For a whole long time I've thought about Backwards Compatibility on my PS4. It was promised to be something they'd consider ever since it was made clear that the PS3 had an architecture that was so unique and expensive, even to this day, that despite the fact that there are computers that are 4 to 5 times more powerful than a PS3 available for a relatively inexpensive price tag they don't have the power to run them. Even a high end modern computer would struggle to emulate the Cell processor, at worst it would crash your system.
That, however does not apply to the PS2. The emotion engine can and has been emulated on PC with a great deal of success so the PS4, a machine clocked to be 47 time faster than the PS2, and compatible with the basic architecture of said system should be able to pull it off with little to no headaches. The games are coded in a way that would make inserting a disc on your PC worthless, you can't even extract the data properly by navigation without a certain degree of knowhow, so it's not as though it's just a matter of putting in a simple code to alter the hardware and done. All of these things do take time and significant research and development, which cost money. Sony is just coming off the PS3 which, compared to the most successful system in gaming history, the PS2, it wasn't the success they'd hope for, so they are probably still in the mentality that they need to charge or sink, they still lack that confidence they once had.
Along with that the PS2 has had a long and successful list of HD remasters so would you pay $20 for the DMCHD collection, to keep it relevant to the forum, or would you pay less than $2 for all 3 games individually on the PS2, which the PS4 could upscale without those pesky issues HD remasters often have, sans the trophies or other features the HD collection might add? Well, then, maybe you now have developers telling you that you not to put these games they've just spent several millions remastering which means, what now, all except those games? No universal BC?
One of the reasons your standard PS3 had a longer shelf life over the 360s was that they decided to add heavy installation of data to the hard drive which meant that most games you were playing were off the hard drive and not the BR player. That reduced the stress the system had and improve its lifespan, something Microsoft implemented with their elite models and eventually all 360s. This didn't seem to be an issue with the PS1/2, GameCube, or XBox because they were, from what I understand, just players and not entertainment units, no different than why your DVD player will outlive your computer. The XB1 and the PS4 run almost all of their media off the hard drive for that reason, to add longevity to the hardware. If they decided to add PS2 disc support they might be adding the same thing they knew would shorten the lifespan of their new systems. The only way I can think of to getting around that would be to instal the games onto the hard drive but since you can't do that with just a disc it would require each developer to put the effort to put their games on a server and some of those companies are long gone.
I thought about all of this but this week since I figured that if they were going to announce the detail of PS2 compatibility it was going to be during the PSX and despite everyone saying that this was probably the way it was going turn out and my own thoughts on why it makes more sense from a financial and practical point of view I still hoped that they would go with disc support. So, despite everything I just said and all the reasoning and logic as to why it was never going to be like that I still find myself disappointed and disheartened with the way Sony decided to go about this. I also know, for a fact, that they will not be porting some of my favorite games on to the PS4 because, for lack of a better term, reasons.
Still. Why does this matter? Why is it important to have backwards compatibility at all? There are plenty of games on the new systems, prettier, faster, more refined, so why does it matter? I thought about that, too, about why it was that we want this on our new systems.
Most every PS and multi council owning gamer my age has PS2 games in their library, it has one of the largest and most eclectic libraries in gaming, and for a lot of us our PS2s are aging and even dying. Personally, I invested on a TV that has no 3 RCA ports and so I can't plug in my PS2 on it, even if I wanted to. I do have a fat PS3 that plays them all but it's also old and it's fan sounds very loud after about 40 min. of playing a PS2 game so it'll probably YLOD on me if I don't take long pauses after a short time. There are prevention methods that I might decide to implement after the holiday season but I digress.
After some thought I realized one the reason why we still have these game, why we never trade them in despite having to jump hoops to play them, is because of the memories that we attached to them when we first played them. For a lot of people the PS2 was the highpoint of their gaming life, it was the council that turned them to gamers, so those games are important to them, and it's not as though every PS2 game is going to get a remaster or digital distribution via the PSN. Emulation also allowed gamers to play these games in HD on widescreen ratio which is normal for people to want, no different than wanting to own the BR of your favorite mover over the DVD, which the PS3 does not do.
The other important reason for backwards compatibility is history. Modern gaming owes a lot to the PS2 and people should be able to access that.
So, what does this mean? It means that PS2 games on the PS4 turned out rather disappointing and if you want the best experience for playing your PS2 disc PC emulation might be the way to go. I don't plan to go in that direction yet, since I have a PS2 and 3 that can play those games but I am getting tempted by the higher quality picture it offers.
