Microsoft surprised everyone at E3 2015 by announcing the Xbox One will be backwards compatible with Xbox 360 games. Sadly, it looks like Sony is not going down the same path .
PlayStation Europe boss, Jim Ryan, confirmed this in a new interview with MCV. Ryan said that Sony will not be “following the same tactic” because other updates are being implemented.
“We are just taking a different path. To the extent that you are investing in software technology – which is what this is, it’s delivered through software not through hardware – we are trying to commit our resources and put our emphasis on delivering on the promises we made right at the start of this whole PS4 thing, to be the forward-looking, socially-connected console. We are placing our bets on things like SharePlay, on things like Play as you Download, and things like Suspend/Resume.”
He then stated that it’s great that Microsoft decided to take a different approach with the Xbox One. He said their “choice is entirely legitimate“ , however Sony has chosen to take a different path, which, in another way, is legitimate too. According to him, this would differentiate one platform from another, and allow people to decide which one suits them best. He said:
“We are just taking two different approaches. Unfortunately there are just not sufficent enough software engineers in the world for everyone to do everything. Each platform holder has to make their choices, we made one and they made another. Their choice is entirely legitimate, and I think our choice is legitimate, too. In some ways it is quite nice to have points of difference between the two platforms, and people will decide which approach suits them best.”
Ryan then concluded that having two choices is healthy, but he feels PS4 just doesnt need to go to the backwards compatible route. He reiterated the early PS3 models were backwards compatible with PS2 games, but “it’s not so greatly used“.
From Ryan’s interview, it sounds like Sony won’t add backward compatibility mainly because they feel not many people will use it.
He ended the interview by saying that the PlayStation team does not “wish to be defensive about it all,” but their approach is legitimate and they are quite happy with it.
