Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Backwards Compatibility

Huge news on the PlayStation front has come in the form of rumors; backwards compatibility coming to PS4 in the form of PS1 and PS2 emulators. These may be more than rumors as many major news outlets have carried the story and there seems to be a bit of truth behind it. Most sites are referencing Shuhei Yoshida, who said emulators could be possible when talking about the lack of backwards capability. Now someone on the inside is talking and saying it might actually be real.

What does this mean for gamers? It means that we may be able to purchase or even use disks for classic PS1 and PS2 games on your PS4 console. If we research exactly what an emulator is we get,

Video game console emulators are programs that allow a personal computer or video game console to emulate another video game console. They are most often used to play older video games on personal computers and more contemporary video game consoles, but they are also used to translate games into other languages, to modify existing games, and in the development process of home brew demos and new games for older systems.
Wikipedia definition

Now the biggest part of this definition that is being talked about is the possibility of games being up scaled into better definition to compensate for the bigger screens of today’s TV's. This was some of the bigger complaints of PlayStation Classics on the PlayStation Store.

Now don't go throwing away or selling those PS1 and PS2 game disks as a rumor has it that these emulators very well could read games off of older disks. This would be the biggest win for gamers due to the fact that games wouldn't have to be repurchased. Take this rumor with a grain of salt as I don't see how Sony could pass up an opportunity to make some extra cash. However, it could sell even more PS4's, so either way Sony wins.

With PlayStation Now, Sony is bringing a service to allow us to enjoy PS3 games, but now it is possible that we could have a way of enjoying every single game that has ever appeared on any Sony System. Sony has done one thing when it comes to the PS4, and that is focus on gamers and what they want. I am happy to see PS4's excellent support from gamer's that shows Sony they can just concentrate on games and make everyone happy. Sony is barely winning the console wars, but if they can get all that they are promising to work... we may not see Microsoft continue their gaming system in the distant future.

So what do you think? Does this sell a PS4 system? And what is the classic PlayStation game you look forward to playing?

A Look Ahead

Looks like Sony has been teasing a "Slim" announcement and all signs including preorder listings have led to the obvious rumor of the PS Vita Slim making its way over to the U.S. Hopefully we also get an announcement about Vita TV as well. I will make sure to have you covered with the news and announcements from Sony when they make them public.

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