It depends If I have games for it within the past 5 years I still play. The PSP Go pretty much just made the "PSP" last gen. I can't tape my PS2 to my PS3 for "Backwards Compatibility" because both are the "Fat" models. I still would play Star Wars: Battlefront 2 and Jak 2 if I could play them on my PS3. The DSi didn't just say "Screw you" to older DS games.

Its important. You have to consider the previous gens. For example, if you bought a lot of games for, lets say, the Gamecube. The Wii comes out fully backward compatible. This gives people the impression that they have an expanded library, therefore, encouraging them to buy the console.

Also, if the original console breaks, you have the newer console to lean on. I can personally tell you that if my Gamecube was broken, and Wii wasn't backward compatible, then I would have it repaired, but what are the chances someone doesn't want to repair it. Then they would have to purchase the console and repair the old one in order to have the fully BC experience. It certainly isn't necessary, but that's how some people feel. One of the reasons my Wii is used is to play Gamecube games.

Well, OT. How important it is to ME?

1). Efficient way of playing multiple console games on one console
2). Its cumbersome switching between consoles
3). It feels much more satisfying when you have a BC console because it feels like you own 2 consoles in 1.
4). If the original breaks, there's a chance I won't fix it. I rather have it implemented on another newer console.
5). What if someone gives you a retro game but for some reason, your console breaks or you sold it? Someone gave me Pokemon XD, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and Ultimate Spider-Man. My Gamecube AC adapter was split, so what do I do, I play it on my Wii. One of the best traits the Wii has. It recognizes that the Gamecube actually existed, unlike to an extent, some consoles..
6). Nostalgia. Short. Simple. I still play Melee instead of Brawl despite Brawl being a superior game in terms of content.

Very Important.

It isn't much important for me.
I have a 80Gb PS3 with BC and I have only played 3 PS2 games on it and that was the first year I had my PS3 when not that many games were out.
Since then I have sold all but 5 of my PS2 games...

The only thing Sony is missing on is that if all PS3 had BC they could put a tonn of good PS2 titles on the PS store much their benefit and the ones of the third parties.. ( old PS2 games at 20$ or so for digital download would sell and bring money whereas used sales of PS2 games at 20$ doesn't ...)

Like 10% important

When I first got my PS3 it was very important due to the lack of good games. But now its of very minor importance since theres tons of good games

I never had an Xbox so I've never really needed 360 to be BC as I had no Xbox game collection

Nintendo got lots of good games right away so I didn't need BC there either.

For consoles nowadays, it's imperitive for me. We're out of space on the entertainment switch blocks for more systems, so something has to come out. We'd remove the Gamecube, but we love that GBA player on it, so it has to stay around. Otherwise, it'd be gone, like the PS1 and XBox are. But the games stay around.

BC is irrelevant. It's a nice bonus at the beginning of a console life, but often I tend to play the current iteration of game making it's BC less useful. If I really want to play an old game without BC I will connect the machine.

I think its a very nice feature and should be included but if they don't I still probably have the sysetem to play it on anyways.

It's nice for quite a number of people and all, but it hardly matters to me. I'm too busy playing the games this generation has to offer than time travel to the past. I've played a PS2 game on my BC PS3 less than 10 times since the day I bought it during early 2007. And the PS2 game was FFX-2, which I've never been able to finish yet lol.

For me very. I like being able to play Wii/GC/PS1,2,3/XBOX1,360 on 3 total systems(+upscaling and Wireless controlers).I still play a good amount of GC and use my PS3 almost exclusively for PS2 games. For the majority of the public, BC is not much of a big deal.