What is the deal with backward compatibility?

I know that ps3 discs will not be able to be played on the ps4 but a guy at gamestop said that you can buy the difference or something? I am coming from xbox 360 and would love to play some of the ps3 exclusives on the ps4.

Hey Jukev2424.

Backwards compatibility is the ability for next gen. consoles to play past. gen. games in disc form. This is because, supposedly, the new PS4 discs will be using a different technology or something... I am not so familiar with the technical stuff. Anyway; at present time, we will not be able to play PS3 discs on PS4.

But the option to play PS3-games on your PS4 will become available(?) via downloads. This means that at some point in PS4 future, we will be able to stream past gen. games via cloud servers. What the person at said store was talking about is that these earlier current gen. titles will probably be available at discount prices.

When it is available, Sony will be offering ps3 games through a streaming service.

Thanks for the help guys. Hope they make the streaming available sooner rather than later

@jukev2424:

The problem is that backwards compatibility requires one of two things, either the console can emulate the console via software (like you can on PC) or that has hardware from the previous generation console that will allow it to play the games from said generation.

Both have their problems, the Hardware side of things is difficult because its expensive to integrate into the new console and would bump up the price, as it did with the original PS3 and the software side requires the console to be powerful enough to run itself and whatever is required to of ran the older generation console to, so lets say for example that the PS3 is probably five times (or more, it's a guestimate) more powerful than the PS1 which is why it can emulate it so easily using software.

There is also the idea of using similar architecture in the console design which would make running games from previous console just a natural capabilities but evidently that is hard to do while still upgrading the architecture enough to run the new system optimally.

Maybe I'm just talking rubbish but as you can see, backwards compatibility is a bit a shit-sandwich for console manufacturers, sadly.

Sony has done away with Backwards compatibility for Playstation 4. No Playstation 3, Playstation 2, or Playstation disc based games can be played on the PS4 console. Once Sony's Gaikai game streaming service comes in being Playstation 3 games will be streamed on PS4. as well as the other Sony legacy consoles. So expect to pay again for your favorite PS3 games in order to play them on the PS4.

Not exactly B/C for Playstation 4. Gaikai is just another way of reselling you, your PS3 games streamed to your PS4 console. Sony paid billions for Gaikai so they have to recoup their costs somehow.

another question, will games like the last of us be able to be played on the ps4? I am coming from a xbox 360 and want to play the last of us when i get my ps4

No, buy a PS3

You won't be able to do so physically. However, those games you are interested in might be available to download through PSN.

@Tqricardinho: Thanks, thats better than nothing.

@GTR12: I highly doubt many of those who don't already have a PS3 will get one at this point. lol