Can MS & Sony just simply make next gen fully BC?

[Bofferbrauer2]

Mr Puggsly said:

Bofferbrauer2 said:

Here's an actual problem of consoles: Sony doesn't need to make them available to transfer between console generations to force you to buy them again if you want to play them on a PS5. I doubt they will do so, though.

Another question is if they will include BC at all as it's much more profitable not to and just resell or remaster them and then sell them at full price.

Here's my counter argument. Is it more profitable for Sony and MS to ignore BC to push remasters. Or is it instead more profitable to sell hundreds of BC games on new consoles and use them on subscription services?

MS has essentially handled this in an ideal way. They allow people to use their old discs and digital purchases, but they also allow people to buy virtually any game on BC digitally. They are also adding games that were never available digitally before on Xbox like Rage, Lost Odyssey, and Final Fantasy XIII. Its possible MS still sells millions of OG Xbox and Xbox 360 games digitally. BC content is also content used for Game Pass and Xbox Live. I think for the first time this month an OG Xbox game was used on Games with Gold.

It seems to me Sony selling PS1 games on the PS3, PSP and Vita was successful enough. You can even buy notable PS2 games on PS3 and PS4. But they don't put the same effort on getting content and frankly I don't think people have the same enthusiasm about 5th and 6th gen as much as 7th gen. Sony instead uses PS3 content on PS Now, but that's too expensive and streaming is not ideal for overall fidelity.

I think there is gonna be huge demand for BC on 9th gen consoles and that's why both Sony and MS are going to do it. It would also look bad is one offers it and the other does not.

But as Sony CEO said in the past, BC is often demanded, but rarely ever actually used apparently. Which means that while there's no technical reason why there's no BC, it has no guarantee to be included into the PS5. For MS, it wouldn't make sense to leave it out, but for SONY, it's the other way around.