Digital titles locked to hardware.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/psn-purchases-wont-transfer-to-ps4/

Reminiscent of the Wii U, except Nintendo said something beforehand.

Except the PS4 ain't out yet, and hence Sony is in fact up front up about that? And it also says your purchases will be made available to you on the PS4 platform in some form (Gaikai). Pretty sure you'll still be able to manage your library of PS1/PSP/PS Vita games just fine. Everything that ties into the Vita must work. The Vita is part of their PS4 plans.

Definitely the most disappointing news I've heard so far. :( (I've got quite a few PSN purchases :( )

However- keep in mind this is ultimately for the same reason the PS4 won't have backwards compatibility at all either (Outside of streaming). The PS4 can't directly play any of the PS3 PSN titles anyway, so... :|

this is a bummer, but I kinda expected it given how messed up the CELL is... though if there are versions of said game on the 360 would be nice if they got ports of those versions...

It actually makes sense.

No, no, no, it's not the same as WiiU. Your PS3 purchases will only be available on PS3s... Your WiiU purchases are only available on _that specific console_ you purchased them on. Two different ballgames.

And while its kind of a bummer, it's not outside the realm of normalcy.

That's a pretty big knock against the system. Disappointing after how strong their initial announcement was.

I expect Microsoft will turn this to their advantage.. and that could be a big selling point for them. Assuming they don't have the same problem. I'm pretty glad most of my digital gaming has been on my PC.

How is this a surprise, and how is it that big of a deal considering they said the PS4 would not be natively backward compatible? You'll likely have your PS3 hooked up to play on for a long time after launch, anyways. There's no way the Gaikai streaming feature will be available at launch.

Sucks, but

Sure it sucks but I don't buy new consoles to play old games that's why I have the old consoles, don't pay twice for the same thing and all that.

Why do people care? You buy a new console to play the NEW console right? Just keep the old console too. Simple. Whats the big deal?

makes no difference for me

Have to keep my PS3 for Rock Band anyway.

I bet most of the people in this thread would have said, "Pffft! No way they'd do something stupid like that!" Well, they did.

Digital goods are pretty much worthless. You're paying ten-forty bucks to rent your goods.

I hope that the PS1 and PS2 stuff will mostly be okay. The only thing that I find really disappointing is losing Journey and Okami HD, but it wouldn't surprise me if some things get updated somehow -- I'm also curious as to how the Gaikai thing will work.

except that sony told you that after people made all sorts of digital purchases.

But you still have your PS3 and the games are there. Instead of a disc they are on your hard drive. They aren't turning them off or anything. Direct backwards compatibility is pretty much impossible with the massive change in architecture. I don't really care myself.

Still, I'd like to be able to try out the Gaikai service with a few known quantities before I spend any money on it. And I want to play Pacman Championship Edition.

What did you expect? The PS3 had a wierd cell architecture that isn't compatible with PS4. We saw that coming a mile away.

Wait, are you saying Sony should have told people that digital purchases would not transfer over to the PS4 in 2006?

Yeah, that makes for good business "Guys, don't buy anything from us just ya know wait seven years until the PS4 comes out to buy anything..."

I guess I'll have to keep my PS3 hooked up when/if I get a PS4, at least for the first 6 months. Not a huge deal.

Gaikai should someday fix that situation.

I hope so. Quite a few PSN games I could imagine myself still playing years from now. Either way, not a total deal-breaker for me personally.

Seems legit since it is a completely new system architecture, the PSN games were designed to play on a Cell based architecture so they would have to emulate it on the PS4 which is using X86, yep nothing surprises me there.

The Xbox could get away with it since the 360 is a just a PC and the next Xbox will be that as well, well I hope so. Got a lot of XBLA games that will actually age very well, compared to other games on the system.

It's not "locked to the hardware", because if you buy a new PS3 you can transfer your stuff over. I'm pretty sure the (much smarter) way the PS4 is designed, it literally can't play those old games. It's not a business decision like what Nintendo are up to, it's a technical limitation- one I'm more than willing to deal with.

We should be celebrating Sony's ditching of Cell, not criticizing it. Yeah it creates these complications, but that's the price you pay for having a processor architecture that makes sense.

Plus it's not like your PS3 will disappear the day you get your PS4, if you want to play those old games, hook up the old system.

I am outraged that my VHS tapes don't work in my laser disc player.

They couldn't whip up an emulator? Bullshit.

I don't really mind too much because I only bought a handful of PSN games. I'm more disappointed it doesn't accept PS3 discs. I don't want to buy the shit I love AGAIN on that streaming shit.

@prestonhedges: Precise and stable emulation of PS2 and GameCube games are still difficult even on a top of the line PC. There's no bullshit there. Any sort of quality PS3 emulation purely through software is a long way off.

That's an amazing quote. Whipping up a Cell emulator. If it would be that easy why the fuck wouldn't they do it?

Out with the old in with the new I say. Only games I would be interested in still playing are fighting games and my entertainment center has enough room to have both hooked up for when I feel that need.

Kind of disappointing but not surprising considering the new tech behind the system. I wasn't really planning on buy it day one anyway so no big deal. Besides I haven't really bought anything wasn't free from ps+ anyway so this wouldn't really effect me much.

That reallyREALLY sucks, but it's sadly not surprising. I LOVED the backwards compatibility of the PS2 and PS3 (until my backwards compatible PS3 died). I hate having multiple consoles hooked up. If consumers really cared that much about BC though I guess it would happen more often, but they want a cheaper price above all. I would be surprised if the 360 carries anything over too as only "select titles" did from the original XBOX. The way Microsoft dumped the old XBOX like a bad habit was one of the many reasons I never bought an XBOX or XBOX360.

It will suck for now, but it may work out in Sony's favor in the long run. The PS4 seems in many ways seems to be their shot at a whole new legacy (they hope).

Backwards compatibility for me is more of a bonus feature that will maybe see some use for a while before the really great games start to come out for the new platform, but it isn't something that will really affect my purchasing decision if it isn't there. Especially not in the case of the PS4 since there is actually a really good reason why it isn't compatible with PS3 games, the Cell processor.Hopefully they will have some way of getting the games you already purchased on your PS3 on to the PS4 once they get the Gaikai streaming thing working for those games, without having to buy them again.

As for the argument that the old systems will still be there, sure, but the convenience of having everything in one place, and that being the new fancy machine you got, is really appealing. I still don't really see why some people treat backwards compatibility as such an important feature, though.

I just realized that this will severely limit the amount of games they can have on PS+, though, which as a consequence of that might be toned down for the PS4. Though hopefully the free games won't go away completely.

This also makes me wonder if the PS4 won't be able to play the PS1 games on PSN seeing as they are planning on having the Gaikai streaming stuff handle that, which might not be available right away...

Indeed. If high end $3000 PCs can't emulate the PS3, why would the PS4... ah, this is stupid.

Oh Bollocks... I guess I'll get over it.

For lonely guys in basements, sure. We're talking about the people who built the thing in the first place.

Let's face it: they didn't want to not because it'd be hard, but because they knew they'd get away with it. And they will, because gamers just roll over and take it. So good luck with that.

Guys they said this during the PlayStation Meeting!

"PS4 does not support PS3 games natively". PSN games (from Journey to Super Stardust) are PS3 games.

I know, it is kinda a bummer. Bothered me way more at first though. Then I realized I only really have 10 games downloaded and I guess I haven't played them in a while. More importantly: I don't throw out consoles. So, I was never planning on losing the PS3. Also, if Gakai can follow through sometime in the next ten years on their promise(s) it'll all be a moot point.

From what I've read Sony is still officially mum on any emulation plans (PS1 for example, would be easy to do).

So how much earlier would make it "beforehand" by your standards?

This is slightly off topic from the PSN backwards compatibility, but I wonder what the fate of late gen games like GTA5 and Last of Us will be?

Is there a chance this game will be released on the PS4 as well as the PS3? Will Rockstar eventually release a digital version of the game so that they can tap into the PS4 market? I would say the same about Last of Us. Sony isn't giving folks much of a chance to pick up these games before the new console. If the PS4 is not backwards compatible either through PSN or with game disc, aren't they dooming these late gen games to the budget heap?
I played God of War 2 on my PS2 even though the PS3 was available, but the wait for next gen has been so prolonged this cycle there may be many more impatient gamers ready to adopt a new console and abandon the old hardware.

It is hilarious how little you understand how hard emulation actually is.

Exactly, if it was that easy they would have done it through software for the PS2 and never have to cut the feature to cut the price of the console. It was impossible to do it reliably back then and they had to do it through hardware. The PS3 did not get any simpler.

And that's why I refuse to buy digital games on consoles I don't want to have to rebuy everything every 5-6 years or leave the old system up and running just to play them.

Acutally, Shuhei Yoshida opened the door for some games transferring over:

Will downloadable PlayStation 3 PSN games work on the PS4?

Yoshida confirmed that the PS4 does not have hardware-based backward compatibility for both downloadable and disc-based P3 games. But he added, “Unless, somehow, some games work on emulation. The easiest thing technically would be to make PS1 games work on PS4 with emulation, but we are not talking about our emulation plans as yet.”

When it comes to transferring other PSN purchases to the PS4, Yoshida said, “We could do it if we choose to; we know who’s bought what. But we haven’t decided yet.”

Yoshida also mentioned cloud support as one way for enabling older titles on the PS4, but he wasn’t ready to announce anything yet.

Read more at

http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/21/sony-shu-yoshida-playstation-4/#YxQkkCiSbLDXUCmv.99

This is kind of a big deal to me. I don't want to have to swap consoles to play games. I understand why Sony is doing it so I can't blame them but it sucks.

I think this will turn into a big deal if MS supports BC of all old titles. Then they can launch with a store filled with old games and use that as a marketing bullet point. Sony's online store will be barren in comparison. Games could still be released on the old console and playable on the new console. Big deal for the launch of these consoles which usually start slow with not many games.

Again, I don't want to swap consoles, it's a hassle. I have two 360s so I don't have to drag it from one room to the other when I am entertaining company in my living room. There's not enough HDMI ports on my TV to keep all this shit plugged in.

@snail said:

Well, it was made abundantly clear by Nintendo within the first week or so... so Sony's 6-7 years is a bit late for that sort of an announcement. Let's be clear, it wasn't a last-minute decision to go x86 and not Cell v2.

@toowalrus: I'm glad that you're informed about the nuances of Nintendo's hardware and software, because I'm not aware of whether or not if it's "just a business decision".

@demoskinos: Because GB is *always* respectful of businesses when they make good business decisions, even if it impacts their customer base.

IDGAF. My PS3 won't disappear when I buy a PS4.

So what? I bought the games on my PS3, played them 'til I play them no more, and that's that. I got my money's worth. I got what I came for.

If I feel like playing these games again in 10 years or whenever, I will do so. Either on my PS3, or in an emulator, or via streaming as proposed by the PS4. It's being negative for the sake of being negative.

That's not how I want to look at it. If you want to be a Negative Nancy about it - go ahead. I find it a silly cause, but that's just me.