PS5 Compatibility

Back in June, I believed the PlayStation 5 could do PS4 games and that was it. It was not a surprise to me that it was the only form of backwards compatibility for this upcoming generation for Sony. Not having PS1, PS2, and PS3 games work on it is not a shock. Quite frankly, it's something the hardcore gamers fail to grasp on. Even with taking a glance on what I said a few months back, here's my takes. Probably some repeat stuff in here.

First off, the difficulty in getting well over 8 thousand games combined, maybe more, from three systems is going to be very rough. If I had to guess, you have to figure out all the bugs and stuff in the code to ensure that the game would work. The problem is that it'd be hard to know because of lost source codes, licensing, copyright limbo. Multiple things. It's not as simple as gamers online think. 

Another thing is the technology advancing to where it may not be feasible to get older stuff to work. Even with an 11 year difference, PlayStation 3 struggled at points to run PS1 titles. For every Crash Bandicoot and Syphon Filter that worked, you had issues in games like Mission: Impossible and Medal of Honor. It ranged from audio issues to games not loading properly. Speaking of Medal of Honor, you can get it digitally for PSP, PS3, and Vita. I would be curious to see if it had issues compared to my disc version of it. Even a working game can crash like Tiger Woods 99. This goes into my issue with the PC.

Some like to claim PC is 100 percent backwards. I smell a lie for today. Maybe not back in the mid 90s, but it's in that situation long before PlayStation 3. Even with countermeasures to combat the removal of features of stuff like adding DOSBox, DOS is not always guaranteed to work on every game, even if you have a disc for it. Certain games can only work on a specific operating system. I hear about patches and updates to some games and Virtual Machines. The average person may not want to dabble in it. Same thing with people outside of the hardcore not wanting to hack a PS3 or a Wii just to play other systems. Computers are not always used for gaming. And I doubt most play the most demanding titles out there now these days.

All that being said, not a surprise for PS5. Gamers need to calm the fuck down with backwards compatibility. It's not a make it or break it deal. Nice to have, but taken way too seriously. At some point, I'll say my thoughts on Xbox Series X/S

Stance on Gaming's Backwards Compatibility

Rolls right off the tongue. Anyway, backwards compatibility goes all the way back to the 80s. Atari allowed their 7800 system to play 2600 games directly in 1986. Sega allowed Genesis games to work in 32x systems in 1994 (Virtua Racing on Genesis will not work). Since the late 90s, the main three competitors have had compatibility in some form on some of their systems.

My first experience was via Game Boy Color and then Game Boy Advance because they could play previous system titles of Game Boy for the former and that and the Color for the latter. I don't have a huge issue with it. If they allow it, that's okay. I may not gravitate towards the feature, but if it helps at least with cartridge systems, I'm not going to say no. But I would be hesitant with CD systems. The best I experienced was with PS2 and Wii with their previous generation systems (PS1, though flaky with a select handful of games, and GameCube). Since those systems, it hasn't been for the good.

People boast about Xbox and their backwards compatibility. It was putrid on 360 and I've heard good things about how Xbox One does things. But the problem is the support. Less than half of the Xbox library made it to 360, and even a number of the ones supported have issues. Xbox One might allow hundreds of 360 games, but what about titles that you are unable to get supported? This need to act superior is mind boggling stupid. It's nice, but not an end all, be all thing like in generations past.

People also want Sony to have backwards compatibility for every home console PlayStation dating back to the original for PS5. That's not going to happen. I could see PS4 to a point. But the PS1 and PS2 are ancient. Not every game gets good treatment through emulation. Certain games get ignored entirely. Even PS3 had issues running a number of PS1 games. It's like the PC. There is a difficulty in getting DOS games to work on modern systems. DOSBox may work on most, but not everything gets patched to work. Same with Windows 95, 98, 2000. An upside is thousands of games at your fingertips. But it's complicated if you can't get a few to work. And tons of games fall into a limbo of problems. There is reason to have a modern computer, but finding a hard to find older computer.

In the end, I'm not against backwards compatibility, but it's not my number one priority. If it's good, so be it. If it doesn't work, I'd be disappointed, but not bummed out like some people. I just wish that kind of attention went into getting games to work well on obscure stuff like Sega CD and 3DO.