Soooo...I would need to hack the console to play games from a previous system?

Yeah, not seeing your point very well here.

I am going as far as I like because I find the duplicity of threads like this ridiculous.

You buy a game and you play it on the system that you bought it on. That's it. That's as far as it goes. Getting BC on some consoles is a cute bonus, but it's ridiculous to expect a company to give you a game for free on ANY platform that they release further on.

It doesn't work like this ANYWHERE in entertainment. I am not owed by a publishing house every single new iteration of a book I have bought from them ten years ago.

If I buy a musical album today, does that mean the publisher owes me every single revised version and remastered version of said album from here on out?

I drive a Golf.

Next year Volkswagen will probably release a new model with features that my car doesn't have.

Am I owed said features? 

No you can play Wii games fine on Wii U - every single one. But if you also want to play any Gamecube game it literally is a five minute mod away. Nintendo didn't support GameCube games because initially they weren't interested in bringing the GC controller around, and backwards compatibility runs in Wii mode.  How many PS3 games can you play on PS4? 

As for your allusion to other media: 1. Video Games are not other media. They have different standards and expectations. If backwards compatibility is possible, then that is one of them. 2. Can you not play DVD's and CD's on your Bluray player? Can you not play downloaded media through usb/sd card on  your blu-ray player/sound system?

And nobody is saying give new content away for free. People are saying that they should support the originally purchased games. The PS4 CAN read PS2 discs. The PS4 CAN emulate PS2 games off the disc with the original content.  

It is the standard on PC, Wii U, and now even XBO to support backwards compatibility. Why shouldn't Sony do the same? 

I don't want to lug another console around as a transient student in addition to my Wii U, PC, PS3, and future PS4. Out of the four PS2's I've owned only one works, and it barely works at that (need to restart discs multiple times.) It also happens to be my phat model. 

Strongest point of the thread, imho. Watch it be ignored since people have already made up their mind.

It is actually not what people are arguing. People are arguing that the manufacturer of a device should support previous formats, if it is possible. A better analogy would be if a Blu-Ray player didn't support DVD playback because the publishers of content want people to upgrade their very same DVD library to a Blu-Ray one. 

Which competition is doing it right? Can't think of any systems with backwards compatibility from gen before last. And pretty certain Nintendo were expecting pretty similar prices for N64 games on Virtual Console.

That's not what this is like. A company making a Blu Ray player doesn't need to pay the movie studios for each DVD that they want to make available.

Nor does a company producing software that emulates a game. Did Sony have to pay each company for the PS3's software emulation?

They don't have to when they allow you to play seventh gen games allowing you to free up space for a sixth gen console. And at the very least one can bring Wii Virtual Console games to their Wii U, at the most they can unlock GC backwards compatibility in Wii mode. Sony doesn't do the same for PS classics. If you bought the game recently on PS3 you cannot play it on your PS4. That is something atypical for digital media in general. 

I phrased 'i feel' with the sole purpose of that ps2 option in mind. And of course you are right about the options on ps3 and psp. That being said, yes i bought the psn ff7 for ps3 because that gave me a reason to sell my Psone collection.  Which contained platinum and original versions of several games including FF7. Of which I bought one surely during the Ps2 era. ;p

Of course a decision i now and then regret.