Sony comments on backwards compatibility have apparently irked some fans who requested the feature. It seems that Microsoft was its apparent target based on the feature being included on its consoles including the upcoming Project Scorpio. Microsoft Executive, Mike Ybarra, appears to disagree with the comments and shared his thoughts on social media. According to his Twitter post, Ybarra does not share the same sentiment with Sony.
The Microsoft exec said that they want "gamers to play the best games of the past, current, and future." Ybarra also stressed that a lot of gamers have really requested to have backwards compatibility, as indicated by Game Rant. Sony's Shawn Layden reportedly mentioned that they have no plans to include backwards compatibility in the future. He indicated that PS1 and PS2 games will appear "ancient" compared to what the PS4 can output with its current library. Layden claims that he does not know why gamers would want to play that on the new system.
Nostalgic gamers would most likely appreciate backwards compatibility as it allows them to revisit their older games. Microsoft seems to think the same way as it has included the feature on its consoles since the Xbox 360. However, analysts have pointed out that the data gathered do not really show Xbox One users maximizing the feature to play their older games. Kotaku notes that the information was collected from close to a million Xbox Live users and shows that only 1.5 percent actually uses the feature. It seems Sony did its research in order to come up with the opinion regarding the console's retro-gaming capabilities.
Scraping some data off servers gives an inaccurate view of what people do.
— Mike Ybarra (@XboxQwik) June 6, 2017
Meanwhile, some fans argued that Microsoft won't even release the accurate figures of its players using backwards compatibility to the public. This has obviously created a divide among its users. Until the company presents more solid evidence for its stance on the feature, Sony might have a point to argue the importance of the retro-compatible consoles in the future.
