They done exactly that, they put the silicon to permanently, efficiently and cheaply have BC with PS4 with boost included. But they can't say it is 100% because they didn't put the whole PS4 inside, but already confirmed all top 100 works fine. Probably all relevant games will work fine and they may patch some or another that doesn't. But yes the XSX solution seems better.

What specifically gave you the impression that they didn't even look into it?
They don't report everything they look into to us. What they said was that AMD designed the custom chips with PS4 logic in mind. Can we agree that this by itself is already asking more of AMD than is normally reasonable to focus on?
To quote Cerny: "Achieving this unification of functionality took years of effort by AMD."

My point is that if PS1 - PS3 compatibility were to occur in the future, it's more reasonable to assume that this would be achieved by Sony purely (not AMD), figuring out an emulation solution. And this is still, in theory perhaps possible. But not something they should necessarily waste valuable time and resources from AMD to work on at the development stage of the console. And that's what they were talking about in the presentation. That they have PS4 backwards compatibility logic in place thanks to AMD. And even then, they still need to test every single game before before they can all function properly though. (So that's a lot of work to do just with PS4. Let alone with potentially PS3, PS2 and PS1.)

Microsoft have already found a successful way to emulate their older games since a few years ago, which gives them a head start on that front this time around.
If PS3 games can be successfully emulated even with PS5 remains to be seen due to the notoriously strange architecture of that system. But that's probably something they'd want to focus more on after the console is finalized and launched, as there are a lot more important things to handle in the meantime.

What specifically gave you the impression that they didn't even look into it?
They don't report everything they look into to us. What they said was that AMD designed the custom chips with PS4 logic in mind. Can we agree that this by itself is already asking more of AMD than is normally reasonable to focus on?
To quote Cerny: "Achieving this unification of functionality took years of effort by AMD."

My point is that if PS1 - PS3 compatibility were to occur in the future, it's more reasonable to assume that this would be achieved by Sony purely (not AMD), figuring out an emulation solution. And this is still, in theory perhaps possible. But not something they should necessarily waste valuable time and resources from AMD to work on at the development stage of the console. And that's what they were talking about in the presentation. That they have PS4 backwards compatibility logic in place thanks to AMD. And even then, they still need to test every single game before before they can all function properly though. (So that's a lot of work to do just with PS4. Let alone with potentially PS3, PS2 and PS1.)

Microsoft have already found a successful way to emulate their older games since a few years ago, which gives them a head start on that front this time around.
If PS3 games can be successfully emulated even with PS5 remains to be seen due to the notoriously strange architecture of that system. But that's probably something they'd want to focus more on after the console is finalized and launched, as there are a lot more important things to handle in the meantime.

Well, since I was already there to watch the presentation, I decided to give it a look. I had nothing better to do to be honest...

GDC as you very wisely said before is for developers, is not an event I'm really into

I thought of it and as I said many times: you can talk about what a console specs can do without spending 1 hour with a Power Point about 3D Sound and SSDs. That's not "deep dive into PS5s architecture and how it will shape the future of games". That's overkill. But, since it was supposed to be a GDC talk, it's ok I guess. Althought I think even the people who were there might got bored xD

I don't really like were the Playstation brand is going since the PS3. Most of the exclusive IPs I liked have either become multiplatform... or have been completely lost in time. And most new 3rd party franchises are multiplatform as well. On top of that, Sony's current first party titles are mostly western, story-driven games with a mid to full mature tone that, for the most part... is not what I'm looking for. Sure, they throw a Gravity Rush, Astro Bot or Ratchet and Clank here and there... but those are a minority. Microsoft is similiar, so given that their next console specs are not too different... the element that really makes the difference for me is backwards compatibility. PS5 has it with PS4. Series X has it with One, 360 and OG Xbox. So... I get Series X. You may be wondering: "Why not a PC". And, while I have no reason to give you more explanations, here it is: I don't feel comfortable playing on a PC. So... what's that you don't understand?

Why should I search for any more information? Sony says: "Tomorrow we are gonna take a look at PS5 specs and what can be achieved with them". That's what most news websites said. The GDC thing is something you have to look for. But I don't know why I would look for something I don't even know is there. Sony made an announcement. I got ready to be there at the right time. Also for your information, the fact that I posted at a certain hour doesn't mean I read the article at the same time. Sometimes I read a topic and I don't comment. Then I go back and I do. But I don't necesarily read the entire OP again. The same goes for reading ALL of the comments in the thread. I may start reading at X page, not necesarily at page 1. And not necesarily EVERY comment. I may be interested in just a conversation.

Dude, you got nothing on me. You tried. Again. And you failed. Again. If this is all you have to say, I'm leaving now. I pity you though. Have a nice day.

Yeah, I think Sony will slowly roll out BC compatibility throughout the PS5's life, similar to the XOne this gen. I don't see why the top 100 can be ported, and other PS4 titles can't, other than man power/dev resources. 

I don't doubt that they cared about PS4 Backwards Compatibility at least, I think they realize how important it will be to carry over the games from this gen given that they are leading in it, but it's just always seemed to me like everything else from PS3 and below they just aren't interested in putting in the work to do so. When we've got people from Sony like Jim Ryan saying "who would want to play this" in regards to old games a few years back and how the only "solution" they've offered for some PS3 games and such is through Streaming in PS Now. It's better than nothing sure, but it's always just come off to me as "we won't do it ourselves, but here you can stream it at least". 

You're right though, maybe they did look into it and we just don't know about it and they do have things they can look at and decide "ok well is it worth putting in the time and effort to do this", after re-reading that Jim Ryan quote he did say a lot of people asked for it and only a few ever used it, but I don't think it doesn't mean they shouldn't ever try, but I realize they're a business first and foremost and will make decisions that way.

I just also don't understand the "taking away resources from other things" logic, because with Microsoft they've been doing BC for years and we've seen the amount of growth they've still been able to achieve in their studios, budget, etc. It's seemingly not taking away much, if anything at all.

We've also even seen increases in games like Black Ops where that blew up in popularity again and hit 70k concurrent players again once it was added to Xbox One BC, so it's definitely not a matter of nobody using it at all. 

You mean my PS1 and PS2 games doesn't exist? xP

Yes, I have more PS3 games than both combined because they are much cheaper, but it would be great when I want to play LoD (all the time) I don't need to boot up my PS3 for it to even run on my current TV.

Yes, it'll be $500, specially costing $450 only for the parts.

It may be the weaker one this time, but it's not by much (specially accounting how superior their SSD is), the pricing will be the same for both.

If at the time of the PS4 generation Sony realized they at least couldn't do PS3 BC the way Microsoft were able to do 360 BC, then a comment like Jim Ryan's seems like standard PR. "It's not going to happen, so how do we make it look like its less of an issue?"
And even if Ryan's comments happen to reflect everyone else's sentiment at Sony, things can certainly change between then and now.

Some years back EA famously commented on the current state and future of single player narrative driven games, as if they're not viable.
Then this year they released such a single player Star Wars game, with no microtransactions, lootboxes, or even multiplayer.

The fact that PS5 has taken at least PS4 backwards compatibility so seriously is a good sign that if there was a different attitude before, it's different now.

The story of Xbox One's BC was that MS started the project internally, after the console was released. It was apparently not even a big focus but more of a side project iirc, because they didn't think they would be able to figure it out effectively. But they did. Phil Spencer said he was surprised by this.

So what I'm getting at there is that MS didn't task AMD with this. They did it themselves after their system was finalized.
Why this is important is because by launch, the specs are set in stone. The more extra less necessary tasks you give AMD, the more that subtracts from other more important tasks they can work on in that time, right?

I suppose in this case Sony thought that BC for PS4 games was important enough to prioritize over other things at this stage. But no doubt that time could have been used for some other 'secret sauce'.
I'm not sure if MS also asked AMD to do the same for them with XSX, but this is the first time I heard of this approach. In PS3, they just threw in the Emotion Engine chip from PS2 on the motherboard. And with the XBO and PS4 chipsets, they did neither.

So I figure potential PS3 - PS1 emulation, if it happens, is something Sony will try internally. If they haven't already started (because they have a deadline to meet and things to prioritize, such as the operative system being as ready and feature filled as possible at launch), then some time after they have more time to work on it.

You are going to be disappointed if you are still expecting the PS5 to be $400.

Or are you expecting the XSX to be $600?

WTF happened in here while i am sleeping !