I think its a mix of both honestly. But the reason is still true that I typed though. They wont do BC because PSNow took such a big investment that financially it would hit them very hard

difference between xbox bc and ps now:

xbox bc is trying to sell a new hardware with old games to an already existing audience because of lack of interesting new exclusive software.

ps now is trying to sell old, and i'm pretty sure sometimes in the future even new, software to an existing and a completely new audience (those who don't play console games) by making the playstation game catalog accessible on every entertainment hardware (consoles, phones, tablets, tvs, pcs,...).

two totally different things. not comparable.

I know a lot of people don't care so much, but the day they implement BC will be the day I go out and buy a PS4. Until then I'm still waiting for the right time to pick up a cheap PS3, and PS4 is a distant vision. There's no way I want to buy both at this point.

Have my old consoles intact, never touch them.

Sony could reverse engineer and adapt the code for ps4 and release it for MP and cover 95% of the library with very little effort.

I would really like for a BC feature for this PS4.. this means I would more likely get a PS4 since I don't need to get a PS3

Uh, the PS3 is cheaper that year round. But, does this PS3 have a modern UI and feature set like the PS4 or does it have the incredibly slow, shitty UI of the PS3? You know, the one where making the mistake of checking a new message you just got while in game could lock the system for 3 minutes while it struggled to keep up? No party chat? Pass.

Idk why Sony would do BC because:

A. The PS3 is probably a bitch to emulate.

B. They have PS Now. They can rent you the old games to stream over the Internet and make money.

if you already own ps3 games... then shouldn't you have a ps3? And 40% of ps4 owners didnt own a ps3.

To bad for sony cosnumers, instead of playing ps3 games on their new ps4 console and in physic format they will have to pay subscription every opnce in a while to play them but not own them

PS3 games were designed with an anemic, nearly non existant GPU in the RSX. Running it on the PS4 with a huge amount more GPU and RAM without completely redesigning the game would probably have worse performance because, the games were designed to run with PS3's cell rather than PS4's Jaguar.

XB1 style BC of providing a digital copy could work but, the cost benefit doesn't work in sony's favor, especially since they have so many games on PS Now.

It only works for MS, cause they can increase transference from 360 to One, BC doesn't make any money at all.

This.

A large number of good 360 games will only bolster the library of the X1.

While PS4 owners are happy to get good old games like Dust and Bastion ported to PS4. The X1 will get a ton of great 360 games this year.