical versions of the game for a few hours. XD

[Nxs]

That is really no surprise is it? Most people knew it was going to happen. Reading how SC goes over the next couple weeks should keep me entertained until Lego City Undercover comes out.

[Nxs]

The Boy Scouts have a new merit badge.........game design! lol That is pretty awesome. Wish they had that when I was a kid cause I probably would have stayed in the Scouts longer!

[Iczer]

Ah get gets better: Yesterday Amazon stopped allowing people to purchase Sim City via digital copy. Neither company has stated why the change either.

/edit

Dear god the fun just keeps coming! Apparently EA either didn't put any servers in Asia, or didn't put enough there due to what an EA talking head said on the Korean facebook page said was "rampant piracy" in Asia.

http://kotaku.com/5989385/why-south-...-about-simcity

[Nxs]

What's even funnier is that their are people actually defending EA and SimCity! I am not sure if that make me laugh the hardest or if it the fact that, I would say most of the people who bought SC, knew it was an online only game and thought it would actually work!

[RAY16]

Certainly one of the more successful launches in recent memory...¬_¬

[Nxs]

Seems that Saints Row 4 is coming August 20th. Seems odd to release it then, but I am all for it as long as it is better than the third. The Third took me barely a day to complete and it felt like all the game was not there. SR2 is my favorite in the series and if they can make the fourth like that, I gotta have it.