Japanese game company Sony will not be offering backwards compatibility to PlayStation 4 users despite persistent rumors, requests and the fact that its biggest competitor, Microsoft's Xbox One, will be offering the feature to its users. The company will instead be focusing on a number of new games, due for release late this year and the following year.
According to a Yahoo News report, Sony will be sticking to its guns regarding the subject of backwards compatibility. Jim Ryan, CEO and President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, said in an interview that backwards compatibility is not a frequently used feature among users. Sony's Computer Entertainment World Wide Head Shuhei Yoshida has had similar views on the matter as he addressed rumors that the company will offer PS3 backwards compatibility for PS4.
Yoshida said at the time, "I don't think we will change our approach. The PlayStation 4 doesn't have backward compatibility." He also added that backwards compatibility "is hard," but indicated that the company is not ruling it out entirely as a feature in future releases. Jim Ryan said of backwards compatibility in an interview with Eurogamer, "It gets talked about, and it's always high on the list of what people want, but it's not a feature that gets used that much. Our focus is on the new games."
Ryan also pointed out, "People move on very quickly. It was very interesting to look at that montage of the various Tekkens, and seeing how those things have evolved over the years. The first one, which I loved, looks prehistoric. The next generation comes along, and people just jump at it."
Sony has announced and showed trailers of its upcoming games in the PlayStation event in Paris Games Week. The event was held last week, and Sony has introduced titles such as Gravity Rush 2, No Man's Sky, Dreams and Star Wars: Battlefront, among others.
