- Feb
- 12
The concept of “backwards compatibility” was introduced, as far as I can remember, by the Playstation 2. It was the first console with a major selling point being its ability to play the library of games you already owned on the Playstation. Now every console has it: the Xbox 360 plays Xbox games, the Wii plays Gamecube games, the Gameboy DS plays Gameboy Advance games, etc. Sony has been playing with this concept in the Playstation 3, the original SKUs having full PS2 hardware and the newer SKUs utilizing software emulation. I’ve been watching the process play out and it now seems that according to some the next round of SKUs (could Sony get a grip on their hardware configurations already?) will not feature backwards compatibility with Playstation 2 titles.
Now, I initially thought, “Wow, good thing I have one that does play PS2 games.” But, after reading some of the comments and thinking a bit deeper about the implications of removing this feature from any console, I came to a fairly reasonable conclusion: sell the software emulators over the network. I won’t be surprised if this is what Sony has up their sleeve as it solves several problems at once. First, utilizing old hardware from older consoles is probably very expensive as you’d have to keep each manufacturing process working throughout the life of each console. Second, using emulation software removes the hardware cost but is still an expense and it may not be utilized by your entire customer base. So what do you do? You transfer that cost to those consumers that wish to have that functionality by having them purchase it through the console’s online store (Live, PSN, etc.). This way, you reduce your manufacturing costs and you allow consumers to opt-in to the extra functionality, as long as the console can read older media (CDs, DVDs, etc.).
Again, I won’t be surprised when the current PS3 SKU is replaced by one without backwards compatibility and allows PSN users to download the software emulator themselves for a fee. This will be especially relevant to the next round of consoles when downloading full games and additional content is a completely necessary part of the gaming experience.
