I guess I care enough... If the PS4 could play my ps1, ps2, and ps3 discs then I would have bought it right away.

Right now, I am happy with all the consoles I currently own and I have a decent PC still, so there is that too, and I am buried in a backlog of games so I am really just am in no rush.

Will I ever get a Wii U or PS4? Maybe not, but who knows, I could see it being really cheap one day and I just get it for a few exclusive games.

I'd say I'm in the "Good to have, but not necessary" category. Being able to play most or all of my old games on my current system is convenient, but I spend most of my time playing games for whatever generation is going on at the moment. I don't expect to go back to many of my 360 games once I get my X1.

It's obviously handy, but not nearly as useful as forward compatibility

The Wii U has full backwards compatibility with Wii, so at least one next-gen machine has it

Gaikai? No thanks. I want the option to pick up boxed copies of PS3 games I've missed, and I don't expect all of my most wanted PS3 titles to be available through Gaikai anyway.

ps2+ps1 BC was the reason i bought the PS3, if it wasn't for that i may never have bought it. I try to keep my systems hooked up always and it's REALLY nice to have 3 systems in 1 like that. The wii having BC was big for me too. I have NES, SNES, N64, wii (GC BC) PS3 (PS2+1 BC), genesis, saturn, DC all hooked up, so BC has saved me spots for 3 systems.

Just remembered why i bought the gameboy advance SP as well was because of BC, now i can just have a gameboy advance SP and 3DS and i can play gameboy (color), GB advance, DS and 3DS games.

It's important to me, absolutely. But it's not make-or-break.

If the PS4 had been announced with full-on BC for physical and digital copy, I would've pre-ordered one as soon as I could. As it stands, I'm going to wait until it has a solid line-up of titles. And not "console exclusives" that are on PC already or cross-gen stuff, but games only coming out on next-gen platforms. But I still do expect to get one eventually.

I enjoy BWC because I can then give away or sell my old system to help fund my new one.

BC is somewhat important. I rarely go back to play old games. Though It's nice for backlog, IE goning back to my Wii collection.

I foresee more streaming services in the future, that why Sony/MS can double dip lol

I bought a PS3 instead of waiting for a PS4 because of no backwards compatibility. There's no exclusives coming on PS4 I want and lots already on the PS3 I want. If it had it, obviously I would wait. Plus free online. Gaikai (or however you spell it) may not work as promised.