Backward compatibility always seems to be a massive issue to gamers, but not so much to the manufacturers of the consoles.
Obviously one of the main reasons for this is that they want consumers to buy new games and keep downloading their latest updates. They don't want everybody sat on their consoles playing GTA San Andreas for example.
I'd be surprised if Sony don't end up going down this route though, especially now since Microsoft announced it, neither like to be outdone by the other as we all know.
Is backward compatibility really that much of an issue though?
I agree with you, they should really follow and pursue backward compatibility since it's one of the strongest and most important aspect in my opinion for considering a console worth buying it. Just have a look for example at the Wii U which supports compatibility... it is way better from this point of view than the PS4. I don't really know why they are not doing as they would have really a lot of more buyers.
I think they will do eventually, like I said especially now that they announced it for the XBOX aswell, I can't see Sony wanting to be outdone by Microsoft over something like that.
And the main reason I can think of is because they want people to play PS4 games on their PS4. They want people to look to the future and embrace what's coming rather than live in the past.
Most software developers are already talking about winding down their PS3 side of things and concentrating on the next gen consoles, so soon you won't be able to buy new PS3 games anyway.
I think it could be due to technology and also there have been issues with doing this and may consume time and cost as well, which may be why it is not being done at this time. The company may have seen that if they do put backwards compatibility, then the costs will be higher and only a few people will be able to buy the console which will not sell well and not profit the company very well. I reckon that maybe in a few years time it will happen, as the company has said it is hard to do and can take time to do it as technical issues have stopped it from going forward.
I expected them to announce it very soon considering Xbox have but I don't really mind all that much. I got rid of all my PS3 games when I bought my PS4 but I'm surprised they're not doing it yet :\ To be honest they're already outselling the xbox by a ton but this may actually work in xbox's favour
