It's not of critical importance to me since I always keep my old consoles/games, but in the case of handhelds it's convenient to carry around a single device that's physically compatible with two gen's worth of games.

*cough bias cough*

I do. One of the reasons i got Wii U so early was because of its backwards compatibility.

I like bc because I can play my older games while having fewer consoles hooked up. If a console isn't bc then it really doesn't matter because I can just keep my older console. It's just more of a convenience.

Well its a good feature to have but not a game changer for me because I always keep my older consoles.

I got a Wii U partially to play Wii games. I doubt I'd have gotten it in 2012 if it lacked that ability. So yes, it does matter a fair amount to me.

i don't mind much since I emulate every console but PS3 and X360... but that means it matters now :P.

i only tend to use it in the early parts of the gen since the new consoles library isnt established or once in a while to take a trip down memory lane. i also like that it eliminates the cluster fuck of wires and controllers especially if you game on one console manufacture

nothing i can do about it next gen ps and xb aint gonna get it and i aint re buying my games digitally

I am more interested in buying a PSP rather than a Vita because the Vita doesn't have physical backward compatibility with the PSP.

So yes, it's important to me.

I never owned a DS, so backwards compatibility was a huge factor when I bought my 3DS. I'd go so far as to say that if the 3DS wasn't backwards-compatible, I probably would have gotten a DS Lite instead and waited a few more years for the 3DS.