Last night during Sony’s PlayStation 4 event the company confirmed rumors that the next generation console would not be backwards compatible with PlayStation 3 software. Now that the dust from the presentation is starting to settle we are hearing that legacy disc-based games are not the only thing that the PS4 is not friendly with. According to Sony, the next-gen PlayStation will also not work with current PSN software you have purchased or your PS3 game saves.
Engadget spoke with Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Worldwide Studios, about the PlayStation 4 and was told that the differences between the PS3’s Power-PC architecture and the PS4’s X86 are to blame for the backwards compatibility issues. Yoshida confirmed the bad news about PSN titles and PS3 game saves, adding that Sony is going to try and make a few titles “playable in some form”.
Certain (unnamed) titles that don’t eat up the next-gen console’s power during emulation might be converted, and the rest will be offered via the Gaikai-powered PlayStation Cloud game streaming service — although this was said to part of a “longer term” solution. Yoshida did not reveal any details about the price structure of the streaming service, or if users will be able to freely access games they purchased on the PS3.
Personally, I’m not at all impressed with the PlayStation Cloud as a backwards compatibility solution for the PlayStation 4. Not only would I rather use the game media that I already own, but if the service is anything like OnLive I won’t be able to use it due to limited Internet speeds available in my area. Somehow, I expect that I’m not the only PS3 owner that will be facing that particular problem.
Let us know your thoughts on the PlayStation 4‘s backward compatibility issues. Will it hold you back from jumping on the next generation console on day one, or are you ready to move on from the PS3?