Would it even be possible for the system to understand what game you inserted in the drive, check if it's a booteg etc. for that to work? Plus, doens't solve the friends ripping off the system by using your real game anyway. I guess they could use a UPC barcode as a safety check. But that assumes Sony has kept all the UPC codes for each game made since day 1.

Didn't they want to bring back old games and offer them with PS Now?

It would never happen at least not for free. I mean most people do not take into account how the games were initially licensed. You can't just toss every psx game up for free... not to mention if you want these games to work on ps4 hardware I would imagine some recoding for a lot of these if it all the classic games! Let's say they go ahead and do it via PSnow you have the overhead of that service to pay for... it costs money and that's something your $50 was never intended to cover. Besides I think this is intended with PSnow eventually.

IMO, any game that is more than 10 years old should b efree digitally, as it doesn't generate much more benefits, and should attract new generations of gamers.

The problem is, why would people buy new games if they have 1000 hours of gameplay on old games for free ?

I don't think this will happen.

But..still waiting on Suikoden 2 for PSN release!

Nice idea in principle but there is money to be made. It used to be the case that once a game was out of print we could only own it via 2nd hand, now we have another option. Letting everyone have every game for nothing is too much. Even if I'm sure everyone would love it.

The Older PS3's could do it because they had the hardware that supported BC and others had software that was used but the software BC was buggy and not all games worked and was eventually dropped. 

The PS4 can't do it because there is no software that supports the architecture the game was built for. Also just because you own a physical copy of a older game or any game for that matter does not entitle you to digital copy. In the case of older games the games were never licensed that way and really the licenses only covered that game for use on the intended hardware. It costs money to host these games and the bandwidth used when people download them! What is in it for Sony when you pop in a game you bought 15 years ago? You got your moneys worth on the INTENDED platform, if you want the digital copy of a game to use on hardware that the game was never intended to play on they you pay for it.

Work had to go into making the games work in PS3... They need to get paid, Sony is not running a charity :-p

But your still talking about only paying for a game once and having the right to have a digital copy when the licences NEVER covered that option in the first place. If you want a game digitally you need to pay for it. You are still cutting off potential revenue streams no matter how small however I am sure if some of us had options to get harder to find PSX games at a decent price we would jump at it... I know I would.  You paid for your game YEARS ago that does not entitle one to a free digital copy... If you want to play your PSX games that you already have (physical) then you play them on a PSX that's what you paid for and that's what you got just because tech changes does not mean the original product should. 

If someone has some VHS movies does that mean they should get free digital copies also? It maybe a different form of entertainment but it applies just the same.  Again this sense of entitlement that society has needs to go away and go away fast. 

Lets say Sony dusts off some old IP and reboots it, people may want to go back who never played the original and see what that was all about doing what you propose would cut off a revenue stream. Again just because you bought a game 15 years ago does not entitle you to a free digital copy now.  It's all moot because Sony will never do it and I am fine with that as any reasonable person should be :-p