Yes, not only does it encourage people to upgrade, it also offers more value to those who are thinking about buying a new console and most importantly.. pushes Devs to offer more rather than having a gen full of remasters like we saw this gen.

First : Child of eden can be played withouth Kinect and Ryse just use Xbox controller.

I know a lot of people only play the best looking new games, but i always enjoy gameplay first so, BC is very important to me.
If Scarlett is BC with original xbox, xbox 360 and xbox one, i going to buy day 1.
I have more than 250 digital games for the 3 Xboxes, so is very important to me the BC in Scarlett.
If the xbox BC team can add other systems (Dreamcast, turbograf,etc) this will be great.

Sorry for my bad english.

Back then, backwards compatibility didn't matter all that much given the hardware design experimentation going on and the low financial investment in software but this time the feature is starting to get more traction because the industry has mostly already converged in terms of hardware design while making software is getting more expensive so backwards compatibility has gained more value this time around going into the next generation ...

Backwards compatibility was always a compelling feature to the end user but it just wasn't all that compelling of a feature to developers compared to moving on to a superior hardware design until recently since this generation has been the most that they've invest thus far in software development so they can't afford remaking their tools or maintaining code again these days just to support a new exotic hardware design ...

Why dont you write a letter, starting with the words "Dear Sony...". That will make em listen. Surely.

Just so we are clear... Scarlett will be backwards compatible with the entire Xbox One software library.

But it will only be backwards compatible with 27.34% of the XBox 360 library and 3.91% of the Original Xbox library... As Microsoft statements were pretty black and white on this matter, that all Xbox One software (Including current Backwards Compatible titles) will be forwards compatible with Scarlett... And doesn't extend past that at this stage.
Microsoft has also stopped adding Original Xbox and Xbox 360 titles to their backwards compatibility scheme for the time being.

For Original Xbox backwards compatibility, the XBox 360 is probably going to be a better option than the Xbox One or Scarlett as it supports more titles. (Or an Original Xbox of course via component.)

This would make it easier for PS to charge $499. Take PS4, but with even better specs at it's launch and full BC, knowing people will sell their PS4 to afford a PS5.

PS4's flew off the shelves with just decent specs, no BC, and paid online as a new addition, for $399. PS5 will have full BC and paid online will be the norm. $499 will not be seen as a problem by the majority of early adopters, especially if PS Plus offers a much cheaper bare bones online option by then.

I gave up on selling consoles (unless I own more than one) a few years ago. Now I collect. Backwards compatibility was never a MUST for me, but was a benefit in the past.

I have a PS4 Pro in my room / my wife's room, my daughter has a PS3 in her room, and we have a regular PS4 downstairs in the living room. I also have an extra OG Phat PS3 that I occasionally use when I need to play a PS3 game in my room. Backwards compatibility is nice, and I expect it will be there when the PS5 arrives.

There's no purpose in me keeping three different devices that can play PS4 games, but Gamestop really shorts people where I'm from, and selling one of them on something like eBay is so much hassle that I only see myself doing it if I'm really short on cash (which you never know).

This thread conjured up an idea in my mind maybe worthy of it's own thread. What about forwards compatibility? What about if Sony allowed devs the capability to tune their games in a way that allows them to run on both PS5 and PS4. It would allow people to purchase PS5 games at launch without owning the console, and will allow for game sales to not be staggered so much at the start of a new gen.

Kind of like how at the start of the PS4 gen, many of the AAA games at the time were being released on both PS3 and PS4. This would effectively be similar to that.

"Forward compatibility" of software is covered with hardware being "backwards compatible" anyways ...

No point in trying to make a game forward compatible since the new hardware (PS5) is architecturally similar to the old hardware (PS4) in this instance. I don't imagine any developers will attempt doing remasters from last generation when consumers figure out that the PS5 is backward compatible with PS4 software ... 

Developers don't have to specifically target new hardware to be compatible with it like they did this generation compared to the next generation so end users don't have to fear losing the library they've built up ... 

Crossgen just hold down the scope the game could have being just nextgen. I rather play the best version I can.