Why PS4 Doesn't Have Backwards Compatibility and Xbox One Does. - FULLY EXPLAINED 

Hi everyone! Hope you enjoyed the video, one topic I'm seeing in the comments a lot is, what about emulation for PS2 and PS1 Backwards Compatibility? Now while there isn't a concrete answer for this we can only go based off conjecture but here's my 2 cents: It's likely a few things that add up to the reason why Sony doesn't do either and I think the main one is liability. PS1/PS2 had massive libraries and making an emulator for both that consistently works for 95%+ compatibility and keeping it updated for years to come with new PS4 Firmwares is probably something Sony just doesn't want to put up with. Hardware manufacturers typically have a strict quality control and QA process. It's not like an open source emulator where you're at your own discretion to experiment and see what works and what doesn't. Sony (and Microsoft) want to release finished and working products. This is why Microsoft doesn't just flip a switch with their emulator and allow everyone to play every Xbox 360 game. Microsoft knows some games won't work, and they don't want someone to try a game and have it crash making that consumer think their console is faulty. They control it and make sure each game works well. Now if you have an older PS4 with custom firmware you can get a working PS2 emulator out of the PS4 and I've heard it works well with a lot of games. But again, it's just a matter of Sony not wanting to be liable or keeping it updated with new official firmware releases, or worrying about copyright/licensing issues. So instead, they have a small team manually working on PS2 games and up-resing them, giving them trophies, and selling them on the PS Store. This goes back to the Microsoft thing, Sony is controlling it so they know the product is good and finished. Only difference here is Sony likes selling them to you, and Microsoft had the good will to let consumers use their old discs. Which I think is really awesome of them. But based on how many premium PS2 games Sony has released so far, I'd say they don't really have many people working on them. As for PS1, again, I think it's just liability and them not wanting to put the resources into it. Given that there's no PS1 'classics' on PS4's PlayStation Store, or PS Now, I'm inclined to say Sony has data suggesting not many people are playing PS1 games today. Which coincides with what Sony has publicly said many times - 'backwards compatibility is often talked about but hardly ever used'. Again, I'm assuming here, but I think the company likely saw little engagement from PS3 having PS2 SoC, PS2 Classics, PS1 Emulation, and PS1 Classics. So they made the decision to focus on strictly PS4 and use PS Now to future proof themselves. Now I know Microsoft has released data suggesting Xbox One gamers are using BC a lot, so who knows at this point. But I'm sure if we're grading on a curve here I'm still inclined to say a vast majority of Xbox One play is Xbox One titles. Hope this clears up some unanswered questions regarding PS1/PS2. I do find it odd that Sony hasn't pursued them more, they're both beloved platforms to many and Sony could easily repackage many of these games to people. But there's gotta be a reason for why they aren't doing it, and I think it's just a matter of putting all their effort into PS4 games, Streaming, and the longterm future instead of the minority. I hope that attitude changes though.

As a PlayStation player.. this is one of the features I’m jealous about. Really wish ps4 would have done the same.

No PS3 emulation is reasonable, but there's no reason the PS4 can't emulate the PS2 or PS1. Even though PS2 backwards compatibility was removed from later revisions of PS3, PS1 backwards compatibility was always there up until the most recent PS3 model.

The fact that the PS4 can't emulate even the PS1 is just an insult.

#1 reason for PlayStation to not be backwards compatible is that they'd rather sell you a game you already own instead of just reading a disc that makes you download the game immediately and for free. PS2 classics in a nutshell.

Backwards compatibility is a must have feature for PS5.

I'm gonna be pissed if I can't play my PS4 games library on my PS5

Xbox: We can emulate some games PS4: Meh people wont notice PC: Step aside.

Xbox Backward Compatibility is amazing. Resolution and frame rate boosts are impressive. I really hope Sony is trying to get this level of compatibility working with their PS5.

I agree about how complicated the PS3 cell would be to emulate. But that doesn't explain why they are making you re-buy PS2 games rather than letting you use your disc. I think Microsoft are also just more generous than Sony.

I'm loving the backwards Compatibility on Xbox. So many awesome titles I missed out on I now get to play.

Backwards compatibility is one of the main and many reasons I got an Xbox One instead. I'm a sucker for old shooter games from before like 2010.

Im pretty sure Sony could make backwards compatibility possible on their console they are just too lazy and money hungry to actually do it

Prop's to the guy's at Xbox for working hard and long on backwards

"Emulating is expensive" says Sony. And where does the ps plus profit go?? That money is NOT improving the system as they say, it's going right into Sony's pockets.

The ability for me to play Star wars battlefront 2: classic, MW2, and Titanfall 2 on the same console is just amazing

Short answer Sony's LAZY *toxic kids start dissing* lol

Microsoft doesn't really make money from backwards compatibility heck if you already own the Xbox 360 game on disc or digital you simply insert the disc or redownload the game into your Xbox One Microsoft is doing backwards compatibility for fan service not profit Xbox is truly for the gamers

Sony could have continued releasing more PS2 classics, but it seems they aren't interested in that anymore

i've always felt that spencer is "for the gamers" type of guy. he really did allot of good stuff for his company and his fanbase. now there's rumours about ps5 being backwards compatible with all previous consoles hopefully it's true

Ya know with all the technology Sony has at their disposal you’d think they could have a DECENT streaming service

So they can make you rebuy your games duh!

The PS4 is somewhat capable of emulating PS1, PS2 and PSP as we have seen through the classics titles for sale on the PSN. PS3 emulation would be almost impossible on a PS4, but RPCS3 is showing it's not entirely impossible on a more powerful system. There is little reason why Sony won't allow access to their emulation features for customers to play their disc based PS1 and PS2 games and digital PSP games, other than some compatibility issues and the fact Sony can re-sell their 'classics'. I'd personally like to see Sony pull finger with the PS5 and offer emulation support for PS1, PS2 and PSP (as well as some Vita titles), and hardware level support for PS3, plus up-scaling to Full HD. The Hardware required to run PS3 games is cheap enough and wouldn't increase the cost of the system all that much. They could offer a cheap model with PS4/PS5 support and a 'Pro model' with more power that also has backwards compatibility, for those that want it. But seeing how dedicated Sony is to PS NOW, I doubt we will get any of that!

I have been a PS gamer for a while now and I think that Xbox did a great job at emulation and I genuinely envy that one thing about it.

Or maybe Sony only care the money instead of their consumers.

Backwards Compatibility is a must I think for PS5, it must play everything the PS4 can right now. I do think it is always in their best interests to try to bring PS3 games working on the PS5 since it will need to be more powerful than the XboxOneX. I don’t see PSNow as a sustainable options for backwards because you need some fancy internet to get that working right and their is noticeable lag compared to if we were just allowed to download the game. PSNow needs to evolve to XboxGame Pass standards basically.

I love the backwards compatibility feature on my Xbox One. I purchased the Xbox One S specifically because of this feature. There were hundreds of games in the last generation that I didn't have a chance to buy or play, and several games from the Xbox original generation that I used to own and got rid of many years ago. I love the fact that I can go back and play some of my favorite games from back in the day. A lot of these games remain console exclusives that never came out on PC, so the Xbox One becomes the best way to play them as many of them have significant enhancements over the original. I spend about half of my time playing Xbox 360 games on my Xbox One. Xbox might not have many good exclusives (Forza Horizon being an amazing exception), but I find myself spending more time on my Xbox largely due to the backwards compatibility feature. As far as I'm aware, there are now over 500 backwards compatible games on Xbox One. Also, PlayStation now just isn't the same as running the games at local hardware. This is why I subscribe to Game Pass instead.

So all this time i have been a playstation player, xbox has been a little bit better...

PS4: **does not have backwards compatibility** Xbox One: **laughs in Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare**

As long as the next gen Xbox is still Windows-based and running on x86 hardware, backwards compatibility with Xbox One games should be trivial and no different than running a Windows 8 game on Windows 10. The software emulator for 360 and OG Xbox games should also be able to run natively still on the next gen Xbox as well, assuming it's still x86 Windows based of course.

So to sum it up Sony doesn't want to take the time to do this for it's customers.

I feel that if some idependant developers were able to build a fully working PS3 emulator, Sony could it. Sounds like lazyness to me

Want to make the PlayStation 4 backwards compatible with physical PlayStation 3 games and accessories? Send Sony a message, with the following text (it can be modified): "I found a news article titled 'Patent Suggests Backward Compatibility Is Coming To PlayStation 4,' which could be a rumor. If you plan to make it come true, then I kindly ask that you finally provide the PlayStation 4 backwards-compatiblity with physical PlayStation 3 games and accessories by redesigning it so that PS3 and PS4 gamers can finally play them on a single console, something lots of them have been wishing for over the past five years. Hopefully, you can have no objection as this message will try and make you fully realize how much inconvenience you have caused for PS3 gamers since the PS4 first came out. But if that sounds far fetched, then if the PlayStation 5 will have backwards compatibility with disc-based PS4 games, then I will purchase it to play both PS4 and PS5 games on it by the time it comes out and also buy a PlayStation 3 separately. Without backwards-compatibility, there is no way of saving extra space in households and there is no way of playing games from previous platforms in the same series on a newer console. So, please, the next time you make a video game console, consider decisions like this more carefully. When you put backwards compatibility to the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3, you did a great job of allowing your customers to be able to play older games for previous platforms onto newer ones without buying anything else instead of preventing them from playing those onto said sixth and seventh generation consoles. By not making the PS4 backwards compatible with physical PS3 games and accessories, you forced PS3 gamers to seek out alternate pursuits and methods (such as playing PS3 games as digital downloads instead), and believe me, unless you accept this request, it's not likely that people will invest years of time and money in a company and product that will pull the rug out from under them with not so much as a thought to what they do. I'm not trying to threaten your company in any way, I'm just refusing to be hopeless. Thanks!"

The only console I remember that had true backwards compatibility at launch with any game from the last generation was the ps2 I dident even have it

Xbox One brutally stomps PS4 when it comes to BC... I don't see a reason to buy Ezio collection on Xbox one when you can just insert That AC2 that you bought years ago... I don't get paid to be a delusional Sony defender. But that's the truth yall

Basically it would be easier to emulate 360 on PS4 than emulate PS3 on PS4.

They could have made system on a chip be an option, like a card you plug into an expansion slot. That solves a lot of problems. You are still able to have a low price at launch for the majority of the market that supposedly doesn't care about BC, and you are still able to offer effective easy to engineer disk game BC without the massive effort of emulation.

PS4 doesn't have backwards compatibility but the Xbox One and Wii U do have backwards compatibility

Oh, so you're saying that certain models of the PlayStation 3 and all versions of newer consoles lacked backwards compatibility with games for certain previous platforms just because the older PS3 models were too expensive and newer consoles would have had the same problem with their purchase costs and Sony thought it wouldn't be possible to make the PlayStation 4 play physical PS3 games? You have to admit, that is really bizarre and lame! For some reason, I thought I read somewhere a few years ago that the newer PS3 models no longer supported backward-compatibility with PS2 games only because Sony thought it was too expensive to add to them, so it seems like I'm mistaken since somehow, that's how I remembered reading whatever it was I found such information. But either way, it would have made more sense and been more convenient to make these consoles and certain versions of the PlayStation 3 backwards-compatible with games for certain previous platforms (although physical PS1 games can still be played on newer PS3 models), in my opinion. Thanks for clearing that up!

PC: Have an RPCS3 emulator, a decent ammount of games run smoothly. PS4: Nuh bro, its impossible to emulate plus noones wants (kappa), so we will just make remasters and only on best selling games.

That was really helpful. Thank you!

Blah, Blah, Blah. Its not difficult. Sony just didn't want to do it. PS2 had a Totally different SOC than PS1 and it was still able to run BC. There are PS3 games right now. God of war 3 that are running on an emulator on PC. Sony just found it more profitable to remaster games and sell them to people over again. Just like with the STREAMING.

Man I love playing Saints row 1 and 2 on my Xbox One X

Wow I love this channel it’s so informative keep it up

Thanks for making this! Makes perfect sense now!

This is why I still have my PS3 and PS2.

Xbox all but confirmed that the new console will be backwards compatibles with the new console. Phil Spenser said he thinks it’s awful you lose all your games when you move to a new console. He wants all your games to carry with you onto a new console. That plus with the Xbox X still relatively new when the next gen console comes out it only makes sense to make everything compatible

omg I can't get over how the time in the background changes every cut lol

This is an easy one. MS are happy for their gamers to use thier old games where as Sony want thier gamers to spend more money be that with remasters or on PlayStation Now

Because it can’t... literally. The architecture is so complex on PS3 that it basically is impossible to probably put into the PS4. Won’t read the discs, or emulate the code.

I was curious bout that. Thank u!

Great explanation!. Really enjoy your videos. I never upgraded to a PS4 because of the lack of backward compatibility, I have so many great PS3 Disc and downloads games that i still play. I wonder how many people also did not upgrade? I know a lot of people that just hung on to their PS3's even after buying the PS4. Can't wait to see if PS5 changes any of this.

thanks this does a great job of explaining why. because of the lack of amazing games on x1 im so happy that I can play most of my xbox 360 games on it especially since there are a lot of great xbox 360 games !

Or let's just be totally honest here, the PS4 can be backwards compatible with PS1 and PS2 games but Sony would rather sell them to us so they've locked it off.

Great informative vids as always - One question: By PS4 backwards compatibility with PS5 games, do you mean digital or physical PS4 games.

Very informational. Thank you

That’s why I got a PS4 to play PS1,2 games but if there isn’t backwards compatibility on PS5 then I’m done with Sony / PSN I’m sticking with Xbox forever

Sony could very easily do backwards compatibility. They already have a very talented team of engineers working on PS1, PS2, and PSP emulation. Heck, they even hired one of the PCSX2 devs a few years back, and he's currently the technical lead for backwards compatibility at Sony.

Great video man, really enjoyed it

I love this video! Very informative

Im so glad I was able to play lost planet since I missed out on 360

I've seen PS2 emulators run fine on decade-old hardware like a Q6600 with 4GB of RAM on Windows Vista. I'm pretty sure the PS4 could handle emulating a PS2. The Jaguar core in the PS4 shouldn't be much weaker.

Wait so I was abt to buy persona 3 fes digital on persona 3, so does that mean I won’t be able to play it on ps5 ? Unless there’s backwards compatibility..like will it forever be lost and a waste of money?

Recommended video this morning! Main question is. Why did you film this at 3am 😅😅

If there is a partially working ps3 emulator via PC, it means PS3 emulation is more than possible on the upcoming PS5. Since I have digitally purchased loads of games on ps3, Sony better make this cross platform for the new PS5 instead of forcing us to re-buy enhanced versions all the time. Digital purchases should always be available like steam on PC. If not, I will not waste an extra penny on Sony, and my last Sony console will be my PS4 Pro. Most of my digital 360 library works very well on Xbox One X... some of which have been enhanced for free...bravo Microsoft for a perk that rewards customers of your brand...both Nintendo and Sony should take notes.

I accept how the two have different architecture and why the PS4 doesn't accept older titles but it was inexcusable of Microsoft and Sony to prevent people carrying over a lot of steering wheels and other controllers from the PS3 to the PS4 and 360 to Xbone. My steering wheel which was PS3 and PC compatible just wouldn't work when I got the PS4, just a simple USB plugin. Still works with the PC but not what its primary purchase was for.

I still have my PS3 as well as my PS2 so doesn't bother me. However the fact that I can play all of my 360 games on my ONE allowed me to box my old 360 up and save space.

I wish they’d bring PS Now back to the PS3. There was no technical reason to take it away.

Ps4 not having Backwards compatibility to me was never an issue considering how I still have my ps3 and ps2

Xbox had Halo 4 streaming to a Nokia Lumia back in 2013. Xbox, more specifically, Microsoft doesn't roll something out until they have it working.

Thank You for the explanation. I find the whole issue to be frustrating.

Lol the time in the background says 2 am like don't you ever sleep 😂

Microsoft just have the better engineers..

*Video Simplified:* Sony don't know how to achieve backwards compatiblity.. for PS1, PS2, PS3 on PS4.. Now PS5 only allows certain PS4 games. 😳 Sony trashing their own Legacy & forgetting what their Customers want. ✅ Xbox doing what their Customers want! Myself, as a Sony user think it's maybe 'Greener' on the other side of the fence with Xbox. (Pun intended!) XseriesX pre-ordered. 😉 Sony, its been memorable but I can't Marry you.

0:21 that noise on loop would be a sound machine

I've got 7 Playstations (2 different versions of the ps1, ps2 & ps3 plus a ps4) and only my ps3 super slim is backwards compatible (with ps1 games). It would be nice to play the ps2 discs on one of the hd consoles but it's not a big issue is it? :-s

i just want to play my PS3 library

Dude's recording at 2:22 am

The thing is once they get a working emulator they could put it into each new generation with little updating needed. So that work would down across generations of consoles and that means profits.

Backwards compatibility is half the reason I play games on PC whenever possible. The ability to go back and play most any game from the past is great... I wish more modern consoles would keep this feature. Imagine how cool it would be if PS4 played all games that came out for PS1/PS2/PS3/PS4... It would be an incredible gaming machine! I can dream.

PS1 Backwards Compatibility still could have been a thing on PS4, considering that the PS3 was able to emulate the full library easily hell even the PSP and Vita were capable of it.

7:50 I guess they never miss huh

Going into that (considering ur background) I was expecting a very bias view on that. But surprisingly u weren't. Good job man.

I heard that a few more impediments was music copyrights and permission as well as some games developers no longer exist and knowing who has rights was a problem. These are other problems with emulation. Hardware backwards compatibility gets around this.

See for us console folks you basically gotta buy an older system to play the games especially for PlayStation. I’ve been a ps person for years and I did skip the ps3 for the 360. Now idk what to do

I love my PS4 but Xbox kills it when it comes to the consumer

The games I absolutely need on backwards compatibility are the hardest to license... The old need for speeds and burnouts, stuff like that. One can dream...

So can you explain to me why streaming a PS3 game like RDR on PS4 through the psNow subscription is possible but. Just allowing us to play the game or releasing it in the ps store is hard to do? Paying another subscription on top of my ps plus subscription is bs

Legend has it that the PS4 is backwards compatible, but the feature isn’t “activated”

For PS4 pro they should've added backwards compatibility for PS3 games

Hi, thank you for this video. Can I ask you what game is it at 6:43, please? Thank you

You sort of mentioned it at the end of the video, but there's a 3rd option for backward compatibility, when multiple console generations share the same platform, this being x86. My understanding is that with ps4/5 and the xboxes, because they are all x86, it's not emulation or SoC, they essentially the same underlying technology. This is why you can install a 15 year old game on your modern pc, because that old game had like directx 7 or whatever, for which the code is still rattling around with the newer direct x versions.

I don't play that much games neither do I buy them and since backwards compatibility was a thing it was the main reason why I bought it. (I also bought it because its linked to my microsoft account)

So what your telling me is get the next Xbox for old and new games? Ok 👌🏼

Whats the model of your TV bro ?

the CEO of PlayStation sed "emulation was a feature alot of peoppe want but very little use" and "i was at a convection where they had ps1, ps2, ps3, and ps4 setup... why would anyone play the ps1 or ps2, they look ancient" im sure he's a lovely man but that's a low blow

I think Sony should shut PS Now down.

The PC also doesn't have backwards compatibility. I wonder why...

Coool information man on some update on games yeaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh rock on

Honestly, whilst Microsoft definitely do backwards compatibility much better, they should take a page out of Sony's book and try remastering classic Xbox and Xbox 360 games for the Xbox One and Series X. I mean wouldn't it be great to play games like Midtown Madness 3, Star Wars Obi Wan, and Escape from Butcher Bay on modern Xbox consoles?